Load Development

Load Development

Handloads for the 9mm

By Bob Campbell

T

he 9mm Luger cartridge

was developed for the P08

Luger and has prospered

ever since. Introduced in 1908, the

cartridge was used by the Germans

during World War I. It so impressed

combatants that the cartridge was

also adopted by many other nations.

The French made noise about

wanting a 9mm service pistol after

World War I but did not adopt

the Browning Hi-Power as they

had speculated upon. The HiPower prospered just the same.

The Russians missed their chance

to adopt the 9mm but went with

another German service round, the

7.62x25mm (.30 Mauser). During

World War II, the Brits developed

the Sten machine gun and wrapped

it around the 9mm cartridge. After

the war, the Allies adopted 9mm

service pistols largely because they

had 9mm submachine guns. In

time, even police agencies adopted

The P01 barrel is tightly fitted in the slide. Note

the monolithic dust cover.

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LOAD DEVELOPMENT ? Oct-Nov 2014

Bob thinks the Czech P01 is among the most reliable and generally useful 9mm pistols, because it is light,

accurate and dependable.

the 9mm Luger as a service cartridge. During one period of the

last century, the 9mm was the most

popular police service cartridge in

America. This is no longer true, but

the 9mm remains important.

There have always been those

who believe the 9mm simply cannot be an accurate cartridge. There

are others who have proved them

wrong, but you must proceed with

careful research. It is one thing to

take a top-end pistol such as the

Browning Hi-Power Practical and

work up a number of high-velocity,

super-accurate loads. If beginning

with a good quality brass, that type

of project can be pure pleasure. It

is quite another thing to work up

loads for a mixed bag of 9mm handguns using ¡°range brass.¡±

Loads that perform well in one

handgun may not achieve the same

accuracy in another. When the goal

is to load a few thousand rounds

suitable for practice in any 9mm

found in the safe, the task is more

difficult than we might suppose.

Perhaps it is the 9mm¡¯s popularity that plays against it. The

cartridge has been produced in so

many nations for so many years

that inconsistencies have crept in.

I have been able to work up good

loads for eight 9mm handguns that

were made in six different countries. I also learned that while it is

one thing to achieve good function,

good accuracy is another matter.

This was not a project to achieve a

potent defense load or to stretch the

capability of the cartridge, but rather

to produce good loads suitable for

practice in all handguns concerned.

The Players

Beretta 92, 1991 version: The

Beretta is not my favorite service



pistol, but I train young soldiers. My

own son is a military intelligence

officer, so I keep a civilian M92 on

hand for reference and practice.

Browning Hi-Power, 1980¡¯s

production: This is an original satinnickel pistol with adjustable sights.

The model of a well-behaved 9mm.

FEG High Power: This cut-rate

clone of the Hi-Power is true to the

original. This pistol has smoothed

up considerably with use.

Walther P38: This is a wartime

Walther and a true ¡°bring back,¡±

not an import. It was taken from a

German officer, as the story goes.

There must have been more officers

than enlisted men, as I have yet to

find a ¡°bring back¡± taken from tank

crewmen or enlisted men.

Walther P1: A modern version of

the P38, the P1 features slightly different slide contours and an aluminum frame.

Czech P01: This is one of the

most reliable service handguns of all

time and an excellent example of the

CZ 75 ¨C among the most proven of

modern service handguns.

Heckler & Koch P7: A master-

piece of the gunmaker¡¯s art, this

is a gas-retarded blowback that is

not suited for +P loads. Lead bullet

loads cannot be used at the risk of

gumming up the system. It will not

function with light bullets in the

90-grain class. The pistol also features a polygonal rifled barrel. These

problems are considerable to the

handloader but not insurmountable.

Helwan 9mm: This is a copy of

the Beretta 951. Produced in Egypt

at the Maadi plant, the Helwan is

quite rough. The pistol is quite a

contrast to the Maadi AK 47. The

rifle is among the best fitted and finished of any AK variant, while the

pistol is so rough it is barely serviceable.

This is an eclectic mix of pistols

to say the least. The P7 is often carried as a personal defense handgun

and the P01 is a house gun. The

others are recreational handguns.

