Question on 9mm cast bullet OAL

[Dirtshooter]

Hi guys, I recently began loading for 9mm and have a question. I have bought some cast powder coated 115 gr. RN bullets and because of their short length was wondering about the OAL. I can't make it to what my book says, bullet too short. I guess the question is can I end up with too short of an OAL?  The bullet length is 0.538 and the finished loaded round is 1.090. My Speer book said emphatically not to load shorter than listed length, but my bullet isn't listed. Thanks for any and all replies. I am going to ask the person I bought the bullets from if they have any data.

[deerslayer]

1.09 with a 115 is probably ok.  What brand are they?  Different bullet designs of the same weight can have different shapes/lengths.  What powder are you using?  Are you using load data for jacketed?  Lead/coated typically uses a lighter charge.  
 

Also, what gun are you shooting?  Have you taken the barrel out of the gun and done the plunk/spin test?  Put a dummy round in your chamber and if it drops in ok and spins freely, you are short enough (and may can go longer).  Some guns are notorious for having short chambers and require shorter OALs.  The diameter (.355 vs .356) and bullet profile can influence the required OAL.  

Edited September 24, 2020 by deerslayer

[DWARREN123]

Are you sure they are 115gr and not 100gr or 95gr?

Also check your brass length and make sure it is in spec.

I load mine at 1.100" and they work well so 1.09" should be okay at less than max load.

This is 9mm right?

[Dirtshooter]

Thanks guys, they actually are 114.7 on my scale, using 3.8 gr. bullseye. can't do plunk test as I don't own a 9mm. Bullet diameter is .356. I will do plunk test. Just like a 2nd opinion on things like this. As I get older I am much more careful on my reloading. In fact I could probably spend a day pulling bullets in rounds. I found a 30-06 round last night while cleaning up and it went directly into the pull box. If I don't have data as to bullet, powder and primer it gets pulled. I don't have a problem throwing away a little powder.

[The Big Guy]

I load a lot of 115's from brazos, the blue bullets, Missouri and SNS as they all seem to have an almost exact shape. These are loaded up for my CZ pistols which have a very shallow throat compared with other pistols. For this and another reason I migrated from WSF powder to hogdon longshot which is a pretty slow powder (i was worried about high pressures due to deap seating depth and making 132-135 power factor, and I also wanted a powder capable of making some very fast 9mm at the same seating depth if I wanted to, and it does both pretty well). My OAL is ~1.065 with 5.4gr of longshot. This seating depth passes the plunk and spin test and shows no signs of over pressure.

Edited September 28, 2020 by crake

[chances R]

a chronograph helps remove a lot of guess work.  Personally I'm a big fan of BE-86

[ken_mays]

Yes, those cast LRNs commonly sold seem to have a fat ogive and need to be loaded to a shorter OAL than your typical FMJ bullet.   1.090" will usually work even in guns with almost no throat (FN 509, etc.).  

Reloading manuals will really cry up the danger of deeply seating pistol bullets and overpressure, but based on my experiences, I tend to take that with a grain of salt for the stuff I reload most of (9, 40, 45).