380 Auto

[45-70 Chevroner]

My grandson has a Lee 124 gr. .356 mold that is dropping the slugs at 127 gr. The question is will this boolit work in the 380 and if so what kind of load would any of you suggest? My lyman lists a 120 gr. being the heaviest boolit listed. I guess an appropriate question to ask is, is any one using a boolit of this weight in the 380?

[Rick Hodges]

That is way heavy in a 380. I use a 92gr. and a 102gr. and they work fine...some use the 105 swc.....but 127gr. won't leave much room in the case and may be a problem. I would be very careful and try it to see.

[Cherokee]

The highest I have gone is the 120 TC design from Lee. I was not impressed. The Lee 124 is a round nose, it would have to be deep seated for functioning because it has a long full diameter shank unlike the one in the lyman manual. 7 gr is not a big weight difference so I might try the starting load if I wanted to try it. YMMV

[Bzcraig]

Personally I would be afraid of doing it. Lee molds are too cheap to not get one of their 102gr. Titan Reloading is a really good source for Lee products.

[NoZombies]

I've used the Lee 102 and their 111 grain RN designs in the .380, but never ventured beyond that, weight wise.

The big issue you'll have is OAL and case capacity. In the little case, seating just a little bit deeper can cause a real pressure spike. If you're .380 will allow the bullets seated longer (both in the magazine and the chamber) then you might be able to get there, but I would advocate caution.

[45-70 Chevroner]

Thanks guys I will relate the info to my grandson.

[ku4hx]

Lyman's Third Edition Pistol & Revolver Handbook shows a 380 ACP 120 grain load on page 139. On page 138 they warn of case bulging with overlong-for-cartridge boolits.

[fecmech]

I used the Lee 120 TC in mine with loads from the Lyman handbook for their 120 RN. They worked but you're running around 675 FPS tops out of short barreled guns like the Keltec or Ruger LCP. Also this may or may not be related. The first 2-3 hundred rds through my KT were the Lee 120 and then I bought the Ranch Dog 100 gr mold. At about the 1400 rd mark I noticed there was a small crack in the hood of my slide just ahead of the barrel lug. BTW Keltec replaced the whole top end ,no charge!

[45-70 Chevroner]

I used the Lee 120 TC in mine with loads from the Lyman handbook for their 120 RN. They worked but you're running around 675 FPS tops out of short barreled guns like the Keltec or Ruger LCP. Also this may or may not be related. The first 2-3 hundred rds through my KT were the Lee 120 and then I bought the Ranch Dog 100 gr mold. At about the 1400 rd mark I noticed there was a small crack in the hood of my slide just ahead of the barrel lug. BTW Keltec replaced the whole top end ,no charge!

That says something for Keltec.

[whisler]

Had an extraction problem with a Keltec that was purchased used. They sent me extractors and a mag release (free of charge) that a gunsmith friend replaced. Still had intermittent extraction problems. Returned the piece to them and I believe they replaced just about everything (free of charge). No problems now. That is customer service with a capital CS.

[Land Owner]

That "heavy weight" for 380 is better suited to 9mm. My pair of Blue 380 Walther PPK and same make/model Stainless regularly digest the Ranch Dog TL358-100-RF from a 6-cavity mould that drop at ~104 grains casting 50/50 WW/lead.