cast bullet for .380?

[Bosshaug]

I would like to start casting for .380, and I was thinking that the Lee 356-102-1R (2-cavity mold #90305) would be a good bullet.
I saw that Lee only offers this bullet in the 2-cavity, and not the 6-cavity. I contacted Lee to see if they will be offering this bullet in the 6-cavity version, and this is their reply:

Unfortunately at this time we do not plan on producing the 6 cavity version of the 356-102-1R mold. We have not had enough demand for the 6 cavity version to warrant producing it just yet. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I have been using the 100 gr HBRN Berry plated bullet for the .380, but since I cast for just about everything else, I wanted to include the .380.

Maybe if enough folks asked Lee for the 6-cavity version, they would offer it.
Any thoughts?

[Boolseye]

You're right–it's a great boolit for .380. I size it to .356, tumble lube or pan lube, load it over just about anything and get great accuracy, no leading. It also shoots good in 9mm, sized to .358 over 7.2 grains of #7. I'm OK with my 2-cav, for now...perhaps you can drum up enough interest to sway the powers that be....

[Ranch Dog]

From the bucket full of 380 Autos I've examined, they need a .358 bullet. The 1R helps to provide reliable feed but it provides nothing in self defense terminal effectiveness. Lee might not see the demand for a 6-cavity mold but I have. I sell a TL358-100-RF (http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_6_24&products_id=20) in the Lee 6-cavity blocks.

It uses an optimum tangent ogive radius for dependable feed and a 72% meplat for terminal performance.

http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/images/TL358100RF_03.jpg http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/images/TL358100RF_01.jpg

http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/images/TL358100RF_02.jpg

[Bret4207]

I strongly recommend you go with Ranch Dogs 380 mould. I thought I had the ultimate in an NEI I picked up, but the RD looks twice as good! The 380 is a decent killer with a FN boolit at 850+ fps. In fact on vermin up to 35-40 pounds it's pretty impressive for a "mouse gun". I wouldn't want to face down an angry Jersey Bull with a 380, but I wouldn't toss it aside in favor of a rock either!

[Doble Troble]

I've used the Lee 105 gr SWC with success in a Ruger LCP. It comes as a 6-place. I size to 358. I'm not sure about the terminal ballistics, but am sure it's on my list of things not to be shot with.

[Boolseye]

From the bucket full of 380 Autos I've examined, they need a .358 bullet.
not my .380. .358s bulge the cases too much and .356 shot just fine (Walther PK380)

[30CAL-TEXAN]

I got some leading in my Pk380 when I tired the 102 sized to .356 but it does great at .358. Every barrel and mold are different though.

Ranch Dog, is that a TCP in the picture?

The TCP we just got has the tightest chamber I have ever dealt with. If that boolit fits in there I'm sold.

[Shuz]

I would like to start casting for .380, and I was thinking that the Lee 356-102-1R (2-cavity mold #90305) would be a good bullet.
I saw that Lee only offers this bullet in the 2-cavity, and not the 6-cavity. I contacted Lee to see if they will be offering this bullet in the 6-cavity version, and this is their reply:

Unfortunately at this time we do not plan on producing the 6 cavity version of the 356-102-1R mold. We have not had enough demand for the 6 cavity version to warrant producing it just yet. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I have been using the 100 gr HBRN Berry plated bullet for the .380, but since I cast for just about everything else, I wanted to include the .380.

Maybe if enough folks asked Lee for the 6-cavity version, they would offer it.
Any thoughts?

The Lee 356-102-1R sized to .356, works very well in my Ruger LCP and my AMT Back-up . So far, because of my limited shooting of these .380 pip-squeaks, I've been satisfied with just a 2C mould. If I shot more rounds of .380 ACP's, I'd spring for the Ranch Dog 6 banger as long as the design feeds as well as the aforementioned Lee 102.
I actually "sort of" hollow point the Lee 102 by sizing with a "Beagle made" top punch that has a 1/4" tit on it.

[bobthenailer]

I haved a few 380 over the years and still owen two . the lee 102 rn and currently the saeco #380 95 gr rn have worked fine for me in all of mine and a few friends 380 pistols . I also have sized all bullets to .357 dia .

[Glen]

Ranch Dog -- that is one good lookin' .380 bullet!