The 9mm is a great pistol for

breaking in new shooters on centerfire handguns. As an example, a

group of teens was introduced into

the world of good handguns. If

you have never seen a 14-year-old

The P38 features a straight-line feed that leads

the bullet nose dead into the chamber. This design feature has been adhered to in the Beretta

92 as well.

girl smile while firing a P38, it is a

worthwhile experience. We simply

have to introduce young shooters

into the game and let them enjoy

it. The 9mm is a big step up from

the .22 and one they can enjoy. But

with the high and ever-increasing

price of factory ammunition, many

of their opportunities are limited.

You and I had best serve as recruiters into the shooting fraternity!

Making and Finding Brass

A friend recently offered several thousand 9mm cases of mixed

brands. His agency went to the .40,

and this range brass was no longer

needed. I relearned much concerning 9mm brass. I first thought



Oct-Nov 2014 ? LOAD DEVELOPMENT

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Load Development

Some of the bullets used were (left to right): 122-grain flatnose, 125-grain Oregon Trail and Nosler

115-grain JHP.

perhaps some .380 ACP brass was

mixed in, but no, the 9mm brass

varied almost .02 inch in length.

Some loads had to have been headspacing on the extractor, not the

case mouth. The longest brass was

just fine, according to industry

specification, but the shorter brass

was not. The treasure trove contained some Winchester brass from

the previous service load, but much

was mixed brass from commercial

reloads. Some had been manufactured in the Pacific Rim, others in

South America. Some was oncefired Winchester USA used in training exercises.

I hit upon a big reason for 9mm

inaccuracy. In previous testing of a

Browning Practical, a good amount

of brass that had been under my

personal control for some time was

used, and also new Starline brass. As

often occurs, on the way to working

up one good load for two pistols, I

was sidetracked by an experiment.

I decided to load and fire a few

rounds from range brass ¨C just

pick it up from the bucket, clean

and load it without measuring case

length. Next, a few loads were fired

in the short brass and finally a few

rounds loaded in the ideal length

Winchester brass. Only 200 rounds

were used, but the results were very

interesting. I used a proven load

involving Unique and the Hornady

124-grain flatpoint jacketed bullet.

Using the Browning Hi-Power and

the Beretta, groups ranged from 6

inches with the too-short brass to 3

inches with the Winchester brass.

The range pick up that was not

sorted ran into 4.5 inches average,

Both Titegroup and Winchester 231 proved adaptable to all bullet weights in the 9mm test.

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LOAD DEVELOPMENT ? Oct-Nov 2014

with some good and some poor

groups. The factory will err on the

side of function over accuracy every time. The folks shooting their

Glocks into the berm may not notice the difference. Lesson one: Sort

your 9mm brass.

Lesson Two

I have not blown a 9mm cartridge

case, and the 9mm is a hot little

number with NATO specifications

that call for an allowable pressure of

36,500 psi. That is squarely in .357

Magnum pressure territory. Remember, it is all about performance.

NATO forces are expected to wear

guns out at some time or another,

and the high pressure is a tradeoff.

The cartridge must penetrate web

gear and always function the action.

In 1922, the French specified that

John Moses Browning design a pistol

for military use with lethality at 50

yards. I have on hand a confirmed

report of an incident in which a military police officer took out a dangerous individual at a long 80 yards.

The 9mm is good and hot, and

caution is demanded in load practice. Seating the bullet just .002 inch

deeper than the loading manual calls

for may increase pressure by 10 percent. However, there is more to the

formula. We have a strong reminder

of why we should adhere to the

reasoning of carefully beginning the



NATO pressure load, far from it; I

only need a load that performs well

in every handgun. The goal was

more elusive than I first thought.

Handgun Idiosyncrasies

The 9mm (right) and the .38 Smith & Wesson (left)

are about the same size. The 9mm is by far the

more powerful cartridge.

load program at 10 percent below the

stated maximum. There is a reason,

and the 9mm is a good example of

the vagrancies of components. We all

know powder may vary as to blend,

but cartridge cases vary as well. When

cases are the same length but weigh

in at different weights, then it stands

to reason that the case that weighs

more is thicker. I weighed a few cases

and came up with the following

results: Federal Classic 9mm Luger,

62.0 grains; Hornady Custom 9mm

Luger, 60.0 grains; Winchester 9mm

Luger, 55.4 grains; and Speer 9mm

Luger, 55.1 grains.

