Sig Sauer P238 .380 and the LEE 105 Gn

[Willee]

Been having great success with the LEE 105 gr SWC cast boolit and W-231 powder.
Shooting out of my Sig Sauer P238 with 3.5 gn of W-231 powder.
I get about 875 fps and no visible leading.

Wheel Weight alloy will cast out at about 110 gr and they are sized to .356 and lubed with RCBS green lube.
Water chilled to harden slightly.

Very accurate round out to 25 yards.

Just wanted to share.

Willee
Corpus Christi Texas

[donnis]

I'm planning to use this mold in my new p238, too. I sized to .359 and a couple of dummy rounds load/chamber ok. I'll be loading with ramshot zip and am using felix lube. What overall length are you using?

[MtGun44]

Thanks for scouting the route, altho I need to slug the bbl to see what size I will use.
Given that .356 rarely works for 9mm, my bias is to start larger, but I really need to see
what the groove diam is.

Bill

[Willee]

I'm planning to use this mold in my new p238, too. I sized to .359 and a couple of dummy rounds load/chamber ok. I'll be loading with ramshot zip and am using felix lube. What overall length are you using?

Donnis, you can see by the photo the case is crimped just barely above the crimp ring.
I did not even bother to measure them other than to check the first few to make sure they chambered OK.

I think .359 might be a bit to large as my Sig P238 chamber is a bit on the tight side.

You can see by the photo that the boolit just very slightly expands the case.
Too much expansion from an oversized boolit and you might have problems chambering the round.

I returned to the range with some of these boolits that were drilled out to 100 gr weight.
I used a center drill bit on my small lathe and removed about 10 gr of lead from the base making them look something like a hollow base boolit.
Upped the charge of W-231 to 4.0 gr and really did not notice any real performance difference other than stronger recoil and higher velocity.
I plan on removing some from the nose of the boolit making them into a hollow point.
Will post some photos of the later if I do.

I am very impressed with the accuracy of the Sig P238 pistol.
Much better than I ever expected from such a short barrel and tiny gun.

Willee
Corpus Christi Texas

[Will]

I use this boolit in my 380 sized to 358 with 2.4gr BE or RedDot. I use the FL die backed off to just remove the bell and give a taper crimp. Works very good.

[sw282]

l have a Sig 230 in 380. l am tempted to give it a try after getting the mold

[Artful]

Lee 105 SWC is excellent in 9mm, 38 spl and 357 mag as well as 380 ACP

[Justin Appleseed]

I'm about ready to start loading for my P238 as well, I don't cast.. Haven't gone that route yet, as I just started reloading.. I noticed your sizing of .358-.359.. Am I in trouble?

http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac5d67d-faef-da19.jpg

I also have MagTech .380 auto 90 FMJ, as I want to practice with the same as my SD load. So is the .355" going to be to small? Do I need to find something in a larger 9x19 w/the .358-.359 that your using?

[MikeS]

Justin: You're comparing apples & oranges. You're loading jacketed bullets, so the size they show on the box of .355 should be fine. Cast lead boolits generally are larger in diameter than jacketed bullets.

[Artful]

Jacketed bullet (j-word) are usually smaller than the size of cast boolit as we can squeeze the cast into bore shape pretty easily here as a jacketed bullet is much harder to engrave. You have the correct j-word bullet for your 380's.

[Justin Appleseed]

Ok thanks for the info, makes sense, I can see why cast has its advantage.

[Willee]

I'm about ready to start loading for my P238 as well, I don't cast.. Haven't gone that route yet, as I just started reloading.. I noticed your sizing of .358-.359.. Am I in trouble?

I also have MagTech .380 auto 90 FMJ, as I want to practice with the same as my SD load. So is the .355" going to be to small? Do I need to find something in a larger 9x19 w/the .358-.359 that your using?

Nope! ... not too small at all unless your barrel is oversized.
Slug the barrel and see what size it is.

Another great .380 bullet is Berry's 100 gr hollow base round nose.
Those come sized at .356"

Willee

[NoZombies]

The P238 is a great gun, and exceptionally accurate with everything I've fed mine.

I haven't tried this design, but I've been tempted.

[warf73]

Great posts guys, the p238 is going to be my next purchase to replace the TCP I carry most of the time.