[HollowPoint]

I bought one of the Lee two cavity molds you eluded to a while back. These little round nosed pills shot just fine and cycled reliably in my little plastic 380.

I'll second what's been stated about the terminal performance of the flat-pointed slugs though.

In trying to find a happy medium, I hollow pointed one of the cavities on my mold with a cramer-style hollow point pin that makes a shallow Cup-Point hollow point cavity. On top of that I can now apply a Synthetic Bullet Tip that gives my bullet the profile of the original round nose while giving it the performance more of a hollow point.

Since it's a shallow Cup-Point rather than a true hollow point, I'd say the terminal ballistics is somewhere between the performance of the round nose and the flat nose cast bullets mentioned above. I haven't done any formal testing to see what type of expansion and penetration I'm getting. My comment about performance after this alteration is just based on assumption at this point.

I figured next time I'm out coyote hunting I'll fire a few rounds into a downed cactus then extract the bullet for a look-see. This is how I checked the performance of my 45 hollow points.


HollowPoint

[Centaur 1]

Ranch Dog, is that a TCP in the picture?

The TCP we just got has the tightest chamber I have ever dealt with. If that boolit fits in there I'm sold.

I have the RD mold and I have loaded for four different pistols. Two of them have tight chambers and all I had to do was seat the boolit a little deeper. Standard c.o.l. is .938" which is a good fit in my Ruger lcp and a friends Bersa. I tried a s&w bodyguard and a Walther pk380 and the ogive contacts the rifling, so I shortened the length to .880" and Michael at Ranch Dog supplied me with data for the shorter length. I use Unique and the max charge dropped from 4.2 grains to 3.7 grains. This isn't a big deal because I have no interest in beating up my little gun with max charges. I've settled on using 3.0 grains of Unique, every gun I've tried it in likes the load.

Another great use is to load it in a 9mm which helps to conserve lead. I load the 9mm with 5.0 grains of Unique and a c.o.l. of 1.0". I use this load in a 9mm AR-15 and a Glock 26, and I've never had problems with lead in the barrel.

Oh, I almost forgot. This boolit also works great in .38 special. It kicks a whole lot less than a 158 grain boolit and it groups as good. I store my boolits in large peanut butter jars so I can keep a visual inventory. I keep a jar each of boolits as cast, .358", and .356".

[dragonrider]

This is the one I use most,
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=117608

but now I am eyeballin that Ranch Dog mold. May have to get one of those.

[deltaenterprizes]

Buy 2 double cavity molds and use them at the same time, Pour into one, while it is cooling pour into the other, while it is cooling cut the sprue on the first one and refill and so on until pot is empty and you have a nice pile of boolits!
That pot will empty quickly and the pile will grow quickly also.

[Ghugly]

I would like to start casting for .380, and I was thinking that the Lee 356-102-1R (2-cavity mold #90305) would be a good bullet.
I saw that Lee only offers this bullet in the 2-cavity, and not the 6-cavity. I contacted Lee to see if they will be offering this bullet in the 6-cavity version, and this is their reply:

Unfortunately at this time we do not plan on producing the 6 cavity version of the 356-102-1R mold. We have not had enough demand for the 6 cavity version to warrant producing it just yet. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I have been using the 100 gr HBRN Berry plated bullet for the .380, but since I cast for just about everything else, I wanted to include the .380.

Maybe if enough folks asked Lee for the 6-cavity version, they would offer it.
Any thoughts?

I tumble lube the Lee and load it for 3 different .380's and one 9mm and it works great in them all. I would love a 6 cavity mould. I just don't understand the logic in offering a 6 cavity for a 310gr .44 but only a 2 cavity for a .380. In my experience the little semi-autos just eat up boolits.

[paul edward]

The barrel of my PK380 slugged at .3566.

Have not yet ordered a mold, but have been thinking about the Lee 356-102-1R.

Figured I would first try them without sizing and go from there based on range results.

What diameter boolits are these molds producing?

[fecmech]

I hemmed and hawwed and finally bought Ranch Dogs 100 gr RNFP mold. Great mold, bullets drop easily and feed and function great in my Keltec and a friends Ruger LCP. I've run about 300rds through my Keltec so far with no hiccups. Here's about 15 minutes worth of boolits. They drop at .359 from the mold

[Boolseye]

What diameter boolits are these molds producing?
Mine drop at .358 or just a little more.

