Jamie Jackson

I would appreciate it if members here would keep an eye open for some S&W Shield EZ .380 magazines during the Black Friday sales. My wife needs "mor mags"! I see MidwayUSA starts their sale Monday the 25th. Her mags were $26.99 each. I'd like to pick some up closer to $20.00 - $21.00 /each. TIA

I've experienced some pretty serious leading from Privi in my .38's and .32's. They are decent rounds, but a PIA to clean up afterwards. For standard velocity "store bought" I prefer Fiocchi ammo. They make incredibly accurate ammo in .32 S&W (wadcutters) and standard velocity .38 spl (wadcutters). But I handload the overwhelming majority of my practice ammo. While expensive, I carry Speer Gold Dot .38 spl "Short Barrel" +P loads in my J Frame and LCR. I do have some of the old Winchester "FBI" loads on the speed strips in my pocket though.

Ammo prices are probably the lowest I've seen in a number of years, especially when you consider inflation / dollar devaluation. And availability is quite remarkable. Black Friday sales are just a few days away as well. It'd be a great time for folks to stock up on what they think they might need for the coming year, maybe coming years actually. We live in what the Chinese proverb refers to as "interesting times"...

I have the same concerns as chances R related to failing the plunk test and perhaps some step in your reloading, sizing, or crimping process. Unique is one of my favorite powders and I've used it for over 30 years. I'm fortunate in that it meters great in my Dillon 550 and my ancient Lyman powder measure. I don't think the charge weight is the problem. As I've posted earlier, 3.5 grs of Unique cycled our Glocks. All of our Glocks do have factory recoil springs btw. Back to your process @swiley383. Are you full length resizing? (fully running the brass all the way into the sizing die?) I ask because I have been guilty of not fully resizing some .38 brass before (the die had loosened and backed out a bit...) and the rounds wouldn't fully chamber. It was "fixable" but a PIA. Thankfully it was only 40 rounds or so before I caught it. Have you adjusted your seating die to give a bit of a taper crimp? or are you using a factory taper crimp die? Lee makes a factory taper crimp die that may prove helpful. https://leeprecision.com/carbide-factory-crimp-die-9mm.html and last. but not least, is there any measurable bulging noted after you seat your bullets? It may be helpful if you could post a pic or two of your loaded rounds. J.

Just ordered the 1st item on my list. We bulk purchase a good bit of our foods, meats in particular, and use a Food Saver Game Saver vacuum sealer. We also use it for veggies from our garden that we don't usually can. The price of the sealing bags is what can hit you hard. But each year around this time Food Saver has a 50% off sale with free shipping. ( food saver dot com). Normal price is $28.99 for a 3 roll pack of the 11" x 16' bags. You have to order 6 boxes to get the discount... that's right at the number we used last year. I just ordered the 6 boxes for $95.00. There are several places having this sale if you shop around.

What gun are we talking about swiley383? And Welcome to the world of handloading! I/we have cast and powder coated 9mm in a 125 gr mold that drops at 130 grs with our lead. We size them at .357. I see that the Gallant bullets are sized at .356 and they use Hi-Tek coating. That coating seems to work well for folks from what I read, but I've never tried them. Our powder coating may be a bit thicker than Hi-Tek, I don't know... but we tried our rounds through 5 different 9mm Glocks (26-19 (x2) -17-34), all barrels slugged at .356. All factory barrels. All loaded using a "U" die. We found we needed to load OAL to 1.095 in a couple of the Glocks, but an OAL of 1.025" works well in my Glocks. These rounds work well in my S&W 9mm Shield as well. I think @chances R hit the nail on the head. Glocks have very generous chambers, other 9mm makes may be a bit tighter. Below is some data from 2016. I prefer 4.0 grs of Unique personally, but the 3.5 grs functioned well in all of the Glocks we tried them in. No issues with cycling. 130 gr PC RN (.357 sizing) Unique 3.5 gr WSSP OAL 1.025” FPS: 1020 1018 1059 1066 Avg Vel: 1042 PF: 135

Welcome to Knoxville and TGO Bp, and a lot more Freedom than you are accustomed to. For 100+ yd, trap, skeet and most shooting discipline competitions we have a couple of places. ORSA or Oak Ridge Sportsman's Association (I'm a member) and Windrock Shooting Range. Indoor Range in West Knoxville is Shoot Point Blank (I shoot there weekly), excellent facility and top notch staff. ORSA: http://www.orsaonline.org/membership.asp Windrock (they are active on FB): http://www.windrockshootingrange.com/ https://www.facebook.com/windrockshootingrange/ https://shootpointblank.com/tennessee/ Point Blank is located at: 620 Corporate Point Way, Knoxville, Tennessee 37932

Great company @BCR#1. I've purchased pulled bullets from them in the past that were top notch. Thanks for posting.

