[Bluefool]

I'm still breaking my P99 in 40 s&w in, but I'm looking at that spent brass and thinking.

It's too early to say, but I seem to be getting the best groups from fairly heavy bullets moving fairly quickly. I'm leaning towards a 200 grain Rainier leadsafe bullet over a load of unique for range practice rounds.

I'm a bit tempted to stick with 165's, but loading data on the lighter bullets seems a tad shy.

Has anyone else handloaded for the 99? Whats worked for you?

 

[Jake Starr]

Yes but I only reload for my 9mm....I have tried several but like the 115 or 124 over 3.7 gr Unique.

 

[jimmythebrain]

I reload several calibers.

Winchester WST works well for me. I had some problems with the W231 and Blue dot does not meter well.

The W231 seemed to be over pressured. The brass ejected erratically.

Do you reload now?

A brass tumbler will cost $50
A set of Calipers will cost $25
A scale will cost about $20
A reloading press will run at least $100 (for a Lee Pro1000). The single stage presses are too slow for handgun reloading. When you fire 50 to 250 rounds at a time, a single stage press system will take you 4 or five hours to load that 250 rounds.

Then there is the cost of the reloading components. The primer is about 2 cents, the powder is about 2-3 cents. The bullet will run 5-7 cents. Therefor the cheapest that you can reload (assuming you have the brass) is about 9 cents a round. There you have it, $4.50 per 50 rounds and you had to do all the labor. Unless you shoot a lot (so the savings can add up) or have more time than money, just buy your ammo in bulk and give the brass away.

 

[Bluefool]

Oh, I reload now, and have for about 30 years now. Saves me the money to buy more guns .

Grab your socks...ready for this? I've reloaded all that time with the Lee hand press. Takes a bit of work on rifle brass to resize, but it can be done just fine.

However, you aren't kidding about slow; I would only reccomend it to others that enjoy reloading as a hobby in itself. After tumbling the cases, reloading 100 pistol rounds takes close to 2 hours, and can go to three easily if the primer pockets are nasty.

However, I'm a rifle shooter that is switching over to handguns...there just aren't any long ranges left in my area, and its a lot easier to load up the car to go shoot handguns for an afternoon then it is to haul all the bench rest stuff out.

Loading the occasional 200 rounds of pistol up was fairly rare, so the time it took wasn't too bad. And of course, 40 rounds of rifle is an afternoon of shooting, so the slow loader wasn't really a factor.

Now however I find myself looking real hard at a bench press after all this time. I've used them at friends houses of course, and now that I'm switching over to pistol it sure seems to make a lot of sense. I just don't know about the progressive ones out there; I hear good things about Dillon but the idea of so much automation in the reloading process gives this old rifle reloader mental fits. The idea of not weighing each powder charge and bullet...oh my. I'm sort of leaning towards a turrent press, as I figure there is still enough manual control to keep me happy, and it should speed things up quite a bit. I'm planning on shooting about 500 rounds of pistol a month, so unless I want to live at my reloading bench something needs to happen. I'm looking the hardest at the Lyman turrent press right now; I don't want one that auto indexes (or do I?), and while I like Lee equipment just fine, I think I may want to step up a bit for a bench press. RCBS is of course very nice, but I think I'm mostly paying for the name on their stuff.

Oh, and I'm planning on using Unique (powder), as I've used it for .380, .357 and .44 loads for decades, and it has always treated me well in pistols. As I get more into the handguns I may try some of the more specific powders, but of course thats half the fun of it .

Any advice on good bench presses?

 

[Bluefool]

Almost forgot; the cases ejected from my P99 QA have a real bad ding in them, 90 degrees off from the extractor, about half way down the case. I can't tell for sure if its hitting the slide on the way out, but I've seen dings like that from .45's often, and this looks a bit diffrent. The ding seems on casual inspection to match to a sharp edge on the top of the barrel ( the little ledge up and to the left of the Walther and proof mark on the barrel when looking at the pistol when lying flat from the right hand side). Has anyone else noticed this? I'm crossing my fingers that its a problem that will fade with break in, but I just don't know enough about how the walther ejects a case to really have much of a clue.

 

[Jake Starr]

I have a Dillion Square Deal B that I use for .45 Colt. Reloaded Cowboy loads for some 20 yrs.

I use a Lyman T-Mag 2 Turrent press. I do .30-30; .45/70; .38 sp and .9mm. Slower than the Dillion but more versatile.

I use only Unique.

If I was to buy another press or only had one, I would go with a Dillion 550 and not look back.

 

[dleong]

Has anyone else handloaded for the 99? Whats worked for you?

I currently handload in 13 different calibers, but the 40S&W is far and away the one I reload the most of.

The recipe that seems to work best in all my 40S&W-chambered handguns is a 155 gr. flat-nosed projectile (I use Rainier or Berry's, depending on which is on sale) over 5.4 gr. of Universal Clays at an OAL of 1.140", with a light taper crimp. This is a fairly mild, very accurate and clean-burning target load that clocks 1050 fps out of the 5" barrel of my XD-40 Tactical, so I'm assuming it is a tad slower out of the 4" barrel of my P99 AS.

 

[thorn]

I mainly shoot 9mm. The more i shoot, the more all that brass on the floor starts looking like money going to waste. I dont really have the space for a good work area, but I'm starting to think that when i do, i might slowly get into it.

