{"id":34136,"date":"2026-08-27T11:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=34136"},"modified":"2026-08-28T06:23:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:23:52","slug":"more-9mm-follies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/08\/27\/more-9mm-follies\/","title":{"rendered":"More 9mm Follies"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

I reloaded one box of 9mm ammo yesterday in the garage and it was HOT. I had to stop because I was soaked and I was getting a little woozy out there.\u00a0 The heat this summer has been worse than usual, I think.<\/p>\n

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Bullets, powder, an ammo container, and reloaded ammo. It was hot out there, but I love reloading.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The load was 4.2 grains of Bullseye from an old bottle I got from a friend, the 125- grain Raven Rocks full metal jacket truncated roundnose bullet (seated to an overall length of 1.080 inches), and no-name factory second primers. I never used factory second primers before, but they were cheap and I can\u2019t pass up a deal. The Raven Rocks bullets were cheap, too, but in measuring a few, the diameters varied from 3.54 inches to 3.55 inches (which is not very good).\u00a0 File that under “you get what you pay for.”\u00a0 Sometimes.\u00a0\u00a0I loaded with mixed brass, mostly because I had some readily available and I didn’t want to go to the bother of sorting headstamps.\u00a0 I didn’t load this ammo to nail a woodchuck at 500 yards or make “major” in the action pistol world (running around with a loaded handgun and shooting it as fast as you can makes that game a nonstarter for me).\u00a0 It’s 9mm ammo and I’m a guy who likes to go the range.\u00a0 If it feeds, chambers, and goes bang, I’m a happy camper.<\/p>\n

This morning, I took the box of 9mm ammo and two 9mm pistols to my indoor range. The handguns were the S&W Shield and the SIG P226 (they are two pistols I shoot a lot).\u00a0 They are the two you see in the photo at the top of this blog.\u00a0 I’ve written about them before.\u00a0 They are both great guns.<\/p>\n

At the range, I ran the targets out to 10 yards. I wasn\u2019t really going for accuracy; I mostly wanted to get the chrono data for this load.<\/p>\n

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Smith and Wesson Shield, reloaded ammo, and the Garmin chronograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Shield target, fired at 30 feet. I’ve done better. I’ve done worse. Your mileage may vary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The SIG P226 with the Scorpion treatment. It’s a nice look. I think this is one of the finest handguns I’ve ever owned.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I shot 25 rounds in each pistol, and here\u2019s the chrono data.<\/p>\n

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Note the relatively low extreme spreads and the tight standard deviations. Bullseye showed me once again that it is a great handgun powder.<\/p>\n

As you can see from the above targets, the SIG does a little better for both accuracy and velocity, mostly because of its longer barrel and longer sight radius.<\/p>\n

I had one misfire in the SIG, but that was probably due to a primer that wasn\u2019t fully seated.\u00a0 Was that a function of the primers being factory seconds, was it the result of my Lee Turret Press not fully seating the primer, or was it just me?\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 When I cocked the pistol and released the hammer a second time, it fired.\u00a0 That’s a classic symptom of a primer not being fully seated.\u00a0 The first firing pin strike seats the primer all the way into the case, and the second lights it.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like this load a lot. I haven\u2019t really done a lot of work with Bullseye in 9mm before (mostly it\u2019s been Unique, Accurate Arms No. 5, and Red Dot in the past). 4.2 grains of Bullseye was a moderate recoil and velocity load and I think it is accurate enough. At around 1000 fps average velocity in both pistols, it\u2019s good enough for me. Like I said, I wasn\u2019t going for accuracy, but I think if I shot from a rest this load would do better in both pistols.<\/p>\n

One final note:\u00a0 Bullseye propellant has been hard to get. My local reloading components store and most of the online outlets don\u2019t show it in stock. Natchez does appear to have 8-lb bottles in stock, priced at about $355 (a sum that would have been unheard of in earlier days).\u00a0 What’s nice about Bullseye is most loads only need a little bit of the stuff.\u00a0 I have enough to last for a while.<\/p>\n

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