Berry’s 9mm, 125 gr hollow points.
And then finding out my Go-No Go dies for 9mm and .357 Mag are rusted to shit.
By Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack. Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA. I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed. I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
Bummer on the dies.
I switched from Berry to Xtreme when Berry wouldn’t ship chunks of lead to MA. Xtreme are plated, not jacketed, and I’m fine with that. I don’t use reloaded ammo for SD. I’m not that reliable. 😆 YMMV.
I tried some of Berry’s 115 gr. plated round nose some years back. Didn’t care for them. They were quite soft. Think swaged lead with a coat of very thin copper foil. My issue was getting a solid taper crimp on 9mm rounds enough so that the bullets didn’t set back when hitting the feed ramp (FEG PJK). I had to crimp the rounds to the point there was a visible “wasp waist”. They shot OK, but I haven’t used them since, preferring hard cast or jacketed. I’ll have to try some of the powder coated ones some time.
you can gauge on your barrel if easy to remove (like a glock, etc.) Works if you’re not chambering the reloads in a bunch of different guns. proof it in the one you’ll shoot it with! not as posh as a gauge, but it works in a pinch!
Rusty Go-Nogo dies, I assume case gauges. . Plunk test.
Evapo-Rust.
Try it, it should restore them to like new-ish.
(Also, it’s reusable for awhile too.)
That’s unfortunate. I use Lyman case checkers which are aluminum, plus I live in a semi-desert. I have had good experience with Berry’s plated bullets for .38 plinking ammo. I use Prvi Partizan 9mm bullets.
I got them in my Amazon wishlist for future shopping
I use my barrels. I’ve never bought a gauge.
I’m been reloading since the 80’s, never bought or used go/no-go gages. The book lists min and max lengths and I have a set of dial calipers. I also chamber a couple of the first rounds loaded just to check. Never had an issue. When setting up for a new caliber, I typically load the first round or two without primer or powder while making the adjustments to bullet seating and crimping dies, with the understanding those round will be chunked in the trash when I’m done.
The nice thing about gauges is that they are quick and safe, and also that (one assumes) they are made according to the limit numbers in the SAAMI specs.
I have a four-hole case gauge I bought from Brownells, it wasn’t expensive. 9 mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and something else. Came in very handy when I was checking a box that didn’t like my 9 mm gun. Turned out about 20% of the rounds were bad, either too big or too long, in any case they would extend out the back of the gauge. So I set those aside, kept the rest, and put that brand on my “never again” list. Checking a box of 100 rounds in the gun, with due regard to safety, would be a very much harder job than what I did in a handful of minutes with that gauge.