Loading 38 cal..357 diameter bullet in 9mm?

[jeff43]

Anybody ever use 38 cal. Bullets to load their 9mm cases?

[ArmyBrat61]

or use 9mm bullets in their .38 cases? The dimentions are scary close....

[Lowpower]

Nope but years ago I had a Ruger Blackhawk that came with two different cylinders. One was .38/.357 and the other was 9mm. 

The barrel didn't seem to care but the cylinders sure did. Might be the same with bullets so I'd write S&W or Ruger and ask them directly.

 

Lp

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have had 9mm bullets get stuck in a 357 bore. My guess is the seal wasn't good enough then the gases snuck past the bullet and the pressures dropped before the bullet made it out the bore. Shoot the correct bullet for the caliber. Best case scenario is accuracy sucks, worst case you stick a bullet and blow a gun up. There is not win/win only a loose/loose.

 

Shooting 357 sized bullets in a 9mm is recommended if you are shooting cast lead bullets. But if you are shooting jacketed pressures can get way out of hand. It might work but I have never ahd the balls to try.

[Rickey]

 I cast several .38 bullets every winter and I took a 9mm sizing die and run a few hundred of my .38's through it but I've never shot any through a 9mm that wasn't sized first.

[jeff43]

I have some 38 cal. .357 diameter 125 grain JSP. I didn't know how much difference .002 would make in the pressure.They would be for a Glock 19 9mm.
Thanks Jeff

[Dolomite_supafly]

It makes a difference with fast pistol powders. Then add a Glock with an unsupported chamber and you are asking for some problems.

 

I push the odds pretty regularly with my wildcating and just testing. I would not try it with jacketed bullets.

 

Another issue is those .002" might not let the case mouth open enough to release the bullet. The pressure will go the path of least resistence, out the primer hole or at the case head. And even if it does release the bullet it will increase the pressures substantially then the bullet encounters more pressures from the oversized bullet.

 

What is a safe powder charge? How low is safe enough? No way to know because there is absolutely no load data for shooting .357" bullets in a .355" bore.

 

Seriously, 9mm bullets are CHEAP. Sell the 357 bullets and buy the correct bullets.

 

You are flirting with disaster.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Dolomite_supafly

[Dolomite_supafly]

Cast bullets are a totally different animal than jacketed. A cast bulet needs to be .001"-.002" to properly seal to the bore. Cast lead bullets deform easily and keep pressures low but jacketed bullets do not give as easily so pressures are going to be much higher with a jacketed bullet.

[jeff43]

Guess I'll scratch that idea then.Thanks for the info.
Thanks Jeff

[gregintenn]

Commercial bullet manufacturers have elaborate ballistic labratories staffed with high quality engineers. They do not produce certain size bullets for certain calibers just by chance or guess.

[Lowpower]

On another note a revolver will let you blow the gun up if you stick one in the barrel (like a squib) since if you don't notice nothing much happening in the heat

of a shoot you can easily followup with a blown barrel or worse.

 

On the other hand if I forget to put powder in my .45 ACP will normally stick the bullet in the barrel but does not have enough power to cycle a new round into

the chamber.  While you mileage may vary I'd suggest you stick with the right bullet for the right gun and stop when anything appears different.

 

Hope this helps.

Lp 

[Dolomite_supafly]

It is possible to get the right combination for a gun to eject a spent casing and have a bullet in the bore. I have done it with blowback guns. There is a member here who ruined his 300BO barrel when it ejected an empty casing with a squib round then followed it up with a full power round.

 

Reloading is safe and worth while as long as you stay inside the box of published data. And when you go outside of that box it requires a lot of experience. Not to toot my own horn but I have done a lot of stuff that was well outside that box. Some of it was safe and some of it I probably had some luck to keep me from getting hurt. And for me I would never try this in order to save a few bucks.

 

Is it possible to safely shoot .357 bullets out of a 9mm Glock? Probably, but the problem is you won't know where safe is until AFTER that first round and unfortunately that first round might ruin the gun, ruin your hand or ruin your eyesight. And none of those is worth saving a few bucks. Even if the kaboom didn't injure you and Glock decided to fix the gun for free you would still be out more in gas and time to ship it than the money you saved.

[jaysouth]

^{No one has yet mentioned that they knew the diameter of their barrels, 9mm or .38.  Until you slug the barrel and accurately measure the slug,  futher discussion is a waste of bandwidth.}

 

^{How many of you have ever applied a micrometer to bullets that you bought?  It sounds like we have some folks who do not know the diameter of either their bullets or bores and opining about them.}

[Westwindmike]

My 9mm Glocks like the .358 diameter boolits that I cast. I use a Lee 356-124 RN and it works good in my Glocks. Also shoots acceptable in my 38 Spl.

