Does anyone have a favorite hand load for the R51?  I had worked up a load using HS6 and cast lead bullets for my Smith and Wesson M&P.  When I used it in the R-51, there were indications of over pressure.  I am assuming that because of the delayed blow back system, pressure builds up on a different schedule than in a traditional recoil operated pistol.  Any thoughts?

My standard 9mm handload works very well in my R51.  It's a 115 grain Xtreme Heavy Plate Concave Base bullet over 4.3 grains of Bullseye at 1.150 OAL.

I haven't been reloading very long but found 4.7gn of HP38 slinging a 115gn coated round nose bullet works good in all my 9s and is very accurate. I've compared the primers and brass to Hornady 124gn +P through my R51 and didn't see any notable differences. I just picked up some Longshot for my 10mm loads and want to compare it to the HP38 in 9mm as well. It's supposed to give a higher velocity at a significantly lower pressure.

I use 4.5 grains of W231 and Xtreme plated bullets. Works well in my R51...

Quote from: Zenshot on December 08, 2018, 04:08:07 PM
My standard 9mm handload works very well in my R51.  It's a 115 grain Xtreme Heavy Plate Concave Base bullet over 4.3 grains of Bullseye at 1.150 OAL.

What over pressure signs are you seeing?  Did you plunk your ammo in it?

I gave up on handloading for the R51 because all the barrels I've had on the Gen 2 had very short Leade/Freebore; probably SAAMI minimum spec at a guess.   I'd get horrible problems with most HC bullets I tried and even some FMJ bullets.  One of them I tried I had to seat the bullet so deep to pass the plunk that it was effectively dangerous setback and didn't feed particularly well anyway.

I only found one 115 gr. HC that I could load for the R51, from SNS Casting, and they changed molds and don't make it any longer. 

I'll handload for my other 9mm guns but the R51 now gets a pure diet of 100% factory ammo.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

Quote from: lklawson on December 19, 2018, 01:15:14 PM

Quote from: Zenshot on December 08, 2018, 04:08:07 PM
My standard 9mm handload works very well in my R51.  It's a 115 grain Xtreme Heavy Plate Concave Base bullet over 4.3 grains of Bullseye at 1.150 OAL.

What over pressure signs are you seeing?  Did you plunk your ammo in it?

I gave up on handloading for the R51 because all the barrels I've had on the Gen 2 had very short Leade/Freebore; probably SAAMI minimum spec at a guess.   I'd get horrible problems with most HC bullets I tried and even some FMJ bullets.  One of them I tried I had to seat the bullet so deep to pass the plunk that it was effectively dangerous setback and didn't feed particularly well anyway.

I only found one 115 gr. HC that I could load for the R51, from SNS Casting, and they changed molds and don't make it any longer. 

I'll handload for my other 9mm guns but the R51 now gets a pure diet of 100% factory ammo.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

I haven't seen any signs of overpressure. 4.3 gr of Bullseye is a rather mild load actually.  I plunk tested the Xtreme 115 grain plated bullets and they plunk fine all the way to just above 1.160 OAL.

Quote from: Zenshot on December 20, 2018, 07:24:31 AM

Quote from: lklawson on December 19, 2018, 01:15:14 PM

Quote from: Zenshot on December 08, 2018, 04:08:07 PM
My standard 9mm handload works very well in my R51.  It's a 115 grain Xtreme Heavy Plate Concave Base bullet over 4.3 grains of Bullseye at 1.150 OAL.

What over pressure signs are you seeing?  Did you plunk your ammo in it?

I gave up on handloading for the R51 because all the barrels I've had on the Gen 2 had very short Leade/Freebore; probably SAAMI minimum spec at a guess.   I'd get horrible problems with most HC bullets I tried and even some FMJ bullets.  One of them I tried I had to seat the bullet so deep to pass the plunk that it was effectively dangerous setback and didn't feed particularly well anyway.

I only found one 115 gr. HC that I could load for the R51, from SNS Casting, and they changed molds and don't make it any longer. 

I'll handload for my other 9mm guns but the R51 now gets a pure diet of 100% factory ammo.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

I haven't seen any signs of overpressure. 4.3 gr of Bullseye is a rather mild load actually.  I plunk tested the Xtreme 115 grain plated bullets and they plunk fine all the way to just above 1.160 OAL.

Sorry, I clicked the wrong "quote" button.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

Quote from: Jamesntaylor on December 08, 2018, 01:30:22 PM
Does anyone have a favorite hand load for the R51?  I had worked up a load using HS6 and cast lead bullets for my Smith and Wesson M&P.  When I used it in the R-51, there were indications of over pressure.  I am assuming that because of the delayed blow back system, pressure builds up on a different schedule than in a traditional recoil operated pistol.  Any thoughts?