I dont have much of a problem spending $100-150 on the equipment, as it just means i'd never (in theory) have to spend $10-15 on a box of ammo again. Right now my two biggest hurdles to shooting more are time to hit the range, and the cost of feeding the gun... if i could eliminate one, i'd certainly do a lot more shooting.

thorn

 

[Bluefool]

Thorn:

I would say the best thing to do is to go get a reloading book and take a read; most of the good ones have large chapters on exactly how to reload and what you need. Speer and Sierra both make good ones that I am familiar with; other companies make them as well and I hear good things. I'm not a fan of the "one caliber" reloading books, they are a bit cheesy for my taste (they look photocopied to me, but the data is good).

Midway has a pretty good "Just checking it out" deal:

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=480380&t=11082005

Its a manual and a rather basic press. Some folks might put their nose up in the air at the Lee press, but it produces loaded rounds just fine, and I hear it works great as a decapping station if you move on to better gear. You'll need more to actually reload, but it would get you going.

 

[kraigster414]

I handload both .40SW and .357 SIG. All I shoot out of my P99c are handloads. In order to maintain your proficiency, you have to shoot a lot and unless you have very deep pockets, I don't know how you can do so unless your reload. Factory ammo prices have gone through the roof. And frankly I prefer my reloads. I can load up, down, choose from a variety of bullet weights, and they go bang every time.

 

[kraigster414]

Oh yeah, I use a Hornady Lock 'N Load progressive press.

 

[Bluefool]

Oh yeah, I use a Hornady Lock 'N Load progressive press.

Yeah, but do you *like* it .

The Dillon 550 is starting to look pretty good to me, but *ouch* on the price once you get some goodies on it. I think the lyman turrent press is starting to look awfully good....but the idea of cranking out several hundred rounds in an hour is *awfully* tempting.

 

[kraigster414]

Yeah, but do you *like* it .

The Dillon 550 is starting to look pretty good to me, but *ouch* on the price once you get some goodies on it. I think the lyman turrent press is starting to look awfully good....but the idea of cranking out several hundred rounds in an hour is *awfully* tempting.

I also have a Dillon 550 but prefer the Hornady. Nothing wrong with the Dillon, I'm just more comfortable with the Hornady. The latter is plenty fast for me.

 

[kraigster414]

Hornady is also currently running a special promotion on their Lock 'N Load progressive press. Buy one and get 1000 free Hornady bullets. Not sure when this ends. A very good deal.

 

[sepolvora]

reloader

I have reloaded some 20 or more years. Great fun.

Nowadays I use 4.5 gr of 231 with a 125 rn from rainier or berrys for my P99, colt commander, luger P08, and any gun I can recall.
the one that don't like that recipe is a friend's xd compact. Sorry for him.

For my friends's 40s, I use rainier 180gr over 5-5,2 of 231 or a litle less of WST.
good ejection, velocities almost on par with factory.

Why to reload? a box of mexican or philipino 9 mm ammo costs $20 to $25 around here. If you like rem or win you pay much more than this.
Is that an answer?

My reloading outfit? A squad of 3 Lee turret presses and one Dillon 450B.

Saludos.

 

[kraigster414]

I have reloaded some 20 or more years. Great fun.

Nowadays I use 4.5 gr of 231 with a 125 rn from rainier or berrys for my P99, colt commander, luger P08, and any gun I can recall.
the one that don't like that recipe is a friend's xd compact. Sorry for him.

For my friends's 40s, I use rainier 180gr over 5-5,2 of 231 or a litle less of WST.
good ejection, velocities almost on par with factory.

Why to reload? a box of mexican or philipino 9 mm ammo costs $20 to $25 around here. If you like rem or win you pay much more than this.
Is that an answer?

My reloading outfit? A squad of 3 Lee turret presses and one Dillon 450B.

Saludos.

Your 180 grain Rainier load is the same as mine. Nice shooting, good accuracy/reliable cycling, low recoil.

 

[kraigster414]

Interestingly, I have found the Rainier 165 grain bullet to be a more reliable feeder in my P99c than the more expensive 180 grain Hornady JHP - I received 1000 of the latter as part of a promotion when I purchased my Hornady Lock 'N Load progressive press. With the Hornady, particularly after firing 100 rounds or so, I start getting some failures of the slide to go into full battery. I attribute this in part to the build up of crud in the barrel but it does not happen with the Rainier. Both are loaded light. I am wondering if a higher charge (I use Blue Dot) might give the slide just enough more "oomph" to prevent this from happening.

 

[Walter2007]

Reloading question

I own a walther p99 QA and started to reload 9mm. I purchased rainier 115 RN bullets and use winchester brass. I started to use Alliant Bulleyes powder at 4.0 grain and I have problem with the cartridge ejections and slide does not move back consistently. I increased the powder to 4.5 grains and still have a problem. Any one with some advice? Do I go to a slower burning powder like Alliant Unique or Hodgdon HS6? Can membersplease post their loads with 9mm ?

 

[thorn]

Replying just for archival search purposes:

In the end, i bought a Hornady LNL-AP press in March '08. So far I've reloaded and shot about 900 9mm rounds with no mishaps. It was definately a good decision.

thorn