I am a devout techno-tard my Brother. But I purchased an ACER laptop several years back to replace the dinosaur of a desk top I had. The ACER sets on my desk and since I'll injure myself trying to use the touch-pad mouse thing, I have a wireless mouse attached. This setup serves my limited skills and needs quite well. I've never removed it from my desk. That'd just simply feel weird to me... But then I still marvel at fire and think electricity is some kind of hoo-do magic.. :0

I've ordered from them (and SG Ammo) several times. I don't order enough to justify , at least in my mind, the membership fee. (I primarily handload). But they run sales throughout the year with some darn decent pricing. Well packaged and fast shipment as well. With Black Friday/ Cyber Monday a few weeks away, I suspect we'll be seeing quite a few good sales going on.

I certainly couldn't find one. But I did read the page you linked to. That's pretty innovative. And reasonably priced as well. Tempting

That's pretty darn intriguing. I searched but couldn't locate a vid of this, but I'm sure one will pop up sooner or later. Thanks for posting.

I'm tagging in early because I already have a list made out! Thanks @xsubsailor!

I purchased a Ryobi at Home Depot a couple of years ago. It was on sale a bit below $200.00 iirc. We're very pleased with it for general household use. (Deck washing, siding, garage door, sidewalk, autos, etc) https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-2-000-PSI-1-2-GPM-Electric-Pressure-Washer-RY141900/205566055

My wife can't grip and reach the trigger on my 686, and her hand strength doesn't allow her to steadily work the trigger on a snub revolver. This is why my wife picked out and choose a S&W EZ .380. It works for her. Hopefully this lady can find a handgun that fits her and she can safely manipulate. I applaud you for helping her!

LOL. My Brother, Randy has had a negative impact on you! But... When yer right, yer right!

Those are pretty cool, and of course, at my age I can remember mail order guns in the Sears and Roebuck catalog. I purchased my first gun in 1965 (I was 11 years old), an H&R 16 g single shot (still have it) from Mr.Curry's Western Auto. He gave a quick phone call to my mother for her OK, and as I had a 30 hour/week job, he let me put $5,00 down and put the gun on layaway. It took me several weeks to pay it off at $5.00/week, but I picked it up myself and he gave be a box of birdshot when I gave him his final payment. I am blessed to have known times like that! If you take a $1.00 amount and plug it into an inflation cost calculator you'll find that $1.00 is equivalent to $8.05 in 2019 values. Based on that calculation we truly are in a golden time of affordable and available ammo and guns. And like @Ronald_55 hints, this may not even be a future possibility...

That'd be a great little revolver. The weight would certainly handle the magnum loads easily. But I have developed a great fondness for LCR's. I shoot my .22 LCR and .38 LCR weekly as my bride (of 31 years) has embraced shooting (finally ;)) Both Rugers are tempting though.

LOL, my J frame (640 S&W) and LCR's are range guns. I just picked up the LCR here on TGO this year and already have between 800-1000 rounds through it. The overwhelming majority have been bullets our "group" cast and powder coated. No leading at all. I need to pick up another LCR as I enjoy shooting this one so much...but I've discovered the joys of shooting .32 S&W longs recently as well, so I'm considering a .327 LCR. I would still love to have some Nyclad just to try them out.

