9mm 115 with Unique ES is huge need help

[sloughfoot]

You are concerned about ES when it just doesn't matter much for a pistol. The other guys have put out some great advice that you ignore at your own peril.

What makes you think that a small ES is important? Are you a bullseye shooter? If not, it doesn't matter for gaming or general use.

 

[XtremeVel]

Could knocking it back to the lyman manuals length of 1.090 possibly help any?

Don't do it ! Not knowing the profile of your bullet, I wouldn't have a clue. Do NOT go changing the OAL until you clearly understand how the shape of a bullet plays a role in where you want the OAL to measure...

Also, you need to STOP and not load anymore until you understand just because a particular factory offering might safely get you a certain velocity, you have no clue what propellant or blend of was used and you can NOT just grab a available powder and assume you are safe running the same velocity...

 

[Slapstick]

I use a charge weight of 5.2 grs or Unique for 115 gr plated. Nice accurate load with soft recoil. The high to low does have some spread to it. It's just Unique, I get a 50 to 75 FPS spread on all loads from 9 mm, .40 and .45 using Unique. They still shoot better than I'm able too at normal pistol distance and not too bad at carbine distance.

I know you said you wanted to get used to recoil so you want to load hot but accuracy is usually found at the low to mid charge weights. The only thing your going to gain by loading "hot" to handle recoil is learning how that particular gun acts. I found that every gun, whether pistol or rifle, has different recoil characteristics. If you want to "learn" how to handle the recoil of a particular gun then that's the gun you need to shoot but I bet you'll find that both accuracy and quick follow up shots greatly diminish with the hotter loads.

Beside, is it really worth putting your gun and yourself through a steady diet of hot loads? Just my .

 

[bobn911]

shawnba67, Could you possibly post the serial number and any identifying marks of your pistol so that I could use it as a reference to NEVER purchase that one.
Thank you, Bob

 

[warthog]

OK, I doubt you are even listening to most of us at this point but I will gibe this one more go.

The best advice you've gotten is the advice about not needing a lot of recoil to learn accuracy. I reload specifically because I want a lot of low recoil rounds for practice. I can BUY all the recoil I want. I buy higher power rounds most of the time because to achieve this with the powders we get as reloaders means a compressed charge most of the time and a lot of testing of small lots of loads until you reach what you want SAFELY. It just isn't worth my time to get recoil, I want accuracy anyway. If I shoot the same weight bullet that I shoot for self defense, it behaves the same way at low recoil as it does at high recoil so when I shoot a full, self defense load I will be accurate and hit what I want to hit where I want to hit it. That is why I practice.

I hope you eventually are able to find someone who lives nearby who reloads and has some experience. Hopefully when you do you can get them to mentor you, reading manuals and posting questions to the internet aren't the best way to learn how to reload IMO, mentoring is what you need. At 18 I was mentored for more than a year. I only loaded when he was with me. When he felt I was at the right level I then started loading on my own with hi around to guide me. I had a person I trusted to ask my questions and he could see what I was doing and the components I was using so he could help me fix things best. Eventually we just started shooting together rather than him being a mentor though he still helped me answer things as I loaded new cases and then started casting my own bullets. He & I were life long friends until his death 15 years ago and that is what I think made me into the loader and caster I became, his experience was passed on to me. I hope you can find someone like this for yourself too.

 

[warthog]

Another thing I was thinking, if you really do want recoil, try a heavier bullet.

9mm doesn't have all that big of a spread of bullet weights to use but go with as heavy a bullet as you can if recoil is what you seek. Remember your physics, you will get your highest recoil if you try to throw the biggest mass away from you. 115gr is about as light a bullet as you can use. Velocity alone isn't all that is at work so go with a heavier bullet and see how that does during your quest in the land of recoil.

 

[Broom_jm]

What type of chronograph are you using? What were the lighting conditions when you shot? Most importantly, how far away were you from the screens?

Most erratic chrono data is from setting up closer than 12-15 feet from it to do your testing.

 

[Double T]

I put a 1/8 turn on my crimper die and now about 1/5 of them come out bottle necked. I dont see how to get more crimp on them. If your worried about my well being my intended load will be in the 5-5.5gr range. I still had huge spreads at 5.0gr coal length runs pretty steady at 1.125(from alliants info for their max load). Could knocking it back to the lyman manuals length of 1.090 possibly help any?

Don't use magnum primers without going back to the drawing line on powder loads and decrease max by at least 10% (max 6.0 gr, decrease to at least 5.4gr, I typically go lower than that on new loads)

You will need to check the seating depth on the documented COAL and compare it to what you are loading (basically determining the difference in case volume)

What type of dies are you using? What type of handgun?

There are loads of things that can contribute to deviation. Perhaps case wall thickness is an issue on the "bottleneck" cartridges.


If you are new to this, please don't go experimenting with +p stuff, just load plinking loads until you are comfortable enough to mimic your +p SD rounds, and even then bad things can happen.

 

[Cat-Herder]

You'll find that you'll get the best accuracy out of middle-of-the-road loadings. Running any pistol cartridge balls-out IN MOST CASES will not yield maximum accuracy, at least in my experience, and from the many reloading books I've read.