[warf73]

Are you all using bullseye for your powder with the ranch dog boolit?

[Alstep]

What is the lead alloy mix you guys are using for the .380?

[Bret4207]

Gee, if they drop at .359, what a great plinking boolit for the 35 Rem, 35 W, 38 and 357!

[fecmech]

Are you all using bullseye for your powder with the ranch dog boolit?

Yes I am. For the practice loads I'm running 3.0 grs for about 750 fps and my carry load is 3.6 which is 892 fps out of the Keltec. In the light gun 3.6 is not fun to shoot. I've shot it enough to know what it is and prove reliability but it's not something I want a steady diet of.


Gee, if they drop at .359, what a great plinking boolit for the 35 Rem, 35 W, 38 and 357!
That thought has crossed my mind!

[Boolseye]

What is the lead alloy mix you guys are using for the .380?

I use straight range lead for the .380, air cooled, bhn around 12.

[warf73]

Yes I am. For the practice loads I'm running 3.0 grs for about 750 fps and my carry load is 3.6 which is 892 fps out of the Keltec. In the light gun 3.6 is not fun to shoot. I've shot it enough to know what it is and prove reliability but it's not something I want a steady diet of.


Sounds great thanks for the info fecmech.

[NoZombies]

A late update:

Lee did, at one point, make the 356 102 -1R as a 6 cavity mold. This is not speculation, as I have one. I got mine used, and have never seen another, but they are out there. I also have a 6 cavity of the 356 111 -1R. Both are good plinking bullets in the various .38's as well.

[1Shirt]

Gotta go with Bret on this one!
1Shirt!

[Uncle Jimbo]

I have one of these Lee 356-102-1R. Not too crazy about it. It is everything bad that others here talk about here. I end up putting about a third of them back into the pot. But on the other side, I have a Lee 6 cavity for the 40 S&W and a 6 cavity for my 357 mag. Both work very good. And for a newbie like me, it is nice that they do.
They work fine in my BDA 380. Load them over a CCI primer and 2.5 grs of Unique. Good for shooting at cardboard stand-up at 25'.

I did get in on the GB for the 380 hp that ended not long ago. Hope that one works better for a newbie.

[JackQuest]

Okay, only going to provide partially useful information. I inherited an NEI 109.356 double cavity that had gone back and forth between myself and my dad for 2 decades. He finally gave up on the mold as it just "wouldn't work". Wrinkles, never seemed to be able to get the pot hot enough yadda yadda yadda.

On the last go around I applied reverse psychology harking back to 4 cavity iron molds running too hot. In that scenario the answer was to switch sprue cutter plates to aluminum. In the case of the NEI 109.356 the blocks cooled too fast! A pair of molten Pb blobs each about 110 grains just could not keep the mold hot from pour to pour, so I switched out NEI's aluminum sprue plate for mild steel. Bingo, casts pretty darned good now!

The loads I run in .380 ACP are 3.0 grains of WW231 or 3.0 grains WST and a CCI 500 primer. This has functioned flawlessly in Colt Mustang, a pair of LCPs and a Bersa Thunder. Waiting to punch some through a Walther PK380 as soon as I can collect it from the FFL dealer.

This will be the wife's CC and home defense weapon. Have an SR22 with Crimson Trace which she loves to plink but .22 LR ammo is still near impossible to buy so switching her over to nearly the same weapon in .380 ACP which I obviously can load the heck out of.

Thought I would post this info here as I also posted on Walther forum but doesn't look like many of the folks over there cast & reload much at all.

[Cherokee]

Jack - I got that mold from Walt many years ago in 4 cavity and shot a bunch through 380 and 9mm. It is not 100% reliable in some of my 380's but its fine for range use. A little light for 9mm but it works fine. I never had a problem casting good boolits wth the mold.

[MaryB]

Great thread! I am just starting reloading for my PK380 and have the Lee mold mentioned by the OP. Will have to read through all this again when I am not so tired.

[JackQuest]

Jack - I got that mold from Walt many years ago in 4 cavity and shot a bunch through 380 and 9mm. It is not 100% reliable in some of my 380's but its fine for range use. A little light for 9mm but it works fine. I never had a problem casting good boolits wth the mold.

Cherokee:
Some of my problems were a dying heating element in my Saeco pot. Stripped out the bimetallic thermostat, put in a new element from McMaster-Carr and a variable speed controller from Harbor Freight and it's a totally different experience.

