Berry's 9mm HBRN

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kmw1954

New member
I came across these bullets for sale on a local ad.
https://www.berrysmfg.com/item/bp-9mm-356-115gr-hbrn-tp

The sale was for an unopened box of 1000 and got them for $70.00, was that a good deal of just a fair deal?

I haven't been able to find any published load data but Berry's site does give a COL and states to load at published FMJ data of same weight. Sound right?

Seeing as I'm just getting restarted in reloading I thought this would be a good choice to get back into the swing of things. At some point the hope is to start casting lead and maybe powder coating.

As I'm just starting to get supplies assembled I still haven't chosen a powder. I'm leaning towards Bullseye or 231. Anything else worth looking at? Not familiar with any of the newer powders.
 
I think that's a fair price and they are good bullets. I'd stay with the W231 over Bullseye. It's not as easy to double charge and workd very well. It's my favorite for 9mm.
 
Thanks egd,

A couple of the other powders that are reliably available here are Titegroup and Power Pistol and of course Unique. The first two I know nothing about other than some of the threads I've read on the forums.

Looking forward to working these up.
 
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Accurate Powder has a free downloadable PDF loading guide including Berry's plated bullets available here. I've become a fan of Accurate #7 and Ramshot Silhouette in 9mm, particularly the former, although my fallback powders are still Titegroup and W231 because they meter very cleanly and use low charge weights for greater economy. If I could only use ONE powder in 9mm, it would be a toss-up between those two.

FWIW if you haven't been told this already, new Hodgdon HP-38 and W231 are actually the same stuff. Buy whichever is cheaper or more readily available.
 
Just did a quick search and doesn't look like anyone nearby carries the Accurate powder line. Thanks for the info and link though. I did look at it.
 
There are a lot of powders that will work fine in 9mm. Everyone has their favorites. Since you can get 231 that's what I'd start with. Work up a good load with that and get the feel for reloading. THEN branch out with other powders. It is a good idea to have a few loads worked up with different powders in the event you can't find your favorite, but that can come later.
 
Use to load a lot of lead in 38/357 with Bullseye which is a bit different than loading the 9mm. Tried some Unique back then but not a lot of it.

So I think I have a list right now of W231, Titegroup, Power Pistol and Bullseye. All seem to be readily available in this area.

Tried looking on Gander's website but nothing is coming up. There is one about 30min from me. Their very 1st store was only 10min from my house. Bought a lot of stuff in that store!

Seems all of these powders will work with this bullet along with many others whether they are cast, jacketed or plated.
 
That's a good price for the bullets.

I haven't used the 115 gr version, but the 100 gr HBRN is now my go-to practice/plinking bullet for .380 Auto. Great bullet. It doesn't expand, but it's accurate, reliable, and clean to run.


Though data is all over the place, as far as powder charges, I generally try to run somewhere between 'lead bullet' and 'jacketed bullet' data when loading plated bullets - at least for cartridges running pressures in the 9mm class (30,000+ psi).


231 is a decent powder choice.
I tend to run Unique in 9mm, though. ...Just personal preference, due largely to the fact that when I started loading 9mm, I had several unused pounds of Unique and lots of load data available.
 
FrankenMauser, armoredman, Wow!

Great responses with lots of info to think about.

armoredman can you tell me how you came up with a starting load with this bullet? I've looked on both Alliant and Hodgdon's web sites and the starting loads listed are no where close to what I see listed in either the Lyman or Speer books that I have.

FrankenMauser I'll ask the same to you even though you gave a good response. Agreed that from what I'm seeing the data is all over the map.

Some of the reasons I picked these up is because I thought it was a good buy, looked a bit more forgiving than cast lead to load and would be a good starting bullet to learn 9mm on for the price.

These will be worked up to a mild load to use as training for both the wife and I as I've been away from shooting for a long time and the wife has never fired a firearm. This will allow us to shoot more at a reasonable cost.
 
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