Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 9 mm target load?

The newest 9 ( G 34 ) is a sweet shooter and I'm looking for a target load to match it's potential.

Probably a 115 gr RN what powder and weight can you reccomend?
No liability of course, all re-loads are fo my own making.
There are hundreds of loads listed, just looking to lean on your favorite..

It's been a long time since I tried to put together a match load for a 9mm, but it seems like some of the best accuracy I have ever had out of the cartridge came from the 147 grain pill.

I have no doubt that the 115 will shoot too, though.

I use 5.0gr of Win 231 and a 115gr JHP or FMJ. Shoots great out of my Beretta 92F and Glock 26.

My 34 shoots well with 115 grain bullets and 4.5 grs. of Bullseye.

Thanks guys.
Any other's favorite loads?

My wife likes light little loads in her M&P9C
4.2 gr of Titegroup behind a 90gr Hornady HP

But the Glock ( long slide ) seems to want more ooomph.

or even your favorite powder?
Clean burning with JRN or HP's?

( I'll find the weight I need..)
Thanks in advance,
Paul

I just started trying Ramshot ZIP the last week or two and it is very clean burning � this is based on the condition of the breech face and the muzzle area of the stainless slide, plus any powder residue left in the barrel. Also tried some True Blue and it burns very clean but is meant for more robust loads than ZIP.

231 is okay, Unique at target levels was very dirty, but ZIP was very clean. After 80 rounds of target loads the breech face is still clean and the muzzle area only has a little fouling on it. 231 and Unique would leave it blackened and almost cover over the white dot in the front sight.

Accuracy overall was better with ZIP than ether 231 or Unique, although True Blue bested it a bit with the particular bullet I used, a Berry�s plated 124 HBFP.

One caveat � Ramshot�s starting loads for ZIP are barely powerful enough to work the slide, the cases plop out about 2-3 feet to the right. It wouldn�t lock the slide back on the last round in my XDm but did lock the slide of the Beretta 92. But on the Beretta it produced several failures to feed as the slide didn�t have enough oomph going forward to feed the case into the chamber reliably.

Once you get into the middle and top level everything functions okay. This kind of sucks since the Berry�s bullets shot best at the starting load. I don�t care for that hollow base in a 9mm bullet and when this box of 250 is used up will switch to a solid base.

Also, FWIW, I had the XDm .45 Auto out as well and a starting load of ZIP with a Berry�s plated 200 HP produced the best accuracy by far of anything I�ve tried, putting 8 shots into a single ragged hole about 2� across at 25 yards. ZIP also burns very clean at the low pressures of this round.

Still haven�t found a really good load for the Springfield 9mm or the Beretta 9mm, best efforts so far producing 3� groups and some loads look more like bad patterns.

I just bought 1000 115 grn RNHB double strucks from berry's
Not seen any data on Zip, I'll check it out, thanks

The Ramshot website has the latest load data for their powders. They have specific data for the Berry�s plated bullets in the 9mm which is nice.

Going to try some 115 gr. bullets in the two pistols as the 124 plated and some 125 RNL I tried all print very high, as much as 5 or 6 inches above POA and 2-4 inches to the left. 9mm 115 factory ammo prints just above the front sight but centered on windage.

Both of mine, Smith 547 and Steyr GB, like ths same loads.

Sierra 115 JHP - 6.5gn SR4765 (accuracy load from Nosler).

Hornady 124 FMJ flat point with Unique. Don't recall the exact charge but the newer version of the bullet with the enclosed base gave much higher velocity and pressure than the bullets with exposed lead at the base.

HS-6 is a fine powder for the 9mm, especially with 115s, try 6.5 and work up to 7.0 or a little more.

for a TARGET load, with a 115 grain copper plated pill, all of the following are good:

Unique - 4.5 grains

HS6 - 5.5 grains

Blue Dot - 6.5 grains

WSF - 5.5 grains

I've shot 10's of thousands of all these loads.

though it is not better than the other three powders, for the past 18 years or so, I've used WSF, if only because i'm trying to keep powder inventories down...
though in my experience, when night shooting on standard drills or using steel, WSF has far less muzzle flash than Unique, having a smaller, more yellow flame...

for striker fired handguns--i prefer Federal primers, with Winchester as second choice. in my opinion, the Federal cups are softer--and in my experience ignition is more assured when firing smaller guns that are striker fired (or pistols with low mass hammers and smaller springs).

though of no practical moment, unless this has changed, Federal primers use "basic" lead styphnate, whereas other manufacturers use "normal". supposedly, the basic lead styphnate primer is more sensitive, as the compound has a finer grain. but this priming compound matter is some general information that i read years ago, and do not know it as factual.

based on several decades of use and experience with handguns, my choice of using the Federal primers in smaller pistols--or striker fired handguns, is due solely to the softer cup, as in my experience, ignition is more assured--though this is far less of an issue today, than it was 25 years ago...

I've used the previously mentioned 5.0 gr of Win 231. With the Glocks they usually have a long throat and will work with a much longer oal than many others and I have used 1.171" with some of the round nose profiles.