9mm semi-auto pistol, under 1000 FPS?

[Chief Rick]

Has anyone tried a semi-auto pistol in 9mm with loads at or under 1000 FPS?

 

I'm wondering if stock pistols will reliably cycle.

 

If so, would heavier bullets be better (124 gr vice 115 gr)?

[Horace Patootie, SASS #35798]

With 9mm, heavier bullets are needed to be subsonic for suppressed guns.  Not sure if that helps at all.

Horace

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Howdy Chief.

 

I made up some reloads last year to test in a few different 9mm pistols.

 

The reloads were just a tad better than minimum.   They were good reloads and consistent, BUT........ they wouldn't function (cycle the action)

in 3 or 4 of the 9mm I tested.    If I remember correctly, velocity was @ 1000 fps using a 115 gr. bullet.

 

..........Widder

 

[ORNERY OAF]

Ther are several loads, such as 147g that are listed at 1000fps but that in a 5 in barrel 147g,  sig 147 hp are 975

[El Sobrante Kid]

Couldn't you change the recoil spring to a lighter version? Or are you looking for a load that works in factory stock guns?

[Pat Riot]

I run 115 grainers from 1150 to 1250 fps and I run 147 grain loads at around 900 fps and all 3 of my Glocks run just fine with any of them. I have 2 G34s and a G45. If that helps. 

[ShadowCatcher]

4 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

Has anyone tried a semi-auto pistol in 9mm with loads at or under 1000 FPS?

 

I'm wondering if stock pistols will reliably cycle.

 

If so, would heavier bullets be better (124 gr vice 115 gr)?

All the time.

 

I reload .380 100 gr bullets in 9mm casings at just under 1000 f/s for shooting steel.

I reload 147 gr jacketed to 850- 950 f/s all the time as well.

These are measured with a 1911, G34, and Beretta 92.

They all shoot reliably, and are nice for range work.

 

My duty load is a 147 JHP at 1050 or so, so practicing with a load at a 100 f/s less is still useful

for muscle memory, etc.

 

HTH

 

SC

 

 

[Wallaby Damned]

I generally only shoot my Walther PPQ M4 9mm suppressed using 125gr subsonics. Without the suppressor, it cycles just fine.  

[Chief Rick]

11 hours ago, El Sobrante Kid said:

Couldn't you change the recoil spring to a lighter version? Or are you looking for a load that works in factory stock guns?

Looking into allowing steel shooting on non-CAS weekends at cowboy targets.

 

The idea was to use SASS bullet and velocity rules at SASS recommended target distances.

 

Ideally, I personally would want a load that works in stock guns.  Can't speak to what anyone else would want or be willing to do.

[Wallaby Damned]

In my experience, the 9mm is kind of finicky about subsonic loads, especially lighter bullets (<125gr). Heavier bullets (>147gr) are also a pain as they take up a lot of case volume so powder selection is important. As to shooting at SASS velocity, I don’t know how important that is on steel as the 9mm isn’t going to do any damage to standard steel plates. If you’re worried about ricochets, I can tell you that any pistol is going to bounce to some extent or another, you just generally don’t hear it over the report. Shooting suppressed is interesting as you hear all kinds of stuff after the shot!  Wear your PPE. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Since the 9mm Hi-power was our service pistol, we had a lot of access to brass etc.

We used to use lighter springs or take a couple of coils off the recoil spring.

I still had a couple of those around I included with the one I just sold.

[Sedalia Dave]

I would require the use powder coated bullets and not copper jacketed.

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

This Months American Rifleman magazine had a subsonic 9mm load in the Handloads section. 147gr copper plated bullet over 3.1 gr. of Titegroup

[Chief Rick]

1 hour ago, Sedalia Dave said:

I would require the use powder coated bullets and not copper jacketed.

Absolutely!

 

No jacketed or plated bullets will be allowed if we do this.

 

My concern with velocity is what impact (no pun intended) the bullets will have on our targets.  Some of our targets are probably 20 years old and are mild steel.

[Chief Rick]

1 hour ago, Happy Jack, SASS #20451 said:

This Months American Rifleman magazine had a subsonic 9mm load in the Handloads section. 147gr copper plated bullet over 3.1 gr. of Titegroup

I have not started reading this issue, yet.  Thanks.

 

You would figure, though, that I just received a rather large order of 115 gr coated bullets.