If you are running at a maximum

charge and change cases to a thickerwalled case with less powder capacity, expect a train wreck. Watch

headstamps and length. Weighing

the case or checking water capacity goes a long way in maintaining

safe load practice. I do not need a

There were three handguns with

certain special needs. The Helwan

will not feed anything but ball ammunition. It will not feed a lead

semiwadcutter or flatpoint but will

feed the Hornady FP. No problem,

as that is the type of load I originally intended to work up. The P7

is not suited for lead bullets due to

the gas system and polygonal rifling.

With handguns of the same barrel length, polygonal rifling may

produce an advantage in velocity

over standard rifling. Still, there are

no magical properties apparent, and

Glock owners fit conventionally

rifled Bar-Sto barrels by the case to

their Glock pistols in order to enjoy

lead bullet economy. No such unit

is available for the P7. I shoot this

handgun regularly but limit range

sessions to 100 rounds. The area in

front of the trigger guard where gas

bleeds becomes very hot and limits

long-term firing sessions. Also, only

relatively fast burning powders are

suitable. A slower powder such as

Blue Dot or Accurate No. 9 would

not be a choice. The gas system may

or may not work and could batter

a fine handgun. You really have to

love this pistol to work with it.

The CZ P01, like the P7, is

among the most reliable handguns

of all time, but the chamber is tight.

When loading the XTP to 1.3

inches OAL as an experiment, the

load proved unsuitable. While it fed

and fired, I discovered it jammed

in the chamber! I simply could not

This is what the 9mm is all about. A quality, reliable and accurate handgun and lots of ammo!



Oct-Nov 2014 ? LOAD DEVELOPMENT

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Load Development

cycle the slide and unload the pistol

and had to fire the round out. So,

I had several limits on the program

out of hand. First, I did not desire a

high-pressure loading but one that

would be safe to fire in each pistol,

but in respect to the P38 and others,

the load would have to be full power

in order to function. For economy,

a JHP bullet was unnecessary. OAL

had to be compatible with the P01

and powder selection compatible with the P7. A bit of research

led to good choices. As predicted,

Unique gave good performance

while Bullseye ran cleaner. Most of

the preliminary work was done with

the Browning (see Table I). General-purpose loads were worked up,

and this handgun was used as a test

bed for working up a suitable load

for the others. This program served

well, as seen in the related tables.

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LOAD DEVELOPMENT ? Oct-Nov 2014

versatile and clean, and I had a good

supply on hand. I really wanted to

use the starting load of 4.0 grains,

but the P38 would not function

with this light load. I began testing

lead bullets with this handgun for

that reason. As it turned out, the

first efforts produced a good solid

load (see Table II).

The Happy Medium

Cast Bullet Loads

Bores in the 9mm run from .356

to .358 inch. While the average

9mm will do okay with .356-inch

bullets, best results come from a bullet tailored to the handgun. Oregon

Trail Laser Cast 125-grain RNL

bullets have been used with excellent

results. Winchester 231 powder is

The pistols tested here included

single-action and double-action

examples, short-barreled pistols and

military pistols. One was produced

in the 1940s, two in the 1970s

and one in the 1980s. The handloading program had a few bumps

along the way, but with an open

mind and good loading practice,

the results will be good. You may

note that I did not use 147-grain

loads. While it is true these loads

sometimes give good accuracy, my

fixed-sight handguns are sighted

for 115- to 124-grain service loads.

There is also some evidence that

the increased momentum of the

147-grain load is particularly hard

on the oscillating wedge lockup

used in the P1, P38, Beretta and

Helwan.

In the end, two loads were

selected for volume production.

First is the 125-grain Oregon Trail

bullet and 4.4 grains of W-231 for

an average velocity of 1,180 fps in

the seven 9mm handguns. This is

hotter than some feel is necessary

for practice, but with the military

pistols on hand ¨C and the occasional

Luger that shows up ¨C this level of

momentum ensures function.

Second is the Hornady 124-grain

flatpoint jacketed bullet, at only

slightly less average velocity. This

load has the edge in accuracy if it

matters in the type of practice I usually supervise. For the P7 and for

Glock shooters, this is an outstanding load that never fails to give good

performance (see Table III).



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