Use a 38 bullet for 9mm

pastera

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I have a pretty much a full box of Xtreme 125gn hollow point plated 38's that mic out around 0.3565
Not a good match for my model 19 (it's happy with cast sized to .359) so I thought I would use it as range fodder in 9mm.

Looked up Win 231 load data for a 125g lead and got an OAL of 1.125 which puts the bullet well into the lands. I had to reduce the length to 1.040 to get it off the lands and that put the case mouth right at the cannelure. At this length the bullet is seated 0.225 into the case.

Am I looking for trouble or is this doable?
 
tried something similar recently with 125gr berry's if I remember correctly and in 9mm they were not very accurate using the same load I used with 124gr 9mm berry's bullets. I didn't go any further with trying to get them to cooperate better.
 
Some load data I have for 9mm indicate a minimum OAL 1.09. Your caliber diameter should not be an issue (I use .356 for 9mm). Pressure buildup and OAL is of course the concern so if you are going to try to load it then I would probably begin at more than 10% below max load. I load with BE-86 and my go to load is quite a bit below the 10% rule. For example the recommended max for BE-86 for a lead bullet is 5.7 grains at 1.12. I load 4.6gr at 1.10. Hope this helps. Pete
 
At worst, run them through a Lee sizer die to maintain consistent diameters of choice. Begin with reduced loads, increase to the point where you achieve proper function, load them all and shoot them off.
I've run .380 and 9mm bullets in my GP-100 and never had any issues. Yes, opposite bore relationship to your situation, I realize, but truth is, recovered bullets mic at .352", so apparently it's swaging everything (.355" to .358" diameter) down when fired. Don't know how many tens of thousand rounds have been down that tube...

Needless to say, if you stuff too big of a bullet into your case, you may get the scenario posted a few items below on this forum.
 
I loaded 400 of those 125 gr x-treme HPs in 9mm because I hated them as .38 special bullets. I worked up the load but ended up at 4.8 grains of CFE Pistol and seated them to the base of the cannelure, which is to say, the entire cannelure was showing. IIRC, I decided on that loading depth to make the insertion depth, hence the effective free case volume, the same as it was for some 124 grain 9mm load I looked up. Of course I made sure it chambered properly. They shot just fine, seemed slightly lighter than 115gr Winchester white box. From what I understand, plated rounds are not as hard as jacketed and don't run the pressure up when swaged down a thousandth or so in the bore.
 
Meh
Thanks for the info
That was the info I was looking for - I calculated the case insertion depth for a couple of 9mm rounds that had dimensions posted. The calculated depth was deeper than what i am looking to use.
 
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Looking at the load data for a Sierra 125 gr FMJ (length 0.581) it shows the COL as 1.090
My bullets are 0.517 (0.064 shorter) so loading to the same depth would give a COL of 1.026

I need to load to 1.035 to clear the lands so it would have more case volume and sets the bullet to bottom edge of the cannelure.

Will load up some starting loads and test it out - no video
 
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