[rawright54]

Hey gents it's me again.
I will be loading up a batch of 9mm 115gr FMJ-RN bullets that I got in a bulk buy awhile back from Midsouth Shooters Supply.

The Hornady 10th Edition manual gives the following:

115 gr FMJ RN W231 -
Minimum 4.1 gr
Maximum 4.7 gr

Other manuals list similar bullets, but not as close a match as this. Speer #14 lists a similar load for a TMJ RN at 4.4 - 4.9 gr, and I doubt there's a significant difference between TMJ and FMJ other than the level of lead exposure. Hodgdon 2023 lists a load for a lead RN, but that can make some significant difference in performance. I would start with the minimum and work up the load in .5 gr increments to find the load your gun(s) like best. With multiple guns, each will probably like something a little different, so you might want to optimize a few loads for different firearms and different applications (EDC, Target, etc). You'll notice that the 2 books I quoted give somewhat different ranges for essentially identical bullets. You'll see that a lot, especially as you grow your book collection; it will drive you nuts (nuttier?) over time, but there are reasons for it. One is that they use different barrel lengths for testing. The longer the barrel, generally, the higher the peak pressure calling for a lighter load maximum. A shorter barrel allows a little higher charge as a maximum. It's important to read the details, but you'll likely find that no gun prefers the maximum load, and your ladder testing will rarely reach the maximums listed.