I've read this as well and see a lot of professionals recommending FMJ ball ammo in .380 as expansion is relatively unlikely and penetration is so critical. I don't know if it's still available or even manufactured, but Federal once produced their NyClad round for .38 spl. As I recall it was pretty much "dead lead" or a very soft coated lead bullet that had a good potential for deformation, especially when striking intermediate structures like bone. And there's the "rub" with gelatin tests. Human being are made up of many different tissues of varying densities, degrees of flexibility, and the ability to take a great deal of trauma and still function. Penetration is needed along with accurate delivery to strike to quite small critical areas. Back in the early 2000's Fizzy Fletcher, in collaboration with Mr. Cirillo, manufactured a round they sold as Safe Stop for .38 spl snubby revolvers. This was a plated 148 gr wadcutter with a very sharp ogive. My notes from that time show the Safestop rounds I chronoed at an average of 721 fps, the SD was very low and the rounds incredibly accurate out of my 640 S&W. They had a "snappy" recoil, but very manageable. Alas Fuzzy got elected to some political office and the company went out of business. FWIW I also see I chronoed some 129 gr Hydrashoks and they were all over the place velocity wise, 700-780 fps. But they fed easily from a speedloader or speedstrip. I keep either Winchester 158 gr LSWC HP or 135 gr GD on my speedstrips these days.

I carry Federal Gold Medal Match 148 gr wadcutters in my J-frame size .38’s (LCR currently). These are mild recoiling (so a person may actually practice with them), penetrate adequately, are very reliable, and accurate. Trusted sources such as Dr. Gary K. Roberts, Claude Werner, and the late Jim Cirillo have recommended this type of round in the .38 snub revolvers, especially the light weight versions. Expansion out of a snub would come at a price, that’d be muzzle blast and recoil, which would have the effect of greater shot to shot times. And that expansion would be “iffy” at best. Some rounds, such as the Gold Dot design can perform adequately (most of the time), but older designs such as Hydra Shok and Golden Saber perform much better in other calibers and longer barrels. Even the excellent HST design struggles out of snub nose revolvers from what I read. The sharp ogive of a wadcutter has the potential to cut tissue and vessels vs “pushing” tissue and vessels aside as an unexpanded HP or a FMJ/LRN are prone to do. Bullets do strange things in human beings. I’ve seen people shot with lots of different rounds and I am a firm believer that placement trumps design. I’d prefer to stop the attacker with as few well placed rounds as possible. Wadcutters should help you get those rounds accurately and quickly on target imho. There’s some excellent snubbie revolver info on the Tactical Professor (Claude Werner) link below. https://www.targetsportsusa.com/federal-gold-medal-38-special-ammo-148-grain-match-wadcutter-gm38a-p-1187.aspx https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Bullets-Gunfights-Modern-Day-Gunfighter/dp/0873648773 https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/category/revolvers/

Excellent advice in this thread! I have a Lee single stage I'm still running after 33 years. It just won't wear out LOL I load all of my .38 and 5.56 on it and I'm currently loading .380 for my missus. I agree with all of the positive points of learning on a single stage, it can and will help you with the so necessary attention to detail that's needed. I learned from a Hornady Manual (1985 edition) and trial and error. But there are so many excellent resources available these days, especially on Youtube. Straight walled cases like the .38 spl are great rounds to start with. I agree on picking up several different manuals and read and refer to them. Handloading is very rewarding and is a great hobby in and of itself. Consider purchasing a chronograph. You don't need an expensive one, but I find one is a necessity for accurate safe load development. I'll be chronographing several loads my next day off. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process. Mine is a Competition Electronic Pro Chrono and it's given me excellent service for several years now. https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/1015086064?pid=852429&utm_medium=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Shooting+-+Chronographs%2C+Wind+Meters+%26+Timers&utm_content=852429&cm_mmc=pf_ci_google-_-Shooting+-+Chronographs%2C+Wind+Meters+%26+Timers-_-Competition+Electronics-_-852429&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0tL599KO5QIVjonICh1uRwOPEAQYASABEgK0V_D_BwE Excuse the mess in my handloading area. While I absolutely love my Dillon that little Lee is not neglected.

Welcome aboard Gary. Old "dry-land" Sailor here....long ago. Old Gunsite Grad as well, also long ago LOL (250 & 260). Good on you for attending. It was my first professional training and took me down a path I am fortunate to have traveled. Looking forward to your AAR on your class, if you'd be kind enough to share with us.

Yep, mines a "wiggler" too. But Darn! What an excellent size for function little 9mm! I find mine incredibly reliable and imminently shootable. I have better than 5000 handloads through it thus far and have never had a problem with it. And it loves 147 gr HST's.