How low can you go?

Start a min charge and work back slowly. As mentioned, your slide will stop cycling and locking back. Once you hit that, go back up to where your pistol functions.
 
What do you know, my chance to be a smart alec comes early today.

Want to load down some 9mm for an LCR.
Click to expand...

In 'LCR' the 'R' stands for 'revolver'.

(Shoot, that wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.)
 
If you get bullet stuck in barrel and don't know it. Then fire the next round (BOOM.

Find another powder and load data. That is the way to safely do it.
 
Bullet weight matters, of course, but the MAX given on Alliant's site for the weights they put on there makes 3 grains of Unique waaaaay below minimum for a jacketed 115, 124 or a 147 grain bullet. Below minimum loads can be as dangerous as over max loads.
Don't think I'd want a 147 grain load in a 17 ounce revolver though. I'd go with a 121(been using 'em for eons with Bullseye out of a BHP) or so cast bullet and 4.4 to 6.0 of Unique. Data is out of my old Lyman manual. There's a 125 grain cast load on Handloads.com that suggests a max of 6.0 with a start of 5.4.
"...wasn't as much fun as I thought..." Needs some expletives. Like 'Geez' or 'Golly'. snicker.
 
I shoot 5.2 grains of Unique under a 115gr. plated bullet and it's what I would call fairly mild, but I bet you could go to 4 grains or lower. Like others said, load a few in increments of .2 grains. Stop when they either stop exiting the barrel or accuracy suffers.
 
I run Unique with 122 gr LFPs as my standard 9mm load.

In a semi-auto, 4.6 gr is about as low as you can go for reliable cycling (with this particular bullet at 1.090" COAL).

In the LCR, you could probably start around 4.3 gr (with a similar bullet) and work down to around 3.9 gr before it got so dirty and unpredictable as to be a problem.

In a 4" barrel, the 4.6 gr load is good for about 1,000 fps.
In a 2" barrel, the same load will only make about 720 fps (not factoring in the cylinder gap or cylinder length).

A 2" barrel with 3.9 gr should be around 650 fps (not accounting for gap/cylinder).

If you want to go really slow (like 450 fps slow), use a faster powder like Titegroup; or at least a powder that burns cleaner at low pressure, like HP-38/W231.
 
This is something I wouldn't touch. I'm not sure how one would go about creating an ultra light load in the lcr. and avoid the risks inherent in using charges that small.

I suggest that you take only a small reduction in powder.probably should use 231or a similar high speed, easily ignited powder.

I hate to say this, but the real answer is to simply use low recoil data without trying to go too light.

I wonder if pb would work.
 
Hornady shows 4.2 for a 100 grain FMJ for 1050 fps. Are you looking for light or slow?
4.0 for 124 grain @900 fps out of a 4" semiauto.

Lyman shows 3.2 Unique for 147 lead @ 810.
2.8 Bullseye for 780 with 147 lead.

You will not know how these shoot till you try them.
Driving a lead bullet out is a PIA. Driving a jacketed bullet is much more difficult.

Trying to make a 9mm shoot like a 38? I would no go below starting load.

Enjoy the LCR

David
 
I have done some extensive testing on low powder charges in 9mm for a custom STI Range Master. AS30N ( Clays ) is an awesome powder to use on low charges, 2.50gr with a 100gr SWC lead projectile is very accurate out to 50 yards.
 
Using the100 grain bullet will put that in the range of a .380. Using a faster burning powder and a non plated lead load may minimize the risk inherent in tiny loads.

Trying to do this in a .38, using 100 grain bullets with a few grains of bullseye trying to create an 800 fps load would almost certainly fail.
 
+1 for Clays powder.

But I have found with the super fast pistol powders that a heavier bullet with a lighter powder charge gives less felt recoil than a light bullet with more powder, especially with short barrels. You get adequate pressure with a lighter charge and less blast out of that short LCR barrel.

Hodgdon data with Clays:

124 GR. BERB HBRN TP
Hodgdon Clays, 9mm Luger, .356" bullet diameter, 1.150" COAL, starting load 2.7 grains, 791 fps 27,900 PSI.

I have read about people using Clays with 147 gr bullets but the powder charge is so low it's hard to accurately measure and the pressure curve jumps so quick that even a tenth one way or the other will make a noticeable difference in POI and could get overpressure quickly. Too much instability, it just wouldn't be worth it to me.

But Clays has been hard to find lately. I'm down to my last pound and now only use it for .45 acp target loads. Makes my 45's kick like 9mm's and still cycle fine.

Bullseye or Titegroup would also be decent choices for light loads if you can find them easier.
 
What is the point of doing this? You have to be selective with the powder you use to prevent hang fires and stuck bullets and even if you can get something to cycle the action the bullet will probably tumble and your point of aim and point of impact are going to change so that you will have to readjust your sites if that is even possible. The whole exercize is just an exercize in stupidity just waiting for an incident to happen.

There is only one way to go really low and that is to purchase the Speer plastic training bullets and then reload some cases just using magnum primers and the plastic bullets with no powder. These will require one to rack a slide manually but this way one can ensure that something bad does not happen.
 
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Agree with hartcreek and AJ, the starting loads in the manuals are as low as I care to go. They are usually pretty pitifull anyway. I think they take into account old guns, weak guns, component variations, different seating depths, etc. They're "safe" in other words.
 
No load data for Trail Boss loads in 9mm but you might try it. Figure out what the max powder charge would be by filling an empty case to where the base of the bullet will be when seated to correct COL. Then fill a few cases (2 or 3) to that point and seat your bullets and see if they will cycle. IF they will cycle that should be a really mild load. If not, no big deal. Just be sure the bullet left the barrel after the first round.
 
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