[Innocent Bystander]

I use subsonic 147 gr. factory loads in my sig p365. It cycles perfectly. 

[ShadowCatcher]

5 hours ago, Happy Jack, SASS #20451 said:

This Months American Rifleman magazine had a subsonic 9mm load in the Handloads section. 147gr copper plated bullet over 3.1 gr. of Titegroup

I find that TG gives me around 950 f/s out of my 5" bbl'd guns, and good groups.

 

COL and crimp always matter. . . .

 

SC

[ShadowCatcher]

4 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

I have not started reading this issue, yet.  Thanks.

 

You would figure, though, that I just received a rather large order of 115 gr coated bullets.

Just went through a reloading exercise with these - found that 1100 or 1200 f/s are very accurate, but

not mouse fart loads , just nice shooting loads.

 

Atlanta Arms offer s a 100 gr steel load at 1000 f/s, I've been working up a reliable load to match, so far

Bullseye powder seems to be the best choice, but I'm still working on this.

 

 

 

[ShadowCatcher]

I'm going to add here that all my guns use factory regular springs - the Colt Gov't runs a #13 Wilson flat wire spring,

the Beretta 92 Compact a #12.5 flat wire spring, and the Glock 34 a standard Glock factory spring.

 

I use a spare Colt 9mm factory bbl to do my plunk testing when I set up to make reloads,as is has the shortest chamber of

the three, so if it drops easily into that barrel's chamber with a nice plunk it will chamber in the others as well.

 

Going back to my recent reload data I find that the X-treme plated bullet at 147 gr loaded over 3.5 of TiteGroup gives me

a measured 912 f/s from my 5.5 inch bbl Glock and very reliable functioning in all the guns, with nice soft recoil.

 

My 100 Gr .380 plated bullets from X-treme (.355 dia) loaded over 4.0 gr of Bullseye give me 1100 f/s, but if I go down to

3.5 (near where I think I need to be), then my Colt won't reliably cycle these (1 in ~5 fail to cycle), but the other two guns eat

it right up.  I think there is a sweet spot somewhere in there, probably around 3.7 gr.  BTW - this load at 4.0 will give me a

ragged one hole group off the bench at 20yds from my Colt. 

 

X-treme also makes a plated 135 gr flat point that I've loaded over 3.5gr Bullseye for a measured 959 f/s, and extreme accuracy

from my Beretta.  This round is catching on everywhere, nicely splitting the difference between the 124 and 147.

 

I've switched my reloading to using FMJ's as opposed to plated bullets for now; I want to build an accurate 115 gr and 147 gr load

similar to the AMU loads, but I will probably use X-treme plated for most of my general purpose shooting once I can get lots of

primers again.  For that I'll probably load just the 147 fr over 3.5 TG as it is very accurate, very soft shooting, and for both

training and for steel it works fine.  I'd really like to find a plated RNFP at that weight, but the RN's are fine.

 

I've tried 3-4 brands of Polymer coated bullets (lipstick bullets) and find no fault with them, my understanding is that they

can take up to about 2400 f/s velocities, so they might someday soon be usable for reduced velocity 5.56 reloads too.

 

The plated and poly coated bullets are usually loaded using lead bullet reload data as the skins are so thin, and therefore

they easily produce lead-like velocities when reloaded.  I think you'll find that they also do NO MORE damage than lead on steel.

 

I hope this helps with your reloading,

SC

 

 

 

[Chief Rick]

I reloaded some rounds this past weekend with Clays and W231.

 

Using Clays at minimum load, it would not reliably cycle a G19 with Trijicon RMR.  At max load it would cycle but brass was all over the place.

 

Using W231 at minimum load, it would cycle but that load seemed a bit "snappier".

 

I will be trying TiteGroup tomorrow after work, if the rain moves out.

[ShadowCatcher]

15 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

I reloaded some rounds this past weekend with Clays and W231.

 

Using Clays at minimum load, it would not reliably cycle a G19 with Trijicon RMR.  At max load it would cycle but brass was all over the place.

 

Using W231 at minimum load, it would cycle but that load seemed a bit "snappier".

 

I will be trying TiteGroup tomorrow after work, if the rain moves out.

I ran the X-treme 147 plated over 3.5 of WW231 and got fairly good performance, but smokey at the indoor range, and

TiteGroup gave me better group sizes.

 

SC