Reloading .380

[Guest Lester Weevils]

380 ammo being in short supply. Made a test-run of .380 reloads. Dillon SDB press. XTP JHP 90 gr bullets.

Been reloading 9mm and .357 about a decade and that ammo works fine. This was a first try at .380.

The 380 gun is a little NAA .380. I only shoot a few rounds at the range because the pistol isn't that much fun to shoot. Don't wanna wear it out. Just make sure it still goes bang and will hit the broad side of a barn.

The .380 reloads shot OK, but the NAA seems none too gentle on feeding brass. Feeds reliably, but suspect the little gun treats ammo pretty rough during feeding.

The problem is that the bullets are not tight enough in the shell case. Press hard on the bullet and it will sink into the case. Sometimes when feeding, the NAA drives the bullet down into the case. Luckily these are light target loads and overpressure probably isn't a big concern. But the bullets need to be tighter in the case.

The 90 gr XTP bullet is such a tiny little thing. For proper OAL, less than 0.15" of the bullet goes in the case which doesn't provide a big friction bearing surface. And .380 brass is pretty thin.

For a second test batch, about all I can think is reduce the expansion belling to nearly nothing, and increase the crimp. But since the round head-spaces, there is a limit to the amount of acceptable crimp (or so I read).

Any other tricks worth trying, to get the bullet in there as tight as possible?

Thanks!

[Guest Catdaddy]

Sounds like you know the answer. I expand just enough to prevent shearing of the bullet sides, then factory crimp. I believe you will find that fixes your problem.

Oh, BTW- a light inside chamfer allows easier seating with less belling. I find my pistol rounds tend to get hammered on the mouth and get raised ridges inside and out.

Good luck, and good shooting!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks Catdaddy. Hadn't thought about chamfering pistol brass, but sounds like a good idea.

Lots of people just bulk-reload pistol brass without doing anything except tumbling, but I've lately had much more consistent primer seating, to go to the trouble of first de-priming and then uniforming the primer pockets before cranking them thru the progressive press.

So chamfering could be done the same time I'm uniforming the primer pockets. Will try that out.

[leroy]

...Thanks Catdaddy. Hadn't thought about chamfering pistol brass, but sounds like a good idea.

Lots of people just bulk-reload pistol brass without doing anything except tumbling, but I've lately had much more consistent primer seating, to go to the trouble of first de-priming and then uniforming the primer pockets before cranking them thru the progressive press.

So chamfering could be done the same time I'm uniforming the primer pockets. Will try that out.....

Great advice on chamfering the inside of the case mouth and cleaning up the primer pockets.

Keep up the good work,

Kind regards

Leroy

[Guest Catdaddy]

Now it's my turn to say thanks for the advice.

When I prime brass with the Lee hand primer, I notice anything from very light to heavy pressure required to seat primers. Perhaps I should make uniforming the primer pocket part of my regimen, too.

At first I was all about getting some volume loaded and put away. Now I can take more time and perhaps this is a step worth adding.

Thanks!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Hi Catdaddy

I'm doofus on anything mechanical. But even a klutz, assuming he works slowly and carefully, can load more accurate than factory ammo.

Searching Primer Pocket Uniforming on the web, seems mostly the rifle guys bother with it. The fellers who reload lots of pistol rounds, seem to have consensus that they just crank lots of brass thru a progressive press without wasting time on any kind of case prep. They say the stuff goes bang regardless if you do case prep.

I was having a primer seating problems. Occasionally with 9mm and more frequently with .357. A crushed primer going off would ruin ruin yer day, but high primers are not acceptable either.

I can feel the primer seating on the Square Deal B press. As you observed-- Sometimes the primer seats easy. Sometimes it resists then suddenly sets with a 'bump'. Occasionally I don't feel anything, which sometimes means a high primer that refuses to go in all the way, and sometimes means the primer slipped in so easy I didn't feel it at all. Been reloading with a full face shield and ear muffs, so if a primer goes and sets off a whole stack of primers, it shouldn't be too bad for the eyes and ears anyway.

That may be some slop in the press alignment, but most of those problems went away after I started uniforming the pockets. So perhaps more likely it is slop in brass primer pocket dimensions.

I got this little part from Midway--

RCBS Trim Mate Case Prep Center Primer Pocket Uniformer Small - MidwayUSA

Using it with a screwdriver handle is real slow and puts blisters on the fingers.

I ran it awhile in a MiniLathe-- put the uniformer in the lathe chuck, and made a little anvil attachment to hold the brass from the toolholder. Crank each shell down onto the uniformer. That gave good solid alignment, but was pretty slow cranking on the handwheel.

Wearing a glove to avoid blisters on fingers, and chucking the little bit on a drill press or hand drill seemed quickest, just try to hold the brass straight and not wallow out the primer pocket at an angle.

If the pocket is about right, no problem. In that case all the uniformer does is clean out some grit from the hole.

If the pocket is way out of spec and the tool bites into a good bit of brass, the brass wants to spin in yer fingers and cause blisters.

Am tempted to get this tool, which looks like it would be as good as any for typical brass prep, and defnitely looks useful if I ever try reloading rifle ammo.

RCBS Trim Mate Case Prep Center 110 Volt - MidwayUSA

Dunno if it is as good as it sounds. That is a pretty low price for a solid machine tool, assuming it works as advertised.

Edited May 16, 2010 by Lester Weevils

[Westwindmike]

Have you thought about going to cast bullets for range work? Lee makes a .356-102gr mold that turns out nice round nose boolits. I borrowed one a couple of years ago and cast some up. They shot good in my Bersa.

I use the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die for all my .380's and have never had any setback problems.

Good luck with the .380's.

[I_Like_Pie]

I think lee also makes a factory crimp die for it also....they are actually pretty good and will add a bit more neck tension.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks for the good ideas, Mike.

There are many good things to say about my Dillon Square Deal B press for someone who only loads pistol, but one drawback is that it only uses special-sized dies, and AFAIK only Dillon sells those dies. Other Dillon presses don't have that limitation.

Will play with the crimp setting. On the first run I just cranked it down enough to put a shiny line on the top edge of the brass, reluctant to possibly crimp too much and mess up the head-spacing of the cartridge. Apparently it needs more than that anyway <g>.

[edit] The Dillon site calls the Square Deal B .380 crimp die a "taper crimp die". Dunno how that differs from a factory crimp die, because dunno what a factory crimp is supposed to look like.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Lester Weevils

[I_Like_Pie]

It does nothing extra process wise - but has another carbide sizing die on the crimp die. That way when you crimp hard the carbide die eliminates any case ballooning on the upstroke.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

It does nothing extra process wise - but has another carbide sizing die on the crimp die. That way when you crimp hard the carbide die eliminates any case ballooning on the upstroke.

Thanks for the clear explanation. Sounds like a great idea.