95 gn .355 380 boolits question

[larrymac1]

I have been casting 95 gn 380 boolits at .356 and resizing to .355 however I have purchased a S&W Bodyguard and the boolits will not chamber and the slide won't close. It has to be the boolit size. What do you people casting for the .380 resize their boolits to?

I did have one that chambered deeper but not enough to allow the breach to close. It jammed and I had to gently pry the chamber open. When I did that the boolit was pulled from the case and blocked the barrel. I was able to use a rod and eject the boolit. The pistol shoots any store bought ammo very well. It is just the cast stuff giving me issues.

[larrymac1]

BTW the cast .380 rounds shoot fine in my Walther PK 380. A friend tried them in his new Taurus TCP and had the same issue.

[Doc_Stihl]

What's the bore slug at?
What's your seating depth? What mold are you using?

If the bodyguard has a shorter throat you may just be hanging up on that. Have you done a chamber cast?

[larrymac1]

No chamber cast. The gun is brand new as was the TCP. Maybe I need to shoot copper before I go to lead to let the chamber "adjust". I am seating just below OAL. I am using the Lee mold.

[mdi]

No offense, but simply stated; a chamber is a hole and a cartridge is a peg. For a peg (cartridge) to fit into a hole (chamber), it must be smaller than the hole (chamber). Measure one of the offending rounds to see where and how much it's too big for the chamber. If still unsure of a remedy, measure the round after each step (after sizing/decapping, then after bullet seating, etc.). Without measuring, all answers are not much more than a WAG...

[dkf]

I would bet the COAL needs to be shortened up. That boolit has a fat nose and decent sized metplat. I don't forsee a .355" cast boolit shooting very well.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Yep, sounds like you need a shorter OAL. I had the same issue on my 9c. Be aware that pressure will go up the deeper you seat the bullet.

[62chevy]

I also use the Lee 95 grain mold and it drops .358 -.359 from the mold with wheel weight alloy. Slugged my Cobra CA 380 at .355 lands and .357 for the groves. Not sizing because they drop 1 to 2 thou over grove. Ended up making 6 different dummy rounds before I got 3 that would chamber and eject with out removing the boolits and went through 10 boolits that got swagged down before getting it right. OAL was in the .925 to .930 range, wrote it down but it got packed away. make sure the width is about .373 mine worked at .374 but not .375, the boolit got swagged and the displaced lead went up and out. Make dummy rounds till you get one to work then make 3 and cycle through your gun.

[noylj]

You either have a reloading problem or a chamber/barrel problem.
Let's go back to Reloading 101:
Take the barrel out of the gun. Drop rounds in until you find one that won't chamber. Take that round and "paint" the bullet and case black with Magic Marker or other marker. Drop round in barrel and rotate it back-and-forth. Remove and inspect the round:
1) scratches on bullet--COL is too long
2) scratches on case mouth--insufficient crimp
3) scratches on case at base of bullet--bullet seated crooked due to insufficient case expansion (not case mouth flare) or improper seating stem fit
4) scratches on case just above extractor--case bulge not removed during sizing. May need a bulge buster.

PS: How can one load below COL when COL is whatever the cartridge length is?
Personally, I have never seen a .380 that couldn't take a .357" bullet with ease.

[larrymac1]

Got it. My stupid. I poured the rounds and resized. Then Hi-tek coated with the gold. I needed to resize again. (Seems to be more solids with the gold.) Still had about a hundred rounds and they measured .357. I loaded some 95 gn copper HP I had and they fired fine today. They measured .355. I should have checked the size before I asked the question. My fault. I have resized them again to .355 so will see how they reload tomorrow. OAL is .964 Hodgdon is showing .980 as max. Used CFE Pistol and everything fired clean and sweet. I had to double click some in my S&W Bodyguard but that seems to be my issue of holding on to the trigger to long and not getting a full reset. The Taurus TLC shot beautifully and more accurate than the Smith. I was sure surprised at that.

[dondiego]

I think that you will do better with the 0.357 sized boolits.

[hiram]

I just went through this with the lee TC bullet. The info is posted here.

Are you loading directly into the chamber without magazine feed? That's when my slide jammed. When I loaded from the magazine, no problem.

I am sizing .357.