Lead Bullets in 9mm

[Guest Matchguy]

A friend of mine bought a reloader, I assume a progressive of some sort, and asked me for advice on loading lead bullets for the 9mm with it. I have shot several hundred rounds of commercial reloads with lead bullets in my 9mm CZ 85 with no ill effect at all. But I have no experience with reloading the 9mm with lead bullets. Can any of you talk about any experiences you've had doing this? Any real dangers or disadvantages? He's a retired engineer so I know he's an extremely careful man. Any help appreciated.

MG

[Mike.357]

I have loaded lead in .45acp and .357 mag. No ill effects. I made sure I was using a recipe that called for lead bullets though.

What kind of gun will he be shooting them in? Aren't some barrels not lead friendly?

PS: I just checked my Accurate booklet and it shows several recipes for use with lead bullets.

[Guest Astra900]

Just be sure whatever you're shooting doesn't have that polygonal rifling crap. Glocks, H&K, Desert Eagle to name a few. They won't take cast bullets for long, before you have.....an undesirable result.

I use a Lee 124g Truncated cone mold, and straight wheel weights. THe bullets weigh in about 130g after sizing. All my bullets come out heavy, it must be the odd assortment of wheel weights I use. I sort them +/- 1.0g and they are VERY accurate in my XD9. Cast bullets are the ONLY thing I shoot. Other than a few boxes of self defense ammunition, I don't even have any 9mm ammunition that isn't a cast a boolit.

I keep mine under 1000FPS, use Lee's tumble lube, and I shoot 200-300 in a session without any major leading. My only complaint is the tumble causes a smoke trail, but ehh:shrug: I load for less than $50/1000 so who cares. The price will probably go up some the next time I have to restock powder and primers. Glad I stocked up a few years ago when I could get 8 pounders of AA #2 & #5 for around a hundred bucks each.

[Oh Shoot]

Just be sure whatever you're shooting doesn't have that polygonal rifling crap. Glocks, H&K, Desert Eagle to name a few. ..

Most Kahrs except CW series.

- OS