Cm9 OAL

[Curious Carl]

Reloaded 9mm 115g round nose full metal jacket, followed Hodgdons web site OAL recommended 1.169 and they were too long for my cm9 magazines by just a smidge. They worked well in my CZ 75. Looked carefully at the defensive loads I uaually carry, that work flawlessly and also at a long list of other load specs from Handloads.com, decided I'm going with 1.142 OAL from now on. My powder is mid range so am hoping this adjustment won't over pressure. Any thoughts?
Have never had a single failure with my CM9, just love shooting it! Have a cm45 coming, really hoping that works as well as the cm9, can hardly wait for it to arrive!

[Curious Carl]

Reloaded 100 with 1.158 over all length, used three mags, not one problem. Am learning to shoot more accurately, got a long way to go.......groan. Got my CM45 today, need a few parts for the Dillon square deal before I can reload .45 acp, hope the CM45 works as well as my CM9 which has never failed me! Anyone have bullet weight and other reloading suggestion? Read somewhere that small semi autos work best with slightly hotter than average loads. Anyone have trouble with lighter loads with the CM45? Every time I shoot my CM9 I like it even better. What a great gun!

[JimBianchi]

My CM9 and MK9 like Berry's 124grn with 4.5grn Power Pistol loaded to OAL of 1.125. (chrono at 1050 FPS)

All my 9mm's like it except my K9. I haven't found a load it likes yet. It doesn't get shot much, so I'm no hurry to figure it out.

[Tpepper70]

JimBianchi, I bet that load is a soft shooter. I load a 124gr cast lead powder coated Lee flat nose bullet with 5.4gr of PP for my TriStar C100 and love it. Think my load will work in a CM9? Picking one up tomorrow.

Cruce Dum Spiro Fido

[DJK11]

Berry's HBRN, 124 gr, 4.2 Titegroup, COAL 1.150. PM9 shoots like a laser.
Berry's HBRN, 124 gr, 4.8 WST, COAL 1.150. Softer load.
Berry's HBRN 185 gr, 5.2 Titegroup, COAL 1.250. PM45 eats them up.
Berry's RN 230 gr, 4.8 - 5.0 Titegroup, COAL 1.250. PM45 like a hot load

[Ikeo74]

Comment canceled.

[Bigdave35180]

I have a new PM45 coming and I have thousands of coated Oregon Trail 200 swc and 230 rn that I'm gonna try in it...got lots of Unique so will try my favorite 1911 loads first....bought a lot of Unique, 2400, 296, H4831, 748, and Bullseye during the Obama years....he sold lots of guns and ammo.

[Toprudder]

Not all bullets of the same weight have the same nose profile (ogive) so may need to be loaded to different OAL. I have a 9mm AR that I use RMR 115 FMJ bullets in, and I have to load those to 1.100" so they will pass the plunk test. I can load them a little longer for a couple of my guns, but the AR has a slightly shorter leade. I worked up loads starting low, and ended up settling on 6.1gn of Power Pistol.

For my pistols, I mostly use plated. The RMR 124gn can be loaded much longer and still "plunk", and the Xtreme plated bullets in most cases can be loaded to the full SAAMI length.

Whenever I try out a new bullet type, I will use the plunk test to determine just how long I can load them, and I have a spreadsheet with the information I collect. I like to have at least 0.020" jump to the lands.

[Bigdave35180]

I have had great success using the Dillon c.o.a.l. guages...if they fall in and out of them, they gonna shoot.

[CPTKILLER]

Watch for signs of over pressure. You should be OK.

[Toprudder]

I have had great success using the Dillon c.o.a.l. guages...if they fall in and out of them, they gonna shoot.

The vast majority of the case gauges don't duplicate the chamber of the gun forward of the case mouth. In other words, they don't simulate the throat or leade or rifling. To do that, the case gauge would have had to be made by the same chamber reamer used to ream the chamber of your gun.

You can probably take a bare bullet and drop it completely through the Dillon case gauge. That obviously won't happen with the plunk test in your gun. A plunk test in the case gauge will not guarantee that the round will chamber in any given gun.

Having said all that, I use case gauges all the time to check my loaded rounds. But, it only checks that the brass case will fit the chamber. I will have already verified the COL that I can use for a given bullet, using the plunk test, and I am confident that with the predetermined COL I won't have any problems chambering the rounds.