I'm curious to hear if any of you guys have loaded heavy 9mm bullets for subsonic loads, or are interested in such things. I don't mean standard 147gr stuff, but heavier than that.
I started on a heavy 9mm bullet project this weekend, using an old Lee 6 cavity tumble lube 124gr mold as a donor. (that tumble lube design never shot as well as the standard lube groove version for me, so it was sitting there unused.) I carved out some O-1 tool steel on the lathe in the bullet shape I wanted, and made a D-reamer to bore out the mold cavities.
I didn't do any calculations on bullet weight, but based my dimensions on a commercial 147gr TC cast bullet, adding weight where I could, mostly the nose and eliminating the lube groove. This ended up as a LFN style, with a .245" meplat; seated to 1.160" it leaves the same case capacity as commercial 147gr cast bullets.
I was hoping for 155-160gr, but ended up with a 178gr bullet! This may be too heavy for my goal of 900-1,000 fps for subsonic/suppressed use, but I'll work up loads, and shorten the bullet by .010" at a time to reduce weight if necessary.
Will post pics in a few days.
