Who reloads .380 acp?

Goofyfoot2001

Goofyfoot2001

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I've been slowing depriming and priming 500-1000 380 brass and last night I sat down to assemble 100 of them. 100gr flat nose with 3.8ish grain CFE-Pistol. It is a pain; or feels like it to me. I doubt I will be doing any more of this caliber unless out of necessity. I got the same feeling doing these as I did trying to load .223

Just sayin.
 
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I have not shot any 380 in a while, so I have not loaded any in the same time. Back when I did load it, I did not feel it was any more trouble than loading 9mm. I did have a small failure rate (maybe 5 out of 100) of loaded rounds passing the case gauge, but that was due to one of my guns leaving burrs from the extractor. I kept a small file handy and touched them up as I encountered them.
 
I reload for it. Generally use a home cast Lyman 95gr LRN bullet over a charge of Unique. Generally load about 100 rds a year for my youngest son, since I gave him my CZ83 in that caliber back in 02'. Might load more but the mold is only a single cavity. I also load .32 ACP and lots of .41 Magnum.


CD
 
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I load for .380. I also cast bullets for it also. By reloading and casting for everything I own I'm not going to experience "shortages."

As for trouble doing it, if my trouble lets me shoot groups the size of my thumb nail out of a AR15, I'll put up with it.
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I load it. Either 115 gr fmj or 120gr cast from a Lee mold over a small charge of bullseye. Couple of hundred rounds a year at most. I don't see any difference reloading it vs any other round.
 
I have a bunch of 380 brass resized and ready to load but I also have 4 to 500 rounds loaded. I might shot 50 rounds a year and that is through my LCP-II. A few years back I bought 1000 cast bullets and must have 700 left. I did buy some Hornady 90 grn HP's and have about 1/2 that box left over too.
Just got watch your fingers when raising the ram.
 
I load it when I get low on ammo.
Components are cheap for 380 and loaded ammo is not.
So I load 380 and I think it is a pita as well.
But my wife shoots quite a bit of 380 through my Beretta 84BB is mainly why I load.
I have a Sig p238 EDC as well.
 
bondjamesbond said:
I load it when I get low on ammo.
Components are cheap for 380 and loaded ammo is not.
So I load 380 and I think it is a pita as well.
But my wife shoots quite a bit of 380 through my Beretta 84BB is mainly why I load.
I have a Sig p238 EDC as well.
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It makes more sense to reload 380 than it does for 9mm, because of the differences in cost of components vs factory ammo.
 
I find the 380 to be about the same challenge as loading for 9mm Luger. Both are quite easy to load with the 380 being just a bit shorter. I do not try to use the same bullets in both, but the different bullets are not dramatically different in size or shape. I do not shoot my 380 pistols anywhere near as much as I shoot a 9mm and do not load for it as much.
 
100gr Berry's plated over 2.9gr HP38, reliably cycles my 380s and is a little softer than a factory loading.

I don't shoot much of it, usually use steel case for practice but if I'm by myself and have time to pick up my brass I'll use the reloads.
 
When my friend and I started using a Dillon 650, we found that 380 was the most cost effective to load, compared to 9mm and 45 acp. I think it still is quite cost effective, but I no longer make the calculations to find out...
 
This is very interesting...anybody got any idea what BE load it would take to push a 100 grain hard cast to 1,000 fps out of tiny guns? I have been using Underwood ammo and it will give me exactly this. But I gotta tell ya....they ain't givin that stuff away!
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
This is very interesting...anybody got any idea what BE load it would take to push a 100 grain hard cast to 1,000 fps out of tiny guns? I have been using Underwood ammo and it will give me exactly this. But I gotta tell ya....they ain't givin that stuff away!
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Billy, not sure I want a 1000 ft/sec out of my LCP with a 100 grn bullet. Cannot be fun to shoot. 700X with get a 90 grn bullet there but again it can not be fun to shoot.
 
I’ve been reloading 380 for a while. 95gr Xtreme RN over HP-38. Never had a problem and never felt any different than 9mm


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BatteryOaksBilly said:
This is very interesting...anybody got any idea what BE load it would take to push a 100 grain hard cast to 1,000 fps out of tiny guns?
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Define "tiny"?

Combat Diver said:
Bullseye
100 gr FMJ 3.3 grs for 985 fps WSP source: Alliant 2005
102 gr LEE LRN 2.9 grs for 903 fps Source: Lyman Cast 4th Ed

BE-86
95gr FMJ 4.3 grs for 1047 fps Fed 100 source: Alliant current web
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The problem with Alliant's load data, it was shot from a 3.75" barrel. A lot of the 380s out there are "tiny" guns with shorter barrels. For instance, a LCP is 2.75".

I have not done a lot of 380 testing, and what I did was a long time ago, but the hottest load I had was just over 800fps using Autocomp. My favorite load (BE86 @ 3.6gn, 100gn plated bullet) was only 757 fps from a 3.5" Bersa Thunder. It cycled fine in my LCP and my wife's P238. I wasn't looking to duplicate factory loads, or to beat my guns up.
 
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Bullseye is my go to powder.. Back in 2015 even tried some 231 but according to my log, the last 3 years I have used Bullseye (around 2.7 gns).
 
KnotRight said:
Bullseye is my go to powder.. Back in 2015 even tried some 231 but according to my log, the last 3 years I have used Bullseye (around 2.7 gns).
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Not to hijack my own thread but how do you guys measure out your 2.7grn or so with these of the powders. I choose CFE simply because I could get a good enough measure with the smallest cup I own and maybe they make a smaller cup but this one is pretty small.
 
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