124 grain reloads

M

Micro man

New member
A while ago I put a red dot on my Beretta 92SB and have been trying to work up a load so the Beretta would cycle properly. I reloaded 20 rounds of 124grain FMJ over 4.7 grains of Unique. At the range today I would load 2 rounds in the mag. and fire them and reload 2 more. I did this 10 times and on 4 of the 10 times on the second round the slide would move back far enough to reset the hammer but not lock the slide. I only brought one mag. with me so could not test with another mag.
I was wondering if this could be a bad mag. or perhaps not enough powder to move the slide all the way back.
 
I don't shoot Unique, so I am only sharing what is in my Modern Reloading Second Edition, by Lee. It shows a starting load of 5.3gr Unique for 124gr XTPs. In nearly every case, the starting load for 124gr FMJ is slightly HIGHER than the 124gr XTP load using the same powder. In a few powders the starting load is the same. It would appear that your load is significantly lower than the starting load for the only other 124gr bullet listed for Unique. These are loads for pistols without additional features. Take that with the proverbial grain of ....
 
I'm not sure how the magazine would be causing that problem. Usually magazine problems are failure to feed problems. This sounds like an underpowered round. What does your load data say?
 
I have a Taurus PT92C that experiences that with one mag only in this case I think you may need a slightly hotter charge to fully cycle the added weight of the Red Dot.
 
I only load with Unique powder and 124 grain RN jacketed and HP bullets in 9MM. I've seen it said that 4.8 grains of Unique with 124 gr. bullets will reliably cycle most pistols. Your 4.7 grain charge is probably only getting high 800's to very low 900's fps and may be a little light for your pistol. My best loads for 9MM and 124 gr jacketed bullets is 5.0-5.1 grains which gets around 1050 fps in my Glock 19's with 4.1" barrel. I use all CCI 500 primers. Even 5.1 grains of Unique isn't maximum in my tests.
 
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