Early Risers Coffee Shop ® (  

Go Back   Early Risers Coffee Shop ® ("Where Friends enjoy Friends") > Reloading

Reloading Place to discuss Reloading.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 03-20-2017, 09:30 AM   #1
rman
Extraordinary Member
 
rman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Northeast Kansas
Age: 80
Posts: 64,188
Default Springfield XD and Sierra Bullets

I've been loading a lot of 9mm ammo lately. We finally got to shoot some the other day. I shot the HK VP9 and my grandson tried to shoot the XD. His XD wouldn't fully chamber the reloads, but mine ate them like candy.

I used all once-fired Winchester brass, CCI 500 primers and Sierra 125 gr JHP bullets. I checked all of them in the Wilson case length gauge and every round passed. I've never had an issue when they drop right in the gauge. The COL was well below maximum specs. Last night I broke down the Shield, LC9S and the SR9C. The rounds dropped in all of them with no issues.

This had me stumped. The Sierra bullets look a little unusual. They have a long bearing surface and the business end is a truncated cone. The angle of the ogive is pretty sharp. While I had all the barrels out of the guns, I examined each one. It seems that the rifling on the XD barrel starts right at the ridge where the rounds headspace in the chamber. The other barrels have a slight amount of freebore. This morning I made up a dummy round and seated the bullet to 1.070" to match my loaded rounds. Of course, the dummy wouldn't chamber. I went in stages, shortening the overall length slightly, and rechecking. When I reached an overall length of 1.025", the round fully chambered.

It is kind of a strange phenomenon - one I hadn't seen before. It looks like the rounds will feed fine with the shorter overall length, but I think I'll save the Sierras for my other 9mm's and use Hornady XTP bullets in the XD. The XTP bullets have a longer ogive and will work fine with a longer COL in the XD. We've shot some Hornady Critical Defense ammo in the XD and they use XTP bullets. They have a COL of 1.060". I have 1,000 of the Sierras, but I can shoot them in my other pistols.
__________________
I'm old enough to remember when mentally ill people were placed in hospitals, not in Congress or the White House.
rman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 05:27 AM   #2
kansas45
Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Southern Kansas
Age: 70
Posts: 27,520
Default

That is something I wouldn't have anticipated rman. It just goes to show you that if it isn'tone thing it's another.
__________________
Never take a squat with your spurs on.

Will Rogers
kansas45 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 06:07 AM   #3
rman
Extraordinary Member
 
rman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Northeast Kansas
Age: 80
Posts: 64,188
Default

Yup! I load for a lot of calibers. I've run into more issues with 9mm than anything else I load. I have quite a bit of Remington brass and used to load with it. I soon found out that it is really inconsistent and it gave me fits. I know some folks who don't sort their 9mm brass by headstamp and seem to get along just fine. I guess they're smarter than I am. I don't like shooting .40 S&W that much, but the darn things run through my dies slicker than any other pistol caliber I load.
__________________
I'm old enough to remember when mentally ill people were placed in hospitals, not in Congress or the White House.
rman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 09:48 AM   #4
Teddybear
Extraordinary Member
 
Teddybear's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: FEMA REGION V
Age: 71
Posts: 17,233
Default

I've ran into an OAL issue with my XDs45 with my reloads. I get a little wormy setting the bullets deeper because of the higher chamber pressures. It runs the factory stuff just fine I'll be on the look out (BOTL, remember that phrase rman) for this issue in the 9mm I just loaded. I'll be shooting an XD9 Service and a G19 and G26.
Teddybear is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 02:40 PM   #5
rman
Extraordinary Member
 
rman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Northeast Kansas
Age: 80
Posts: 64,188
Default

Teddy as long as the bullets you're loading have a fairly long tapered ogive, you won't have a problem. If you go to Sierra's web site and search for 9mm Sport King 125 gr bullets, you can see that the bullet has a short ogive compared to most. Most 9mm bullets have a shallower angle on the bullet nose and less bearing surface. This "should" make the Sierras accurate, but can also cause a problem without seating them deeper than the average bullet for tight chambers like the XD. Like you, I think seating them deep enough to avoid the problem will raise chamber pressures and should be avoided. I will use Hornady XTP's in the XD. Frankly those are the ones I like best, but I bought a 1,000 of the Sierras for a very good price when all pistol bullets were hard to come by.
__________________
I'm old enough to remember when mentally ill people were placed in hospitals, not in Congress or the White House.
rman is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Early Risers Coffee Shop ® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office