Remington CTF Frangible bullets

[volshooter]

Midway had a sale on these componets. $20 for 500 9mm projectiles. I ordred some for that price. I understand that they are for indoor ranges and target shooting. Has anyone had any experience with these? If these work it sure would help provide allot of cheap rounds to blast.

 

[Mobuck]

No, but I bought 2K of the 90's and already have 1K of the 100's so I'll have some experience when I get done.
Right now, I'm whittling on the ongoing parts accumulation to complete the Dillon I bought on @#%y that was supposed to be "ready to use". Those darned things have untold little bits and pieces all of which are priced higher than a cat's back.
Don't believe those tales about buying a loader for a few bucks and sending it back for Dillon to rebuild for free. Didn't happen for me. They sent me a price list for more than I gave for the loader(which was a fair bit of change). I now have most of the higher cost parts but still have to fund a complete priming assembly.

 

[PO2Hammer]

I've used the similar Sinterfire frangible bullets in 9mm, they work well, but take a lot of powder before you get them going fast enough to cycle your slide.

 

[volshooter]

These cannot be crimped with by roll or taper crimp. The only thing that holds the bullet in place is the powder. I have tried around 50, most were broke by the slighest crimp. Those that made it through shot well, but I was not able to put any crimp that I could not twist the bullet by hand after factory crimp or taper crimp. I just cannot put faith on bullets not held snugly. I give up on these projectiles.

 

[PO2Hammer]

but I was not able to put any crimp that I could not twist the bullet by hand after factory crimp or taper crimp

If you can twist the bullet by hand after seating it you have expanded/flared the case mouth way too much. That's bad procedure regardless of bullet type.
If you use a minimum amount of flare and expansion of the case mouth, there is no need to apply a crimp to any auto pistol round. The tension between the bullet and case mouth will hold them just fine.

 

[volshooter]

Thanks Hammer. I did adjust the flare to the minium to get the projectile in. Perhaps the sizing die is not what it should be. I also want to note that after checking, neither die was a taper crimp but were factory crimp dies. I have put the frangable projectiles away until I get a RCBS taper crimp die and look at other resizing dies. I use mostly LEE an I think their tollerences might be .........

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yeah, not a big fan of Lee either, but I still use their 9mm sizing die, it seems to work OK.

Because 9mm is a tapered case, and the carbide in the sizing die is tapered as well, sizing die adjustment is more critical than it is with straight wall calibers like .40 s&w.

When you seat a bullet in 9mm, you should be able to see a bulge ring in the brass at the base of the bullet. That will be a good indicator that you have good bullet tension. If you size too far down (possible with some dies), the bulge at the bullet base will be extreme. If you don't see any bulge, chances are you need to adjust down a little.

The RCBS taper crimp die should be perfect. Set it so that it just bumps the case mouth back straight. The bullet tension and the bulge in the brass at the bullet's base will prevent the bullet from being set back into the case during feeding.