I've been shooting my 10mm for a bit and am already tired of buying factory ammo.

I've never loaded for a semiauto before - any secrets or tips I should know?

I have 2 loads in mind: general practice/plinking load and a hard cast full 10mm load. I looked at Montana Bullets and think their 10mm, 200 gr NOE or 10 mm 200 gr MP WFN-PB look really interesting for my hard cast load. With any luck, I could simply buy 1 bullet and load it with 2 settings.

Anyone shoot either of these two bullets? It will be in a 5" Rock Island 1911.

Thanks.

Do get a Lee carbide crimp die

https://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/hand-gun-dies/lee-carbide-factory-crimp-die/

Seat and crimp in separate steps with any cast bullet loads.

If you're thinking for that practice load to be loaded mild like the 40 S&W, expect POI to be different than the full power load. Personally I just use the same bullet and load all the time in my 10mm - a 200gr from a Mihec mold at 1350 fps.

Do you cast your own bullets?

Do NOT use that Lee factory crimp die for cast bullet loads, regardless whether they are coated or wax lubed. It sizes the bullet down, which is one of the worst things you can do with cast bullets.

Do you load for rifle? If so pistols are much easier.

In no particular order:

1. Carbide dies so you don't have to lube.

2. Taper crimp so you don't worry about case length.

3. As said above, seat and crimp in separate steps, you can do this with a three die set and a washer if you don't have a four die set.

4. You'll have to flare the case mouth a bit, especially with cast. Don't overdo it.

5. You usually don't need much crimp, might get away with just removing the flare.

6. Seater stem needs to match the bullet point/ogive, otherwise you can deform the bullet.

7. You might be able to develop a practice load that has the same poi as your full power load at a given distance if you use a lighter, slower bullet for practice. (don't count on it)

8. Before you load in bulk, load three or four rounds, pull the barrel, do the plunk test, make sure they fit the magazine. After all that, test fire them, if they function flawlessly, you're golden.


Good luck with it.

Thanks guys. I load cast bullets in my revolvers, in fact, all I shoot in them.

I was reading the interweb of guys loading flat nose lead bullets and running into feeding issues. Seems some simply shortened OAL and magically they started feeding. I'm not sure I understand how that can be.

The other issue I've read about concerns wide meplat bullets catching on the magazine and feed ramp. That makes sense to me.

As to POI shifts, that makes sense but I havent seen much with my 10mm but is likely because the 2 bullets run about same velocity
but are different weights (180 v 220). For example, I'm shooting 180 gr Sellior Belloit and 220 Underwood to the same POI out to 25 yards. I shot several mags full of both last weekend and they printed to same POI. The 180 Armscor is about the same as well. I've only run 4-500 rounds through it so may be dumb chance.

bwinters...I have a RIA 10mm in the Commander size...runs just fine with the 200 grain HC bullets from MBC but can't recall which style I have...

As to Yondering comment on cast bullets being sized down by the Lee CFCD, that has not been my experience at all. I have shot my .41 Magnums out to 780 yards with zero accuracy problems and 90% of the rounds that I make in all calibers use a Lee die and cast bullets. This die eliminated feeding issues for me in several guns.

Another thing I went to is the Lee undersized sizing die in 9mm, .38 Super and .40/10mm. It sizes the cases further down the shank and eliminates any bulging. Some of the .38 Super brass I have dates back to the 1980s and was so out of spec I would often have failure to go into battery problems...bought one of those dies and every round will go into a case check die vs. only 40% before that... Also eliminated the same problem when using 9mm reloads in a G19...

Also check out GT bullets...he has a 200 grain HP that he would probably make a solid for you if asked...his prices are great also...

http://www.gtbullets.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4

Also on powder...have tried Power Pistol, Unique, AAC-9 and Longshot...Longshot gave the highest velocities...


Good luck...Bob

While the 10MM is an outstandingly outstanding cartridge reloading it is no different that any other semi auto cartridge. I started out reloading the 45 Auto long, long, long long ago. Everyone on here will tell you how dumb Doofus is so if I can do it anyone else should have no problem unless there is a such a problem that cannot be cured.
But remember no matter what you do with the 10MM there is no way in this world or anywhere else can it compete with the "The Miracle" known as the 9MM. It just cant be did. No way No how. The 9MM is rapidly replacing every other cartridge. Grizzly bear ammo is now out. Soon, I believe, there will be Cape Buffalo and Elephant ammo available.

Have you actually pulled bullets after running through a FCD and measured them? Maybe with the sizes and brass brands you're using it's still good enough, but it's definitely not OK in a lot of other cases. If you do a direct comparison, in most cases you'll find the bullet gets sized down and neck tension is reduced. The degree to which that happens depends on a lot of factors.

