I used 9s the other day with a new floor corker. I tired it with an empty
bottle at first and no problem.

However when actually bottling the wine the corks were only going halfway in
on 15 of 30 bottle of Zin that I had. I couldn't figure out why other than
maybe the inch of air that was left was causing pressure that wasn't present
in the empty bottle.

Like you I finished them off with a rubber mallet and thinking about down
sizing to a #8 next time.

Droopy wrote:


I also use 9s with a hand corker. I use a rubber mallet to finish
driving them in.

Never had a broken bottle (it does not take much force to finish the
corks off), and I am not concerned that I would break one.