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Hi All:
Anybody ever experimented with .358" heavy (155-160 gr.) cast 9mm bullet with fast powder ? My XD9 Tactical with a BarSto match barrel slugs at .3567". My .356" cast bullets are not accurate in it (3-4" grps. at 25yds., on rest).
Thanks, Wayne
Before you try a weight bullet the pistol was not designed to work well with, I suggest you simply use the correct size bullet for your barrel. Yours are way too small. Are you getting any leading from shooting them? Ideal cast size is .002-.003" over groove diameter (.358-.359"). If the mould will drop them large enough, you may not even need to size them at all, just lube and load. One of the 9mm's I load for likes .358 just fine, and one of my 6cav moulds drops them around .3585 so I just tumble lube them as is and load them.
And yes, I have played with 160gr bullets in the 9x19 with several different powders and found them to be not very accurate even with the correct springs. Pistol was a S&Wm59. YMMV Your pistol might like them, if you can find some safe loading data and the right springs.
I second what Versifier said about your bullets being way too small. I'm also surpised that being that small they did not lead your barrel badly.
As I don't shoot bullets that heavy in my 9MMs, I wouldn't know if you'd need to change out any springs. As there is at least one factory load using IIRC a 147 gr. bullet, data for that weight should work with a 150 gr. bullet, possibly even with a 155 gr. although I'd be a bit leery going that heavy. You might try data for a 147 gr. bullet and reduce the starting load maybe 5 to 10 percent and very carefully work up. I doesn't take much for a fast burning powder to get out of hand, especially when using heavier than normal bullets.
The Lyman manual #49 has data for a 147 gr. cast bullet on page 342. They list a whole bunch of powders for you to choose from.
I haven't tried bullets anywhere near that heavy, usually doing it with a 125 gr. bullet (Lyman #356402) but have thought about trying a Lyman #358477 which is a 150 gr. SWC that just might feed. It is very accurate in my .38 Spl. and .357 Magnum handguns.
It does make one wonder???? Would a heavier bulletmake a difference. Those nasty Black Talons that the media so roundly condemned were not worth a damn in the 9MM, 147 gr. weight. They never even opened up in the shootings where they were used. Going too slow? Too tough a jacket? I dunno.
Intersting though that IIRC, it was either just before WW2 or sometime ruring WW@ the Brits dropped the .455 Wbley and went to the 38/200 cartridge. it was nothing more than the old rather puny .38 S&W (not the special) using a 200 gr. bullet rather than the standard 150 gr. of the S&W round. I forget the velocity but they said it was just as good a manstopper as the .455 round. Methinks I'll pass. Over here, Winchester and Reminton used to make a 200 gr. .38 Spl. "Police" load. When I lived in nevada, a deputy Sheriff i knew was lamenting that he could no longer find any of that load as they had been long gone. (I think they dropped the load sometime in the mid 50's to early 60's. I didn't use it so i didn't pay much attention as to when it got dropped from the line.) I had a Lyman #358430 mold that dropped a 200 gr. round nose bullet that matched the one used in those police loads so I made him up a couple of boxes to try. I was loading commercially at the time so it was legal. He was happy so I loaded him up another 250 rounds which in theory should last him the rest of his life. He used them in his back up snub nose revolver.
It would be interesting as all get out to see if a bullet that heavy would work in a 9MM. I'm thinking there would not be any room for the powder. I don't think even a magnum primer would push that big boy out the barrel.
Paul B.