The Lee TL 356-95 RF?

[Grayone]

Feeds fine in my G42 & Ruger LCP. I tried a few powders before settling on Power Pistol. I can get 1000 in G42 and mid 900's in the LCP.

Ditto, I have the same mold and have been pleased with the accuracy. I would recommend anyone who owns a .380.

[Abert Rim]

Cast up a batch and tumble-lubed a few dozen in Lee Liquid Alox. They make a purposeful-looking cartridge in .380. PPU brass, CCI 500, 3.3 Unique.

[ChuckS1]

Just got a new-to-me Colt Government .380. Barrel slugs at .356 and looking at the Lee TL356-95-RF, but thinking I should size it to .357. Can anybody tell me what their as-cast diameter is? I’m using recycled range lead with a little bit of linotype for the added tin.

[Abert Rim]

Chuck, I cast mine from range scrap and they run pretty close to .356. I didn't size them, just tumble-lubed. I will powder-coat some in coming days. I only shot 10 of them this afternoon as part of my Max break-in along with a box of FMJs and some Hornady Critical Defense. They seemed no more or less accurate than the other loads.
While I was shooting, a twin-engine plane came in behind me ( our ranges are about 100 feet from the runway approach) and I heard him cut his engines and then a mild thump. Something seemed odd about it and I thought he had landed hard in the gusty quartering crosswind.
No. He had no landing gear and managed to belly land his twin perfectly in the grass along the tarmac, about 500 yards from our club's pistol bay. A skillful pilot with good nerves and a lot of luck!

[FergusonTO35]

Hey EMC 45, I tried to send you a message but it says your box is full!

[Bigslug]

Just got a new-to-me Colt Government .380. Barrel slugs at .356 and looking at the Lee TL356-95-RF, but thinking I should size it to .357. Can anybody tell me what their as-cast diameter is? I’m using recycled range lead with a little bit of linotype for the added tin.

Chuck, I'm using the NOE version of the mold and as I recall, it drops at .358. The Accurate Molds version can be ordered to drop at whatever you request. All of that comes down to whether you want to play with $60 molds, $100 molds, or $150 molds, but we're lucky with this specific design in that we have those choices available to us - I like Ranch Dog's stuff A LOT.

Reading Albert Rim's last post: If he's getting .356" out of his Lee with straight range scrap (probably pretty soft, higher-shrink-percentage stuff), you'll probably get a little fatter bullet with your added linotype. A fast burn rate powder should handle any additional obturation you might need.

[jdgabbard]

I don't own the mold, but I used to have a Ranch Dog copy of the mold that I traded off a long time ago. I got better results in accuracy from the standard 358242 92gr Ideal mold. That said, the quotes below are on the money load wise. 3.4gr of Unique with either 358242 or the Ranch Dog mold are the most accurate in my Bersa Thunder. I should note however, that I had equally good results with the Lee 105 SWC over 2.5gr of Bullseye as I did with the Ideal 358242, giving you another option. Also, 2.4gr of Red Dot worked well with either the 358242 or the Lee 105 SWC, so that may be another starting place for you with the RD design. After this I went back to do another round of accuracy testing with the 358242 with PCing the boolets and using 3.4gr of Unique, and the results were duplicated. So the 3.4gr of Unique has been my standard load for both the 92gr 358242 and the 105gr Lee SWC, all sized to .357" in my Bersa. So with the Lee Ranch Dog boolit I'd say something in the neighborhood of 3.0gr-3.6gr Unique should be a good place to start. That said, confirm this with your own data from published manuals, but I think you'll probably be happy with either Red Dot or Unique. Bullseye was ok too, but I had better results with Red Dot and Unique.

231/HP-38 worked best for me ( and I have pounds of it). However, 2.6-2.8 grains of Bullseye or Red Dot, or 3.3-3.5 grns. Unique ought to work just fine. I believe I have used the 2.7 Bullseye load in the past, but I have only a pound or so left and prefer to save it for 38 Wadcutter loads for my S&W M-52.

Cast up a batch and tumble-lubed a few dozen in Lee Liquid Alox. They make a purposeful-looking cartridge in .380. PPU brass, CCI 500, 3.3 Unique.

[FergusonTO35]

My next mold is going to be the Arsenal 358-105-TC.

[Abert Rim]

I like Arsenal molds. The brass ones feel like heirlooms.

[EMC45]

Hey EMC 45, I tried to send you a message but it says your box is full!

I cleared it all out. Should be good now.