Think about this for a minute - if that die cured feeding issues for you, it obviously sized something smaller. If the bullet started off the size you wanted but bulged the brass too much, then what happened to the bullet when the cartridge got sized down by that carbide ring?

It's better to figure out bullet fit and feeding problems without sizing the bullet down after it's loaded.

Bob - very good info!

I've measured this and bullets don't get resized by the taper crimp die.
Now you can put a groove in a bullet with the collet-style FCD doing a "roll" crimp. I used that feature on bullets that lacked a cane lure where I wanted it.

The only thing I'll mention about reloading the 10mm with cast bullets is to make sure the bullet profile was designed with an auto in mind. Some revolver bullets have an ogive shape that will hit the leade/rifling when chambering. Also, 1911''s tend to be a bit picky on bullet profiles they will feed.

I corresponded with Bruce about the .330 Metplat bullet, his website plainly alludes to having to experiment with different seating depth's to get them to feed in a glock. I bought 100 of the coated .300 metplat bullets to see how they fly before I buy 500. It might be wise to email Bruce and ask him about the RIA pistol regards the .330 Metplat bullet feeding in that pistol.

Depends on what you want out of your 10mm. Mine is a screw around gun, a revolver, and I don't need to load it hot. I put 12.5 grains of AA #9 under a 200 grain XTP loaded to whatever Hornady's manual shows they loaded 'em to. Goes boom, smacks things hard enough (if I need harder, I have several .44s and a .454), and is mostly accurate enough. I'm using RCBS carbide dies. I don't worry too much about crimp, just make sure the flaring of the case mouth for seating is gone. 10mm isn't a big kicker so there's no point in looking for a problem it doesn't have.

If you're trying to get every iota of energy or momentum out of it, with a cast bullet, can't help. For cast in my gun I toss the .38-40 cylinder in and shoot my cast bullets from that.

Tom

...honestly...it's like the people who complain that Unique won't meter to their liking throgh powder measures... I get little tiny groups and that is all I care about...

And again how many 10,000s you talking about...apparently in my case not enough to matter....

Bob

To be fair, RJM, I've noticed the same thing with a LEE Factory Crimp Die. I use one for my .22 Hornet, but absolutely nothing else. They can really bugger up some .45 ACP, and .40 S&W/10mm. It didn't take me 10000 rounds to figure it out, though, and I quickly lost interest in them after a short trial. IIRC, I walked out back and threw them as far as I could.

My experience with the Lee FCD for Roll crimps and having the carbide sizer ring was that it was sizing the .432" bullets I was using in my .44 Mags. I simply drove the carbide ring out and all is well.

Never going to argue...they work for some folks and for others they don't...

Also the rifle CFD is a whole different animal...it is a collet crimp die not a roll crimp/sizer like the handgun ones.

I had Lee make one for my .500 S&W. He said that he would only make it in the collet crimp style but never said why...it works great regardless...

Bob

This was 20 yards DA with a cast bullet...







The one round out of each group was called when it went off...

Just works for me...

i had to go look at my notebook.
on a buckeye special 38wcf and 10mm cylinder.
with the ten mm.
200 gr xtp's with AA powder. and the 10mm cyclinder.
1. 1318
2 1302
3 1303
4 1290
5 1301
6 1295fps
which i thought was pretty good for velocity, and fairly tight consistency round to round
i was using 13grains of AA#9 at the time.

In 10mm and 40 S&W (same die) I've seen my Lee FCD size .402" bullets anywhere between .401" and .398" depending on the brass (because brass thickness varies). That's for a nominally .400" barrel. Would that be acceptable to you? (It's not for me!) If so, why not size all the bullets to .399" and skip the carbide band-aid die?

With some loads (i.e. medium-soft alloy and high pressure) you can get away with that, but in a lot of loads it causes problems. It's odd to me how some cast bullet shooters will obsess over whether .401" or .402" (or whatever) bullet size is best, but then run the loaded ammo through a FCD and never measure the final bullet diameter.

For the guys who say it doesn't size down their bullets - then it's obviously not doing anything, so why use it?

The collet version of the Lee crimp die is a completely different thing and has no relevance to reloading 10mm.

I am beginning to wonder about this Lee FCD with 180 XTP's in the 10mm. There is no doubt that when I run a loaded cartridge into the thing, it passes thru a section that is smaller diameter than the loaded cartridge before it hits the crimp collar. I feel that I am getting more consistency with factory loaded sig 180 FMJ loads than my hand loads with the xtp and 13.7 grains of AA #9 using the FCD.

I think a good taper crimp die is a better tool, personally. YMMV, but a good taper crimp is the ticket, not an FCD. You can overdo it with a taper crimp die, of course, but it's harder to do, and less likely, as well.