Back over the summer, I was looking for a cheap solution for shooting pistol and pulled out my Walther P1/P38. I've had it for 10 years now; I have not shot it all that much, and it seemed to only like FMJ reloads. I read an article on using Lee .358-124-SWC cast bullets, and I thought I would give it a try. Bottom line: by the end of the summer, I was no closer than when I started. However, I had enjoyed the shooting 9mm. I decided to buy a Ruger SR5, and give it a go. Yesterday was the first time I've been out with it.
I had 100 rds of .358-124-SWC, and 50 rds each of Hornady 124 grain XTP and Berry 124 grain HBRN-TP's. I loaded them all with a fairly light load of Universal.
The cast lead bullets in the Ruger fed the best. The XTP's in the Walther shot the most accurately. The Berry bullets didn't seem to feed well at all in either pistol.
I'm new to 9mm, and I don't have a lot of experience tuning loads for semi-automatic handguns. I have a Ruger 45 ACP that I've been shooting for 16 years now, and whatever I feed it seems to work well. However, we don't learn much from our successes.
Here are my questions:
1) When faced with stovepipe jams, what is the best course of action to correct? My first idea would be to increase the powder a bit.
2) In the case of feeding-related jams, I'm thinking a change in bullet seating depth is advised as a place to start. Is this correct? I had a few instances where the XTP's went up instead of going into the chamber.
Many thanks in advance.