[Jonnin]

I shoot cheap cast 380s in 9mm & 38sp both.  I fear to take them magnum (do not want to shred them in the barrel or get excessive lead) but they work fine for me *after some time invested working up the loads*.   I have never tried it the other way (38s  in the 9s). 

[Dolomite_supafly]

Cast bullets are different than jacketed. I shoot .357"-.358" cast bullets in .355" bores. Would I shoot .357" jacketed bullets in a .355" bore, not a chance.

[ttocswob]

My 9mm Glocks like the .358 diameter boolits that I cast. I use a Lee 356-124 RN and it works good in my Glocks. Also shoots acceptable in my 38 Spl.

 

Have this mold also, used for both 9mm and .38's. Out of several hundred rounds, I've had 2-3 .38's lodge in the barrel, with light bullseye loads. I thought it was because of the small charge falling forward in the case, away from the primer - or possibly sticking to excess bullet lube on the base of the boolit. May rethink this...

[JWC]

Why wouldn't it shoot a.358 sized boolit regardless of what mold it came from (provided it was the correct charge was used?) Edited May 20, 2013 by JWC

[Dolomite_supafly]

People need to realize that there is a HUGE difference between loading a lead bullet and a jacketed bullet. The jacketed bullet is much harder and increases pressure substantially compared to a lead bullet.

 

I have shot a cast bullet that was .005" over the bore size without an issue using the same data as a jacketed bullet. If I tried the same with a jacketed jacketed that was .005" larger than the bore I would have had some serious pressure issues.

 

Sounds like people are thinking that cast bullets use the same rules as loading jacketed but that is not the case. Lead bullets are more maleable and softer they are more forgiving than jacketed bullets.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Would a bullet resizing rig properly reduce the diameter of a jacketed bullet or would it want to "spring back"? Brass is different and "spring back" seems more likely, but copper is pretty ductile. Not as ductile as lead, but purt dang ductile.

 

Just curious. I don't have any bullet resizing gear, but if I could slightly resize jacketed bullets it might be worth getting some (resizing dies, that is).

Edited May 20, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Dolomite_supafly]

What would concern me about resizing jacketed bullets is this.

 

If you did a HP or a SP I would have zero issues with that. The bullet will work like normal but accuracy might suffer if the core was loose inside the jacket.

 

If you did a FMJ or something similar with the lead exposed I would be afraid the jacket would seperate from the core as the jacket sprung back some. When you fired it I would think the gases could get between the jacket and the core. That might cause the jacket to seperate and fly out the barrel while leaving the lead core in the barrel.

 

I have read horror stories of people making a SP out of a FMJ and having the core blow out the barrel and the jeacket be left in the bore.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

What would concern me about resizing jacketed bullets is this.

 

If you did a HP or a SP I would have zero issues with that. The bullet will work like normal but accuracy might suffer if the core was loose inside the jacket.

 

If you did a FMJ or something similar with the lead exposed I would be afraid the jacket would seperate from the core as the jacket sprung back some. When you fired it I would think the gases could get between the jacket and the core. That might cause the jacket to seperate and fly out the barrel while leaving the lead core in the barrel.

 

I have read horror stories of people making a SP out of a FMJ and having the core blow out the barrel and the jeacket be left in the bore.

 

Thanks for the explanation Dolomite.

 

So if the rear of the bullet is jacketed it might work OK?

 

For instance the .357 bullets I load are the Rainier plated 158 gn (supposedly soft lead) and semi-jacket 158 gn either flat point or hollow point. Those semi-jacket hollow point look near identical to semi-jacket flat point except the hollow points have a little hole in the flat point. They appear to have a fairly thick copper "cup" surrounding the back and sides of the lead, extending maybe halfway up the conical section before the lead is exposed in the front.

 

Guess the plated would resize fine, unless maybe the resize die would want to scrape plating off the lead? Guess I'd just have to get a resize die and experiment to discover if it would decide to loosen the semi-jacket.

 

Going the other way, was wondering if it might be practical to slightly "squash" .355 bullets to expand em up to .357. Either a one step process-- make some kind of .357 cavity die to directly mash a .355 bullet up to .357, or maybe a two step process-- Squash the .355 a little too big then force it thru a .357 size die?

 

The 9mm bullets I might want to try loading in .357 would be rainier plated 124 gn, rem 124 gn jhp, and XTP 124 gn jhp, all of which have copper on the bottom and sides.

 

Just something I keep thinking about.

[JWC]

Why wouldn't it shoot a.358 sized boolit regardless of what mold it came from (provided it was the correct charge was used?)

Just to be clear I was referring to cast boolits as noted in post above mine.