Will the stock Lee carbide neck expander die in .380 auto work?

[BHuij]

I had to replace the expander plug in my powder-thru expander die for 9mm (I use the Lee Carbide 4-die set) because otherwise my brass swages my bullet down and causes barrel leading.

I'm about to start reloading for .380 ACP and am picking dies. The Lee 3-die set looks attractive (I don't really use the factory crimp die anyway, and if I need to remove belling down the road, I'll get a regular crimp die separately). I just want to know if, assuming my bullets are in the .359" or so range for diameter, I'll do okay with the stock expander plug that comes with this die set, or if I'll need to replace the plug with something that expands more/deeper.

[jcren]

I use stock Lee dies for 380, sized .358. No problem.

[P Flados]

Most factory dies assume that you will want your case to have a tight grip on a 0.355 J Word.

Any factory die set may size the brass more than needed in the sizer and/or not expand it enough to avoid sizing cast boolits more than desired.

The good news for your situation is that the 380 is mild enough to probably work ok even if your boolits get "case sizing" more than you want.

The other good news is that cost difference with the Lee dies is probably almost enough to pay for a bigger sizer plug if you need one.

[Bzcraig]

I'm not 100% sure cause I'm old and the memory is not always accurate and I stopped loading 380 quite a while back, but I think the PTE for 380 has a shorter over all length. I'd give Lee a call to be sure.

[jcren]

Remember, 380 brass are mostly pretty thin (except a few odball with the stepped inner wall like blazer 9mm). With the exception of the mentioned odd brass, I have never had a problem with the bullet getting squeezed.

Btw, the stepped brass only caused a problem with long/heavy bullets that needed to be seated deeper than normal. Specifically the Lee 120 tc.

[farmerjim]

I have had no trouble with 380 brass swagging down my lee TL356-95-RF boolits powder coated and sized .357. However in the mixed brass (2,500) about half of the headstamps would not chamber in my LCP. I found this early and sorted the brass into 2 batches. I loaded the brass that would not chamber with plated bullets and they chambered fine.

[BHuij]

Good to know all, thanks. I guess I'll just give it a shot as is and see if it's causing a problem before I get too worried about it. Will need to slug my barrel too before I even really know what I want to size my bullets to.