115 versus 124 9mm

[cohiba550]

Would like to get some opinions and/or the Pros and Cons of using 115gr vs. 124gr FMJ bullets.

[gfmun]

I have tried both along with the 147 grain. I settled on the 124 grain because I like the way it feels and seems easier for me to get the next shot off as the front sight comes back in place better.

Pretty much it comes down to personal taste and feel as long as they both funcion well. There are also some newer powders that probably affect the feel. I think I was loading the 115s with Titegroup.

I shot the Blazer 115 grain for a couple of years before I started reloading and was happy with that, so I reloaded a 1000 of the 115s. The recoil felt snappier ( if thats a word ) and it was harder to get back on target for me. The 147 grain seemed almost soft, almost in slow motion. I have loaded several thousand of the MG 124s and am very happy.

Hope this helps,
George

[cohiba550]

George,
Thanks for the feedback, it's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm a firm believer in getting real world experience instead of relying only on books.
I've shot several thousand rounds of 115FMJ's mainly because of cost.....lol
Now that I'm getting into reloading I've got more options!

[gfmun]

Yup, lots and lots of options. I am loading the MG 124s with 3.8 - 3.9 grains of Clays and really enjoy the load. It feeds well in my wife's Glocks also.


George

[MoJo]

From what I have read on the history of the 9mm Parabellum the original German load for it was a bullet in he 124 grain range. I load 124 gr bullets and carried 124 gr SD rounds because of the better accuracy of the 124 gr. With the advent of 115gr +P DPX I switched because of superior terminal performance of the DPX. The 115 gr DPX bullet is about as long as a 125 gr lead core JHP and stabilizes well in my guns.

[NcongruNt]

I reload 124 grain bullets, in FMJ, plated, and JHP. I carry Speer Gold Dot 124gr +P rounds, so I like for my practice rounds to match up on bullet weight. This is really a personal preference, though. Plinking ammo certainly isn't going to be anywhere near the +P pressures and performance of the carry round, but it simplifies my bullet inventory and load recipes to keep only 124 grain bullets in my stock. The cost difference isn't enough to go with 115 grain bullets for the sake of money savings when I'm ordering 1000 bullets or more at a time.

As gfmun mentioned, 124 grain loads seem to be a little less snappy than 115 grain loads, so there's also that advantage as well.

[cohiba550]

Thanks a lot guys, all great info.
I'm looking at getting some of the MG FMJ's versus the plated type from Berry, Precision, etc. There's not much price difference so might as well go with the FMJ.
Now I'm onto the powder.........as with bullets there's a lot of options......LOL

[NcongruNt]

Thanks a lot guys, all great info.
I'm looking at getting some of the MG FMJ's versus the plated type from Berry, Precision, etc. There's not much price difference so might as well go with the FMJ.
Now I'm onto the powder.........as with bullets there's a lot of options......LOL

The Montana Golds are good stuff. I use them for my FMJ reloads. They're a quality product, finish and consistency are very good. When I first got mine, I grabbed 3 of them out of the box and set them on a piece of paper for a photo opp. They really are quite nice:



As for powders, I actually am still working out what I want for a plinking load. I got sidetracked on .38spl and .380 development, and never finished my 9mm development to completion. I've got a relatively hot load worked up using Blue Dot, but that powder doesn't meter well at all for me. It's also a pretty slow-burning powder and only really appropriate for high-pressure handgun loads, so I can't use it for any other calibers that I have. I've switched 9mm development over to Power Pistol, as it's a little faster-burning and more suited for 9mm, though still a high-pressure caliber powder. I've also got a workup using W231 and Berry's bullets in the pipeline, I just haven't gotten around to working in a handgun load test session, as the past several months have been devoted to developing .223 loads for my AR. All of that is about finished, so I will be getting back to the handgun workups here in the next few weeks. When that happens, I'll be posting the progress on those here, as well as on my blog.

[cohiba550]

Thanks I look forward to hearing/reading more about your 9mm development.........

[AggieMM]

For competition, I've found the heavier bullets provide two benefits, (1) less snappy recoil, (2) better knock down force on steel poppers/plates. I have settled on 147gr, but have many friends that prefer 124gr.

Ryan

[cohiba550]

Thanks Ryan, definetly like the idea of less snappy recoil!!!

[ghostrider]

147gr for me as well.

[stroo]

Both the Facklerites (penetration in gel counts for everything) and the Marshallites(anecdotal evidence of stopping power in real life counts for everything) like both 115 +p HP, particularly Corbon DPX, Federal BPLE, and others and 124+p HP. There were some bad real life experiances with 147 back in the 1980s and 90s although current good quality defensive 147 seems to be okay. I am kind of partial to the Marshallites but figure any ammo both sides like must be good. Accordingly I use either good 115 hp or 124 hp. I tend toward Corbon DPX in all my calibers so I tend toward that in 9mm too.

[NcongruNt]

FWIW, I had a Texas Ranger who is an expert in gunshot/blood spatter/crime scene analysis tell me that the load I use (Speer Gold Dot 124gr +P) is *the* way to go if you're going to carry 9mm. I was happy to tell him that's what I carried.

[Gyrogearhead]

Ya know, reading the above reminds me of something I've been wondering about for quite a while and talking about among my shooting friends. My favorite caliber is 45ACP and I've been reloading for several years now. I have used 7 gn AA#7, 6.2 gn AA#9 and 5gn Bullseye powders under a 200 gn LSWC and have noticed a distinctive difference in felt recoil from the three powders. The AA#9 gives the strongest recoil and the Bullseye gives the lightest. I load all three to chronograph between 890 and 910 fpm so the three powders are giving the bullet very close to the same muzzle energy.

I'm wondering if the faster burning Bullseye has nearly finshed expending its entire energy on pushing the bullet by the time the bullet has reached the muzzle while the other two are still burning after the bullet has exited the muzzle?

What brought this to mind is the comment from bystanders that with Bullseye there is not much of a muzzle flash while with the AA7 it is around three feet and with AA#9 it around 9ft ( eyeball estimates after sunset). If that's the case then the difference in felt recoil could be due to the "rocket engine" effect of the burning powder in a barrel the bullet has long departed.

If this is the case it would seem to me that it would just be "wasting fuel" to use a slow burning powder that continued to burn outside the barrel and after the bullet had exited the muzzle. Idealy I think one would choose a powder to suit barrel length such that the charge was completely burned up just as the bullet exited the muzzle.

Am I missing something here?

Gerry