sizing question

[nova71]

I'm not really new to reloading but I am to cast bullets. I have a lot of 357-358 SWC lead bullets that were given to me and was wondering if they were possible to resize to 356 for 9MM. the reason I ask my son has started shooting bowling pin matches with his 9MM and was told a heavy flat nose bullet works best, I have these 357-8 158gr cast bullets (from wheel weights) for my 38 spec, and was wanting to resize to 356, any side effect or problems to look for?......... Larry

[DennisB]

Larry:  They ought to size to .356 easily enough but do you have reliable load data for that weight bullet in 9mm, and (guessing here) will they feed through a semi-auto?

[nova71]

so far the heaviest load data I can find is for 147gr. , it should feed but won't know for sure till I get to try it. looking for load  data info from someone who has tried it. with all the experimenters here surely someone has tried it , just gotta find them,,,

[Lloyd Smale]

proably not. The flat nosed bullets that heavy will just need to seat to deap in a 9mm case and wont leave much powder space and even if you could get enough powder in them its iffy if they would funtion in a gun anyway. Ive used 358  bullets sized down the 357 or 356 in 9mms but mostly 120 grain stuff. Anohter thing to keep in mind that most 9s have light springs in them and using a bullet that heavy may beat the gun up if you dont replace the spring

[sgtt]

There is some data on the net in regards to the 158 grn in 9MM.

[Mikey]

Nova:  Yes they will resize to .356 and they will work in a 9mm pistol if properly seated.  I just posted on powder charges for the 158 gn slugs in the forum just up the list, to answer just that question.

Lloyd is right with his concerns.  The swc bullet will have to be seated so that the shoulder is about halfway down the case mouth and, depending on the pistol used may even need to be seated to the top of the shoulder, which might raise the pressures for those loads.

It does not take much to knock a bowling pin off the table, if ya hit it square on, even with a wadcutter or swc, so you don't have to max the powder charge to get a 9mm - 158 gn swc to work. 

You can also use 141 - 148 gn wadcutters if you load them out just far enough to chamber and function in the magazine but they may not want to chamber loaded out that far, so working with the wadcutters is 'experimentation' but I once used them successfully in a 38 Super.  Hope this helps.

[Axehandle]

Back in the old straight table 5 pin days they would do a special set for the 9mm guys...  Called it 9 pin.  Instead of placing the pins one foot from the front they placed them one foot from the back...  9mm just couldn't do the job on the standard 5 pin set.