The 9mm Star BM and Cast Bullets

Back in 2020 I was looking for something to mess with and found on J&G SALES website a sale on Star BM 9mm autoshuckers. They were selling them for $299.00 and since I had not owned a 9mm since the turn of the century I decided to order one, which I did. They are a decent all-metal pistol which appeals to me, though I am not a big fan of the caliber. But I figure it's a good caliber to own since ammo is everywhere and in troubled times that may be important.

I had been buying excellent bullets from Bear Creek Supply. Their 125 gr. round nose is an accurate bullet and really is clean barrel-wise. But I would much rather make my own so I ended up purchasing a Lee double cavity mold for their 120 gr. truncated cone bullet – the Lee 356-120. With my alloy of 10/11 BHN the mold throws them at 124 – 125 grains.

I cast about 400 or so and started loading some to see how they shot. The first loads I assembled I seated the bullet as deep as possible and used a 3 grain charge of Bullseye under them. They fed well and functioned fine but shot patterns instead of groups. They also hit about 7 inches high and 3 inches to the right.

Factory loads and my handloads with the Bear Creek bullet hit a little high but fairly centered so I seated the next batch further out and increased the powder charge to 3.4 gr. of Bullseye. These grouped well and hit closer to where the factory loads hit. So I upped the powder charge of the next loads to 5.0 gr. of Power Pistol in one bunch and 4.5 gr. Unique in the other. We shall see how they do.

The cartridge on the right is the first that I tried. The left side one is what I ended up doing.

UPDATE
The 4.5 gr. of Unique and the 5.0 gr. of Power Pistol shot OK but nothing spectacular as far as accuracy. Function was excellent. I am now going to try heavier loads of Unique and Power Pistol. I am also going to load some with Green Dot. I have not yet decided upon the powder charge to use with Green Dot.

MORE SHOOTING
I loaded 15 with 5.5 gr. of Power Pistol … 15 with 5.4 gr. Unique … 15 with 3.6 gr. Bullseye and 15 with 4.0 gr. Green Dot. I fired them using a rested two-hand hold at 20 yards. What I found interesting was the point of impact with the various loads. The first lighter loads hit quite high and to the right. These heavier loads hit lower … still a bit high ... but were maybe a half inch to the left. The Unique loads were definitely the heaviest judging by felt recoil and they hit close to the same elevation but nearly centered. The Bullseye loads were light. They functioned fine but were mild .. pleasant plinking loads. And they hit to the right.

I have seen impact shift horizontally in the .44 and .45 sixguns when changing bullet weights. I have not shot the 9mm enough to know if what I experienced was due to the pistol itself or is something that happens with the 9mm pistols. The shift from one side to the other wasn't more than 1 ½” but it was obvious.

I am planning on loading a bunch with the 3.4 gr. of Bullseye load, They will be fun loads for shooting clay pigeons laying on the berm and just getting practice in running the gun. If I were to carry using these bullets I would go with the Unique load. The Power Pistol load would be my 3rd choice. Power Pistol is a great powder for the 9mm. It produces good velocities and gave me great accuracy with 115 gr. XTP bullets. Those are reserved for social occasions. The cast bullet loads are for fun and for practicing.

10.5 pounds of bullets -I have 800 or so cases sized, neck expanded and primed ... ready to load.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.