texassako
05-03-2013, 10:47 AM
As I was patiently waiting for the GB Lee .380 RD mold the other day, I began to think about what else I needed. Lots of components but a big whoops in the die department. It is a tough one to find currently, but I am not in a hurry and decided to look through what else I had that could work. I have a set of Lee .38 Short/Long Colt 'dies' since I have quite a bit of that brass. It is actually a collection of other cartridges' dies with nothing actually stamped for the Colts: .38/.357 sizer, that will size .380 just about right for now; .38 S&W powder through expander, hmm the 9mm sticky at the top says that is what I should need for cast; and a .38 Super seater crimper that I ground 1/16" off of to get a better crimp on some really short brass. Pulled out a few 110gr #36072 RNs that I have sized to .358 to test my theory. The dummy cartridges loaded up just fine with the proper dimensions and hand fed through my Interarms PPK/S just like factory FMJ. If anybody else is looking for a die set to load cast in a .380, the .38 Short/Long Colt works if you grind the seater die a bit.