Does anyone reload .380?

[Guest BCR#1]

People must think that once fired brass should be free.

 

Bill

[Superman]

Sometimes it is

[Hozzie]

Two years ago it was impossible to find.  Not so bad now.  People have short memories.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I reload .380 rarely, don't shoot much .380. I always keep what I pick up at the range though.

 

Dunno how many reloads a person could realistically get out of .380 brass. A lot of range pickup .380 is fairly dinged up. My little .380 mistreats it purt bad. Maybe the little blowback guns are rougher on brass. And the .380 case metal is so thin. I have trouble getting a .380 crimp that keeps a good hold on a bullet even on cases I know are once-fired, because its my own brass I picked up.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[gregintenn]

380 and 25 auto are just too small for me to get interested in loading. 32-20, 9mm, and 218 Bee are fairly tedious to hold onto.

[R_Bert]

In .380, I only shoot my reloads.  It is not that hard to roll them, especially using the Lee Factory Crimp.

 

I bought enough .380 brass to get me started some years ago, and since have given away or traded hundreds of cases from range pick-up

 

Some of my brass has gone through at least 3-5 loadings and still looks fine.

Edited October 27, 2013 by R_Bert

[Jonnin]

I reload 380.  I did indeed find most of my brass on the ground for free.  With lead bullets it costs me under 5 bucks a box, vs over 15 on a good day and over 20 all too often.  Its very worth it if you shoot it much.  And I did shoot it a lot, when I carried the caliber.

 

I tried 25 acp but its not been fun.  Projectiles cost what the ammo does nearly, so its pointless.   The cheap lead ones I found won't chamber, they are a bad size.  I did make a few using the correct shotshell (#8 or something, one of em is almost exactly the right size for 25) but they did not feed well (nose too short).

Edited October 27, 2013 by Jonnin

[Westwindmike]

I load .380 also. Cast my own boolits(90gr. RNL). Cheap shooting for a centerfire.

My Bersa loves them.

[tnhawk]

I've been saving the brass, but haven't started loading .380 yet.  Most of my loading time is 45 ACP.

Edited October 27, 2013 by tnhawk

[leroy]

I've loaded a goodly amount of 380 for my little sig.... It's kinda like loadin a short 9 mm (...which it is...)... The only thing ive noticed is that i needed a short reloading block to stack the cases in... I wouldnt worry about brass reloading life with this little cartridge... The brass ive used (...all of it; mixed domestic and priv...) looked plenty strong and well-formed....  My guess is that it will load as many times as ya like... Remember, the secret to the brass holdin the bullet is complete resizing of the case and just expandin the neck enough to get the bullet started... If ya do that ya will be ok... I use about a .002 crimp on all my semiauto loads...

 

leroy

[R_Bert]

I've loaded a goodly amount of 380 for my little sig.... It's kinda like loadin a short 9 mm (...which it is...)... The only thing ive noticed is that i needed a short reloading block to stack the cases in... I wouldnt worry about brass reloading life with this little cartridge... The brass ive used (...all of it; mixed domestic and priv...) looked plenty strong and well-formed....  My guess is that it will load as many times as ya like... Remember, the secret to the brass holdin the bullet is complete resizing of the case and just expandin the neck enough to get the bullet started... If ya do that ya will be ok... I use about a .002 crimp on all my semiauto loads...

 

Leroy

 

If you manage to find it after your session.. :doh:    My P3AT tosses it so aggressively that some days I am lucky to find half.

[Jonnin]

If you manage to find it after your session.. :doh:    My P3AT tosses it so aggressively that some days I am lucky to find half.

 

380 Not so much by my makarov throws all my brass away and its MUCH MUCH harder to come by (the few that shoot it mostly use the junky steel ammo).  I usually end up grinding down 9mms for it and trying to find them after use (50% is good).

Edited October 27, 2013 by Jonnin

[gun sane]

I'm working on a batch of .380 now.  I put 100-grain Berrys through them with Red Dot and they go were I point 'em.  I stay in the mid-range of the load specs and have no problems whatsoever.  I don't keep track of the number of times I've used the brass.  I just inspect for condition prior to priming.  Never had one fail.

[Guest BCR#1]

I guess I should have been more clear in my post. I have been picking it up at the range and I have enough that I posted it on armslist for $.04 each and no takers after a week except for low ball offers of a penny or two each. It has been cleaned/polished.

[Randall53]

I do. But only because i really enjoy shooting my ppks and it's in .380 caliber. It's just a fun gun to shoot.

[Jonnin]

I guess I should have been more clear in my post. I have been picking it up at the range and I have enough that I posted it on armslist for $.04 each and no takers after a week except for low ball offers of a penny or two each. It has been cleaned/polished.

 

Strange, that beats the top 10 prices I found with a quick search, most want $30 and up for 500 (4 per round would be $20 for 500) so someone SHOULD jump on that. 

One way to move it maybe is to charge them that penny per price and have a $25 shipping fee --- that is how most of the online people work ---

[I_Like_Pie]

Yeah...about 4 or 5 years ago .380 was worth its weight in gold.  Incredibly rare to find it....kind of like .22lr now.

 

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I reload .380.  The one thing that I can add is that there is so little case capacity that I measure every load and really watch my crimp. With only .5 grain between min and max with practically every powder and even less with bullseye or titewat...That bullet pushes down much at all and you have the potential for a huge pressure spike.

 

I set my dropper close and trickle the last bit on every load.  May be paranoid, but I don't shoot much of it.