Heavier boolits in 380acp

[awaveritt]

What is the heaviest boolit you can safely load in a 380acp cartridge. I have the Lee TL356-124-2R boolit mold (124grains). I have loading data for the Lyman 121gr RN for 380. The Lee profile appears to be too long but I'm going to load a dummy round and check to see if it chambers and fits the magazine. The gun is a Beretta 84FS. The Lyman Cast manual shows loads for theirs in 380acp. Would be using a low dose of Bullseye for starters. Any thoughts on this idea? Anyone tried it?

Thought about ordering the Lee mold for 380 acp (102 grain), but everyone seems to be sold out at the moment.

[plainsman456]

Just gearing up myself for this caliber.
All the stuff i have read so far says to test the heavier boolits in the chambers of the pistols first.
Something about the taper of the case wall might keep it from working right.

Good Luck with your project.

[1Shirt]

I tried it with that blt sized to .357. Case buldge, could not chamber in LCP.
1shirt!

[chickenstripe]

Darn, I thought someone figured it out......

I tried the RCBS 124-CN and got a case bulge also.

[fecmech]

I loaded the Lee 120 tc and it worked just fine in my Keltec and a friends LCP. I used Lymans load data for their 120 RN as the Lee 120TC put the same amount of bullet in the case and had the same bearing surface. Using the Lyman data the best I could do was about 760-780 fps using a max load of 231. Shot a lot of 2 grs of Bullseye but that was just barely 700 fps and max load at that. The Lyman 120 TC is longer than the Lee although the bearing area is the same, just a "pointier" nose.

[BCall]

In my experience it is difficult to shoot heavier boolits in compact size 380's. I have been shooting heavier than normal boolits in a couple of larger frame 380's and they work very well, but these are basically 380's built on 9mm frames. Ranchdog's 125 grain 380 mold and the RCBS 115 gr round nose both work well for me, but trying to fit them in compact size guns can cause issues. I cannot run these through a Ruger LCP. The RD 125 grain mold can be made to work, but gains very little over a lighter 100gr boolit IMO. The light version of Lyman's 358242, the RCBS 38-090-RN and the 102gr Lee are all better options IMO. Lyman also made a couple of truncated cone molds that were about 100gr that work good, but are hard to find.
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851331.jpg

[blackpowder man]

I have shot the Lee tumble lube 124 round nose and it was slow as someone else stated. I've been shooting the ranchdog 95 gr flat nose which drops closer to 100 grains. It has to be seated deeper in my sig p238 than his data shows for his Taurus. I like the flat nose best in this caliber I think it offers better performance than a roundnose and hollowpoints may not expand consistently. NOE has 4 left of his 92 grain round nose mold that would be a good bullet I think.

[rking22]

got a group buy going for the RD 380 in a Lee 6 hole. 100gr WFN

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?180849-380ACP-Ranch-Dog-Mold

[git_dr1]

I tried it with that blt sized to .357. Case buldge, could not chamber in LCP.
1shirt!

I have loaded this bullet and had the case bulge as well. I don't have a a factory crimp die for the 380 but I remove the depriming pin from the sizer die and run the load through it.

It removes the case bulge and cycles fine.

[Piedmont]

What is the heaviest boolit you can safely load in a 380acp cartridge.

Define safe. Anything loaded at normal pressures is safe in that it won't blow out the case head but overweight bullets in semiauto pistols overdrive the mechanism and lead to early pistol failure. You can shoot 250 grainers in your .45 ACP pistol, but it won't last as long.

The bulge in the case multiple posters have mentioned can be solved by sizing the bullet smaller before loading it in the case.

[warf73]

I've been shooting the ranchdog 95 gr flat nose which drops closer to 100 grains. It has to be seated deeper in my sig p238 than his data shows for his Taurus.

I had to go shorter also, went from .950" (berry plated)to .905" (RD 100gr) so the action will close reliably. As for heavy boolits/bullets I did a set up case with a 124gr. Montana Gold HP with same OAL as the Hornady 95gr Zombie Max, with no case bulge. I have no clue what powder or charge to start with as the bullet is way inside that case. I will NOT be putting a charge under any of them until I see hard reloading data from Hodgdon or Alliant.

Warf

[rintinglen]

The heaviest boolit I have used successfully is the Lyman 356-242 121 grn RN. There are multiple loads listed in the Lyman 3rd and 4th Edition Cast Bullet Handbook load books. It functions fine, recoil is more pronounced, but the point of impact is quite a ways off from point of aim. I made a dummy up of the 356-402, but it would not reliably feed from my Walther's magazine.
I have one of the excellent RD 358-100 TC molds and it works too well for me to fiddle around with anything else. 2.9 grains of WW-231 and away we go.

[gunfan]

That's one way to get some penetration.

[jonp]

Define safe. Anything loaded at normal pressures is safe in that it won't blow out the case head but overweight bullets in semiauto pistols overdrive the mechanism and lead to early pistol failure. You can shoot 250 grainers in your .45 ACP pistol, but it won't last as long.

The bulge in the case multiple posters have mentioned can be solved by sizing the bullet smaller before loading it in the case.

If you both reduced the charge and installed a heavier spring would that not mitigate the problem you are talking about?

[9.3X62AL]

Possibly, but the firing pin spring might need strengthening too. Some blowback pistol models do not feature passive firing pin locks, and could conceivably send a firing pin forward with enough inertia to crank off a chambered live round. A few cases have been reported where these pocket blowbacks get dropped--land on their muzzles--and discharge inadvertantly.

These pistols are really at their best with standard-weight bullets/boolits run between USA factory specs at the bottom end and European specs at the top--which are 10%-15% more strident. I haven't loaded the 380 ACP for several years, but do a lot of shooting with the 32 ACP. I did use Lyman #313249 (88 grain RN) for a number of years in that caliber, but it shot high in my Walther PP and a couple other now-departed 32s. I now use #311252, weighing 74 grains in 92/6/2 alloy, and from 800-900 FPS it shoots right to the Walther's sights at 25 yards.