Reloading 9x19

[Myk]

I finally talked myself into getting the 9x19mm dies.

Question 1
How much crimp do I give them?
If I crimp them enough that the case mouth is rounded and the bullet is dented (I'm assuming this is too much) I can still push the bullet in deeper by pushing it against a bench.
With them crimped this much they don't get pushed deeper by the feed ramp.
They do still headspace correctly with this much crimp.

If I just crimp enough to take out the belling they are very easy to pull with a kinetic bullet puller (even with the over crimp they are fairly easy to pull with the puller).
I plan on shooting a mid-range load, 5.5gr or less of Unique behind a 115gr JHP so I don't think I'll be making enough recoil to pull them in the magazine with a lighter crimp.

Question 2
I'm using cheap bulk bullets so I don't have a spec sheet for their OAL. I'm matching them up to the OAL of some Hyrdo-shok's I have but that is a lot more than the OAL listed for 115gr JHP's in my Sierra manual. 1.100" vs 1.015".
I'm not about to push them .085" deeper, that would just about put the ogive at the case mouth.
But how much difference does a few thousandths seating depth make for pressures in 9mm?

Question 3
Knowing that I over crimped these 5 test rounds but that they still headspace, chamber and feed correctly, are they safe to shoot with 5.5gr of Unique?
(I know this is a guesstimate answer, I'll settle for an "you and your pistol will probably survive" or "no way, even if you don't lose your hand you will most likely lose your pistol"."

[rojo36]

Myk you shouldn't use a roll crimp on the 9x19 , you should use a taper crimp . You won't have any dents with one and your ammo will feed smoother . Lee has one that runs about $7.00 and it should solve your problem. The seating depth on a 9mm can cause you to develope pressure if they are seated to deep . your max length is 1.169 so if you stay close to that you should be all right .
5.5 gr 0f unique is about the middle of the chart and should be okay but if they are that easy to pull why bother shooting them . A few rounds are not worth taking a risk over . Rojo

[Myk]

I was writing a reply saying that I am using Lee dies with a taper crimp when I had a thought.
I'm using pre-primed brass. So I pulled the decapper out of my sizing die and sized a couple, re-belled them and loaded three up. The bullets are holding tight now.

Before I was just having to put on so much of the taper crimp that it was deforming the cases because there wasn't enough natural neck tension.

Bad thing is now I have to go back and un-bell 200 cases and then re-bell them.

Now that I know what's going on I'm more willing to pull those other rounds. :)
I feel much better about reloading these now :)

[rojo36]

Myk have you adjusted the bell die ,you can put to big a bell on the case . I have done that before and it could cause the same problem . The bullet would go in without a seater die . ALMOST . Rojo

[Myk]

I had barely enough bell to let the bullet start. Some of the "primed and ready" brass put up a lot of resistance to getting sized.

The cartridges look a lot better this time around. I think I'm going to go out and test them shortly.

[Myk]

I went out and shot the test rounds today. Me and the pistol survived.

It looks like with this load the brass should last a long time. I see no signs of stretching or swelling like with factory self-defense loads.

But the bullets are going so slow I'm blowing .357 sized holes in the metal backdrop. It took me a while to figure out where I was hitting because I'm used to the little 9mm holes. It's accurate enough to plink with so I can afford to shoot my Glock again with some regularity.

Now I'm thinking about reloading for my .380, but that's not as fun to shoot as my Glock so I'll have to think about it.