[rainman]

Ok, all of you collectively have talked me into trying my hand at reloading. Starting off small....nothing fancy yet. So here's my first question. I'll be loading 9mm. What is the difference between a jacketed flat base and a jacketed hollow base? Will the same recipe work for both bullets if they are the same grain? Is there an advantage/disadvantage of one over the other?

 

[Smokewagon]

You should be fine with the same recipe for the same bullet weight. I never noticed any difference between the two bullet styles, but I bet someone will chime in with some opinions and or arguments. :thumb: :zzz:

 

[rainman]

Smokewagon, thanks for the input. it seems to reason that there must be a difference in performance or ballistics if a manufacturer offers both styles of bullets. Being new at reloading I don't want to make any bone-head mistakes.

 

[jboynjazz]

in theory, hollow base bullets flare out alittle in the barrel and give you a better gas seal. which means that you get more fps and better bite in the rifleing and better accurecy. thats how it was explained to me. if there is any fact to this i dunno, but it sounds logical to me.

 

[rainman]

in theory, hollow base bullets flare out alittle in the barrel and give you a better gas seal. which means that you get more fps and better bite in the rifleing and better accurecy. thats how it was explained to me. if there is any fact to this i dunno, but it sounds logical to me.

Thanks!! That would make sense and explain the the difference. I'll run with your answer!

 

[texas shooter]

Congrats and welcome to the reloaders of America. You won't regret it.

 

[Davidk0031]

Hollow base bullets have been around along time, I believe Minnie-balls used during the civil war are made that way so that undersized bullets can be loaded easier & faster in dirt barrels, but still expand to fill the rifling for decent accuracy. I cast some years ago using wheel weights, and they didn't work very well (50 cal.)

My concern is a modern handgun would be if the lead is soft enough to expand into the rifling, that it may also soft enough to lead the barrels. I would definelty use with low power loads only. Hard Cast lead bullets can be pushed pretty fast without leading problems.

 

[NativeTexan]

The same loads are relevant and the same safety rules apply, work up gradually to maximum loads listed.

I've never really noticed any accuracy improvement in hollow base 9mm round nose, but theoretically, in addition to the gas seal thing, the weight bias is forward on the hollow base giving it sort of a badminton shuttle cock thing, or rifled slug if you don't like saying shuttle COCK . The only hollow base other than minie ball that I've fired were factory. Factory Remington .38 special hollow base wadcutter are some super duper accurate rounds. My flat base cast wadcutters do pretty danged good, though. In 9mm and .45ACP round nose, I've never noticed a lot of difference.

 

[rainman]

The same loads are relevant and the same safety rules apply, work up gradually to maximum loads listed.

I've never really noticed any accuracy improvement in hollow base 9mm round nose, but theoretically, in addition to the gas seal thing, the weight bias is forward on the hollow base giving it sort of a badminton shuttle cock thing, or rifled slug if you don't like saying shuttle COCK . The only hollow base other than minie ball that I've fired were factory. Factory Remington .38 special hollow base wadcutter are some super duper accurate rounds. My flat base cast wadcutters do pretty danged good, though. In 9mm and .45ACP round nose, I've never noticed a lot of difference.

First time out of the box I'm trying to keep it as simple and easy as I can. I'm reloading Winchester cases with Winchester primers and Winchester 115gr FMJ hollow base. I'm trying to copy the factory bullet as much as possible. I'm loading it all with 4.7 grains of Bulleyes. Am I gonna be OK or should I tie a string to the trigger and stand waaaaaaaaaaaaay back?