cast bullet for .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