Like you said, very few boolits work in every semi-auto. The much copied H&G 200 SWC for .45 ACP comes to mind as an example of near perfection.

[jonk]

I also use the Lee 105 SWC; I have to size to .356 to chamber in both of my .380s. Surprisingly it feeds great. Only issue is- it is a rather heavy bullet for the little .380 and with the long bearing surface and deep seating depth, pressures rise fast. 2.3 gr of bullseye runs the gun fine without pressure problems; 2.5 causes pressure problems, 2.1 won't cycle reliably. So if you go that route- it's a VERY narrow range to run, and you better be pretty confident in your powder measure.

[JackQuest]

jonk:

I've never messed with Bullseye, but have found that both of the Winchester powders I run in the 380 meter well and are basically full charge loads. You won't double charge and miss it. Clean and quite forgiving in performance. I think the heavier bullet is always the correct bullet, particularly in self-defense situations where range is short. I can shoot to 100 yards with these loads, but what's the point? If I'm shooting that distance routinely with a pistol I need .357 Mag or larger, period.

.380 ACP is for in close nasty work, and heavier bullets hit harder. Except for recent hi-tech hollow points, the stuff we could hollow point in cast is not going to do much expansion, so hit them with a heavy rock not a light one.

[Eliduc]

I have the RD mold and I have loaded for four different pistols. Two of them have tight chambers and all I had to do was seat the boolit a little deeper. Standard c.o.l. is .938" which is a good fit in my Ruger lcp and a friends Bersa. I tried a s&w bodyguard and a Walther pk380 and the ogive contacts the rifling, so I shortened the length to .880" and Michael at Ranch Dog supplied me with data for the shorter length. I use Unique and the max charge dropped from 4.2 grains to 3.7 grains. This isn't a big deal because I have no interest in beating up my little gun with max charges. I've settled on using 3.0 grains of Unique, every gun I've tried it in likes the load.

Another great use is to load it in a 9mm which helps to conserve lead. I load the 9mm with 5.0 grains of Unique and a c.o.l. of 1.0". I use this load in a 9mm AR-15 and a Glock 26, and I've never had problems with lead in the barrel.

Oh, I almost forgot. This boolit also works great in .38 special. It kicks a whole lot less than a 158 grain boolit and it groups as good. I store my boolits in large peanut butter jars so I can keep a visual inventory. I keep a jar each of boolits as cast, .358", and .356".

I loaned my vintage 38 spec wheel gun to my son in law. He noticed the forcing cone was cracked. Then I read that firing light cast loads in a 38 spec. revolver can crack the cone. I had been been using 125 gr 358 cast bullets in the gun. It may have already been cracked when I bought it. It is not very apparent.

[Big Boomer]

"From the bucket full of 380 Autos I've examined, they need a .358 bullet."

Some .380s may handle larger diameter boolits but my niece's little Sig P238 would not take anything larger than .356. She and her husband come to our place and reload on my equipment. She says my cast boolits outdo factory ammo in terms of accuracy. Big Boomer

[Echo]

I have reloaded for a friend's Sig-Sauer 380 (SWEET gun!) using the Lyman -242 boolit. Worked great once I got the COL right - no FTF's, no stovepipes, and hit what we aimed at.
(She told me she had it, and I asked her "Nickle or blued?", and she replied 'It's BEAUTIFUL!' Hmmm - turned out it WAS beautiful - anodized gold, purple, &cetera...)

[jcren]

Just wanted to add a new discovery to an old thread. I load for 3 380's and the Lee 95rf is my favorite of several molds up to and including the Lee 120tc (great bullet in bigger guns, but hard to get short enough and a handful in a tcp). But I just tried the new CFE pistol powder in these little guns. A Sierra V- crown 90 grain hp and 4.4 grains chrono'd at 970 (45 fps faster and significantly mellower noise and recoil than hornady critical defense) out of the tcp, accurate and surprisingly mellow recoil! In the wife's pk380 it ran 1050-1090 and the recoil was so mellow I was shocked when I saw the chrono numbers! While I haven't chronoed the 95 rf (cast at 98), 4.0 is still mild feeling and poi is the same as the cc load in both guns. Also, baseball sized dark orange/red muzzle flash fired at night from the tcp. Awesome home rolled cc performance