What over pressure signs are you seeing?  Did you plunk your ammo in it?

I gave up on handloading for the R51 because all the barrels I've had on the Gen 2 had very short Leade/Freebore; probably SAAMI minimum spec at a guess.   I'd get horrible problems with most HC bullets I tried and even some FMJ bullets.  One of them I tried I had to seat the bullet so deep to pass the plunk that it was effectively dangerous setback and didn't feed particularly well anyway.

I only found one 115 gr. HC that I could load for the R51, from SNS Casting, and they changed molds and don't make it any longer. 

I'll handload for my other 9mm guns but the R51 now gets a pure diet of 100% factory ammo.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

I notice that most of the folks on this thread shoot bullets other than straight lead.  I began by shooting a Lee 356-120 bullet which is between 115 and 120 grains.  The problem I found was that the lead bullet sized to .356 is a very efficient seal.  That combined with the R-51 operating system caused overpressure symptoms at even mid-level loads.  I can shoot store bought rounds all day but the lead bullets must be worked up from minimum.  The load I was shooting in my other guns which was 3.7 gr of Titegroup caused flattened primers that formed around the firing pin.  Upon disassembly of the pistol and removal of the firing pin I found several discs of metal.  They were from the primer separating and following the firing pin into the Pederson block.  Not good.  If you are loading cast bullets be ware and start from the minimum load recommended and work your way up.   

I've been loading cast bullets for many years so i was anxious to try my hand on loads for the R51.

The bullet is a Lee 356-125 gr. RN.  WW brass. WSP Primers. I have a lot of 700X so that was the first powder to try. Lee LLA handled the lube.

I started with 3.2 grains of 700X.  It would not operate the slide reliably.
Next was 3.6 grains. Reliable. mild recoil. Accurate. Best 10 shot group 2.87 inches.
Load 3 was 4.0 grains 700X. Sames as 2 but groups tightened up. Best 10 shot group 1.39 inches.

There were no signs of over pressure on any of the loads.

All shooting was done indoors at 7 yards on sandbag rest.  Laser sights.

I had three rounds that failed to feed all the way into the chamber. I got carried away with the tumble lube. Wiping the excess lube off solved the problem. 

My std 9mm load is a 145 or 147 gr RN coated lead bullet at about 925 fps. It runs fine in my std and threaded R51 barrels. I've also shot 160 gr RN thru it without problems. My COL is generally ~1.145.

I found a recipe on a container of Universal Clays powder that I had left over from loading Shotgun shells. It calls for 5 grains for a 115 grain bullet.
I have a couple thousand 115 JHP bullets that I picked up at an estate sale.
I use CCI primers and scrounged and tumbled range brass. These function fine and an added bonus is that they shoot to point of aim. Most ammo shoots low in my R51. The container listed 1145fps for velocity but didn't show the barrel length. I haven't had a chance to chronograph them from the R51 yet.

I took my chronograph to the range the other day and the 5.0 grains of Universal Clays, with the 115 JHP clocked 1058. I can only assume that the stats on the powder can were from a longer barrel.

I noticed that my gun does not like long bullets. I bought a box of Browning 115 FMJ and you could see that the bullet had an overall length that was visibly longer than the other ammo I had been shooting. Jams galore. Same thing with some old Winchester FMJ I had laying around.

That may be why my gun seems to prefer hollow points, which is fine with me.

Tonight I loaded 50 rounds of the same recipe but used some 115 FMJ that I had. The bullets have a conical cavity in the base and I seated them to the same overall length as the JHPs I had been loading. I figured that the cavity would provide some extra room for the powder if I seated the bullets too deep. I'm going to try them tomorrow and check the cases for pressure.

Quote from: lklawson on December 19, 2018, 01:15:14 PM
I gave up on handloading for the R51 because all the barrels I've had on the Gen 2 had very short Leade/Freebore; probably SAAMI minimum spec at a guess.   I'd get horrible problems with most HC bullets I tried and even some FMJ bullets.  One of them I tried I had to seat the bullet so deep to pass the plunk that it was effectively dangerous setback and didn't feed particularly well anyway.

I found some bullets that my R51 chamber likes.

One is 115 gr Hard Cast, Cone bullets.  The other, surprisingly, is 130gr Hard Cast HP bullets.

Both plunk fine in my barrel, over and over again.  The Cone Nose feeds well.  I haven't shot the HP's yet to see how well they feed but I expect them to run well.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk