9mm Reloads Dirty

Hey Guys,
I loaded up some Berry's 115gr RN using 5.1gr of Power Pistol and my OAL was set at 1.40". Pistol used was a Glock 19.

Out of my ten test rounds about half had real dark necks after shooting and the other five were pretty dirty. I shot 50 rounds of PMC before I tested the reloads and there is a noticeable difference in my reloads being just nasty with carbon over the PMC stuff.

I noticed lots of carbon on the outside of the slide after I fired the test rounds. Broke the Glock down and had a good bit of unburned powder in the barrel.

Still new to reloading and glad to hear any advice.

Thanks,
Kirch

OAL sounds a bit long. Not in front of my notes to verify. Lot's of us run Barry 115 grain. Lowering OAL will burn off more powder.

Generally any load that is less powerfull than factory ammo is going to burn less efficient and cause more dirt. this will vary quite a bit from powder to powder .

Of course one needs to be conservative , pushing the load data just in an effort to get clean burning could easily be risky.

Plated bullets can act quite different and the companies makeing them offer very little in loading data .

Although I use some plated bullets I have found in common calibers that bulk packages of brand name jacketed bullets are about the same price
and have lots of proven load data available

That sounds about right. I'll bring them down some little by little and see were that gets me.

Thanks!

1.15 sounds about right. If memory serves have seated to 1.10 but I'm nowhere near my notes.

OAL could have come from very reputable published and online sources.

-once again, another reason to have many manuals close to press-

Sierra lists a 9mm oal for their mid 120 grain bullet that's so long it won't run in my 9mms. Apparently oal was optimal for test barrel.

Cross referencing sources is just...well I can't seat a bullet without a lot of research. My conscious won't allow it. If I seat bullet on case mouth with swag oal my hand is incapable of raising ram. That's the truth of it.

Anyways. Barry hasn't any data in book form. If there's suggestions on website I didn't catch. Admittedly I haven't been on Barrys website in a long time. Graffs is my source for Barrys.

In this case with round nose bullet similar to white box Winchester. I've duplicated Winchester oal.

But....

That comes with a caveat. 1.40 seating height equates to a certain seating depth.

-seating height, oal isn't the same as seating depth. Depth being amount of bullet below case mouth.

So, as OP said he would do is drop seating depth slowly.

Yeah, I'm with you but we're talking about a 115 gr plated bullet, a Berry plated bullet at that. The 115 gr and 124 gr are the same design. There shouldn't be a difference in COL of 0.25".

Look at this data for a wide variety of 115 gr loads. There aren't any loads that long. It is possible the OP just made a mistake and used a COL for 1.40" instead of 1.140".

In 9mm, I loading my 115 gr FMJ's, and plated RN (same bullet shape as FMJ) to 1.10.

After shooting a USPSA match last Sunday, Id say that is part of the problem.

One of the shooters was using Power Pistol and it was very dirty.

Yeah, Power Pistol is a versatile powder but it's generally pretty dirty and flashy. I used to use it but got sick of the muzzle flash at the indoor range.

With full loads, Power Pistol is clean burning and accurate in 9mm.

I heart Power Pistol.

I've loaded Berry's 115gr RN bullets over Power Pistol in 9mm and I loaded them at 1.125".

With a load that light, however, Power Pistol may run dirty at any typical OAL, but I don't think I'd consider that a hard-and-fast rule.

I've ran it in 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Magnum, and .38 Special. I was surprised how clean and consistent it ran in .38 Special in spite of the low pressure.

Or pulled oal from Lee manual which requires some interpretation. Something that is rarely discussed other than dismissing manual as not good information. Actually, it's full of great data.

If familiar with bullet identification by listed oal. If I didn't have umpteen hundred cartridge builds for each caliber I wouldn't know up from down in Lee manual. Sierra manual as mentioned has some excessive oals too.

When I first started posting here, pistol oal was something this forum struggled with. That and case mouth OD. Then guys would be convinced by others listed oal was correct and pistol had an issue cause you should always follow listed OAL. Afterwards the "it's a 1911" confession would come and problem would be re-directed to 1911 forum. That's when this forum came to my attention and believe you, me. Everything I'd learned the hard way was challenged.

Same applies with every new batch of guys we get here. The more challenged the more learned for me.

Win\Win

I don't worry so much as where someone gets info as helping to interpret data. When working a lot of data, it's perfectly understandable to figure in my head at least where data came from.

The most common mistake is pulling oal from maximum SAAMI spec.

I seat to 1.1"

I am a believer in longer is better. I determine OAL by:

• Bullet weight


• Bullet profile


• Throat of chamber


• Fit in magazine


• Feeding

Basically I will set a bullet .010" off the rifling for a given bullet design for a given barrel. If it fits and feeds then the length is what it is. OAL's for me with 124GR bullets in my M&P's can be 1.075" or 1.170" depending on bullet profile.

But 1.140" OAL for a 115GR sounds like it will be falling out of the case. Do you mean 1.104"? Once you determine what the correct OAL is for your barrel and bullet if you still see unburned powder I would switch powders in a hurry.

I loaded Power Pistol a few years back and was using a 124 PD FMJ and had to stay on the high with the load to keep it from sooting.

^^^

That. Power Pistol can be clean at high pressure, but not at low pressure. If you want clean, Vihta Vuori is the champ.

Power Pistol is dirty at low pressure, and 5.1gr is very low. Power Pistol was designed for high pressure applications and doesn't work well for light recoiling loads.

Good to know!!!

Thanks!

I'm guessing that the OP meant 1.14, which isn't long at all. In working on loads for my Caracal, I pulled apart some Winchester White Box 115gr because my Caracal shoots it like a laser beam. Winchester loads them to 1.17 OAL. I them measured the chamber in the Caracal and it can fit up to 1.21 OAL with the 124 gr RN bullets that I have. Only 1.19 will fit in the mags though. I know that most reloading manuals list 1.11-1.12 for OAL, but I like to load as long as possible to decrease bullet jump to the lands. For 9mm, I also like the lower pressure that the additional case capacity gets you.

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