9mm .358"?

3

308Loader

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I Picked up a box of 9mm berry's form the bargain bin at LGS. Box says 124gr round nose .356". I opened it up when I got home and got a surprise. the RN bullets are flat nose. Then I measured some and they are .358", and weigh 124.7 to 125gr. I regularly shoot berry's 115gr RN and they do measure .356".

Should I toss these? hornady jacketed 9mm is .355", berry's plated are .356", why are these .358"? Can I shoot them without damaging my fire arm or myself? (pistol is Beretta 92A1)
 
I'd try the "plunk test" with your barrel to make sure they chamber okay.

If so, I'd load them up as plinkers for casual use an shoot them. Accuracy may not be as good as your .356 bullets, but a .002 inch oversize will not hurt your gun.
 
If a loaded cartridge will chamber, and my bet is it will, use them up. Shooting a bullet a couple of thousandths larger will do little to the pressures and is likely to be accurate.
 
What kind of douche knuckle would replace bullets with wrong kind and return to the store?
Click to expand...

Why do you think that was the case, as opposed to Berry's just making a mistake?
 
Cant take them back, bargain cave "as is" sale. I don't think berry's would make that big of a mistake. If all the stars were to align on gloomy Friday, with a disgruntled employee... ok maybe, not likely. Might just work out, I told the wife I now need to buy a 357 to go with them :D.

All joking aside I've ben reading the interwebs again, seems some people do shoot 357 out of their 9mm. The bullets don't seem to be too long to cause much of a seating problem (would need to add extra flair to case mouth). Cant imagine they would cause much of a feed problem (so long as they pass the plunk test). Are plated bullets soft enough to swage in the barrel? I'm guessing that jacketed bullets are a little harder hence the .355", plated bullets and led for 9mm are .356"? Some 9mm bores are 357"-358"? .003" is nothing to worry about? Any one know the dia of B 92A1 stock barrel?

On the fence about trying to load them. More questions than reliable answers tosses up a red flag in my mind. Any one want to trade some thing for 250ct FP 125gr 357 berry's plated? I like .308 168gr and up.
 
Do you know what the groove diameter of your barrel is, for sure? Without facts, measurements, it's all a WAG. If in fact your barrel measures .356", a .358" plated bullet will work fine. You're only squeezing down .001" on each side of the bullet. Slug your barrel...

FWIW; I have 3, 9mm pistols. One slugs out at .356" one at .3565"-.357" and a third slugs out at .358".
 
If anything, a thin plated 9mm really should be .002" over bore diameter anyway as the plating will squish down into the lead and give a better seal. You may find those to be more accurate than the .356.

I shoot powdercoated .358's out of my 9mm's to very good effect. Coating hardness is similar to copper plating.
 
Have your barrel slugged by a Smith to find actual bore size. I did on my Beretta 92FS and found it to be .356. So .358 lead plated or poly coated work great. Actually getting better accuracy with bullets made for the .38 Spcl. This mistake may just work in your favor. I add a step in the reloading process, and use an expander for .38 Spcl so the coating doesn't get scraped off while seating the bullet. I can shoot 100 rounds, and only need to run a Hoppes soaked patch down the bore to clean it. Little to no brushing the bore, no leading at all.
 
if I were to load them would I use 124gr .355 data from my hornady book starting at min? I have hs6 on hand and cci spp.
 
With HS6, I would try 6.0 grains. (5.9 start to 6.6 max) This info taken from Hodgdon's web site.

With that said, I found HS6 to be inaccurate in my Beretta, but yours may like it.
 
what powder would you recommend? So far hs6 is the only powder I've tried. accuracy is ok for plinking. I'm not the greatest with a pistol yet but can hit what I aim at. Original thought in buying 124gr bullets was to see if they might be more accurate than the 115gr. No complaints with the hs6 but open to try others. I see lots of people like tight group? What does one look for in a 9mm powder other than BANG, and DING:) with steel plates?
 
That's what I use, Titegroup. 3.2 grains under the 125 grain .358 diameter TC poly coated lead. I use the same load, same bullet for .38Spcl. Both very clean and very accurate.
 
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