I made my first attempt at a 9mm load today. I am using Berry's 9mm plated 115 grain bullets in mixed cases.

I made two loads of Win 231. My first load was 3.7 grains and the second was 4.0 grains.

I am using a Glock 17. The 3.7 grain load failed to move the slide at all. The 4.0 grain load had about 1 in 10 cases
eject but all others failed to cycle at all, stove piped, or only half pulled the empty case from the chamber.

I am guessing that I just need more powder. I started on the low side due to the plated bullets. What have you guys
done with Win 231 and plated bullets?

I use 4gr of 231 with 147gr bullets.  I would bump it up to at least 4.5gr personally.

according to the winchester load data minimum charge with 115 lead bullets is 4.3gn max is 4.8  

so your loads are below minimum. i would start at 4.3 and work up.

Do you not have a manual to reference? I use 4.2 under my 124gr so I concur that you probably need a larger charge

I am using the Sierra data book. I can't remember if the data was for plated or lead. I don't have the book with me now. The starting data was 3.7.

I believe that 1.169 is the max OAL. I have loaded to 1.150.

I did measure some Blaser and Remington UMC and most of them were around 1.110.

Are my loads too long?

I'm loading Berry's 115gr with 4.6gr of  W231 with a AOL of 1.135.

I am running this round, but with 4.6gr of hp-38.  I need to get some w231 to see how similar it is to jp-38.

HP-38 and W-231 are the same powder packaged by different folks,exactly the same

hello;

had the same problems with a batch of 9mm i reloaded.

problem turned out to be the outside dia. of a loaded case.  i put a small bell on my 9mm case before seating a bullet.  after the seating step the case receives a  slight crip on the case.  problems was i was not removing the bell.  

when i set my seating dies i make sure the outside dia. of case is .380".   just a suggestion.

rp

That is what I have heard.  I just want to load a few and verify before I buy an 8lb jug and start mass production.

4.5gr of Win 231 behind a Precision Delta 115gr FMJ cycles my G17 flawlessly (2,600+ fired).

Edit: I use normal small pistol primers (Magtech or CCI, I have seen no difference in velocity or accuracy between the two with this load).

Not close to my books right now but I'll share some experience with you. Sierra's 9mm bullets are long. There are two numbers you need to concern yourself with. One is overall length. Oal or Coal as its called is important to feed. Two and more importantly is seating depth. Seating depth has everything to do with pressure.

When loading 9mm for my Glocks, Sierra's oal on two bullets. 115 and 124 grain I believe are the bullets. (Wizzo feel free to fact check my numbers) It's necessary to lower oal from Sierra's suggested.  Sierra's oal is so long it won't chamber in factory Glock barrels.

Stand same weight Sierra bullet next to bullet you're using, you'll see height difference. Imagine seating depth difference ?

I will reference Sierra data when working a new load just like working the other 10 plus sources I have available in published text, powder company websites and the power of Google. Sierra's data is propriety to Sierra bullets.

From here I could expand into theory and fill a page. In the end I will have said your looking for plated data in wrong manual. Lyman 49 is good, so is Lee 2nd Edition, though harder to use because Lee doesn't list exact bullet used for suggested oal. Lyman does. I have and use both.

Hodgdons website is one resource most rely on when using 231. 231 is a good powder and if you never buy anything but 231 for 9mm you'd be fine. My go to 9mm powders are VihtaVouri 3N37 and 3N38. My load data comes directly from VihtaVouri manual and website. I'll reference Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, Barnes, Lee, Lyman, LaPua an Speer manuals. I'll check half a dozen web sources. When the boiling is all done,  all that's happened is confirmed VihtaVouri data and possibly found the sweet spot. VihtaVouri manual btw has Ranier bullet oal data which crosses to Barry because both are almost identical product.

We hear it said often Sierra data is too conservative.. Not been my experience when seating to same depth as Sierra bullets. Note, I said depth, not height. Oal isn't same as seating depth. I mentioned before and repeating again. Lower seating depth is why Sierra lists lower charge weights.

I load a lot of Sierra, especially in 9mm and soon .38 super. Sierra makes an excellent match bullet. Just remember.

Brand X bullet, Brand X manual.

Generic lead, plated, and jacketed requires you match seating depth to like bullet. Generic manuals such as Lee and Lyman are best suited.

Bottom line, you need more data. No such thing as having too much data.

One last note, mimicking factory oal is smart. You have a known feedable oal. Just be mindful of seating depth, regardless bullet your using. Seating depth is seating depth is seating depth all day and all night long. Deeper the bullet, higher the pressure.

Worried about seating an unknown bullet too deep without a cartridge to mimick ? Missouri Bullet Company recommends seating a bullet no deeper than 1/32nd of an inch from case mouth to bottom of ogive. Ogive is the point bullet starts to curve coming off straight bearing surface.

Things to check or try
  Check your primers make sure they were fully seated in the case (If it isn't fully seated you might not be getting significant ignition of the powder)
  Don't start below minimum powder charge
  Don't go over max powder charge
  Make sure you wipe down your glock with a good cleaning solution you don't want any residue that could gum up by the slide
  Try different brand of primer

Also this might be a dumb question but I have to ask did you resize your ammo before you reloaded it or did you just throw some powder in and load a bullet?  If you did your case might have expanded just a little too much and your not getting reliable ejection or feeding.  Even if you start with never loaded cases you still need to resize them.

When starting with a new load you want to make sure there isn't going to be any surprises or  inconsistencies make sure you start with a well oiled clean pistol.

I've used 4.4 to 4.6 with Rainier plated 115's. Can't recall all the stats but my last batch was 4.4 gr 231 under a Rainier 115 JHP. Win primer. Avg FPS is at 1100. This is in a stock Glock 17. Very accurate load but I can't recall COAL right now. Up yur charge a bit.

I treat Berry's Plated bullets just as I do a FMJ.
never had a problem,

I did properly re-size the cases before loading so its probably just the low powder charge.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will be grabbing a Lyman 49 and work up from the 4.0 grain load I last used.

Now I just need some more time off work

I've got a lot of reloading manuals.  

But I go here as often as not when working up a load, or checking data.  

In a 115 gr. 9mm, Hodgdon shows two loads for Win 231.  They list 4.3 to 4.8 for a LRN, and 4.7 to 5.1 for a Gold Dot (which, BTW is also a plated bullet).

I was able to make it back out to the range yesterday and tried two more loads.

I used 4.3gr and 4.6 gr of WIN 231. Both loads cycled well and were relatively accurate. The 4.6gr ejected the brass with more force and more to my liking (the 4.3gr just kind of popped up and back onto the gun or  my arms). I didn't do any real accuracy tests this trip but 4.6gr looks good so far.

Thanks for all the input.

I'm nearly identical except 4.6 gr of W231.

No problems in a S&W 5906, P-38, Beretta PX-4, or G17