Cast in PPK

[KCSO]

I picked up a PPK in 380 and am thinking about runnig some cast loads through it. Does anyone else shoot cast in a PPK and what bullets have worked best. I havent done a lot with cast in the PPK but have used the Lee 124 and 2.0 of Bullseye in a locked breech Star.

[45 2.1]

I picked up a PPK in 380 and am thinking about runnig some cast loads through it. Does anyone else shoot cast in a PPK and what bullets have worked best. I havent done a lot with cast in the PPK but have used the Lee 124 and 2.0 of Bullseye in a locked breech Star.

Lyman 358242 90 gr. with Bullseye is excellent in the Walthers. Stay with the lighter boolits in the 380.

[9.3X62AL]

+1 to 45-2.1's text. I've done a lot more jacketed bullets than castings in the 380 ACP, but both worked well and shot better than factory ammo.

Edited to add--

The pocket blowbacks I've done the most cast boolit work with are the 32 ACP and 9 x 18 Makarov. Faster-rate powders like Bullseye and WW-231 seem to work best, but any fuel at Unique speed or quicker should be fine. The "standard" bullet weights of 70-75 grains for the 32 and 90-100 grains for the 380 and 9Mak generally go where the sights look if run at factory velocities.

FWIW, USA-made ammo runs pretty weak--these little critters were designed around full-potential European ammo (like the GECO stuff), so the Walthers and SIG-Sauers frequently run poorly on the watered-down WWB-type FMJs that are most often used here. Gotta "Load For The Lorcins" in this country. "Book" velocity for most USA 95 FMJ ammo shows 905 FPS.......more like barely 800 (if even that) in real-world usage. GECO will do 900-925, even in the short PPK barrels. The only mass-produced American ammo that gets anywhere near the Eurofodder is Winchester Silvertip or Speer Gold Dot, and those are still about a 10% download from safe max. Caution is one thing, but corn likker in a Z-28 is just as stupid as is racing fuel in a Yugo.

For casters, what the 32 ACP and 380 ACP need are good ogival flat-nose (like the BD-45) or truncated-cone designs cut at standard caliber weights. A lot of 32 and 380 platforms might not feed these, though--most were built around RN/FMJ, and they require a RN boolit of fair hardness to keep things flowing, and pretty good velocity helps reliability too.

No, I haven't given much thought or R&D to casting and reloading for the pocket blowbacks. Not me.

[Bret4207]

Something around 85 gr with a nice FP would work nice in the 380.

[S.R.Custom]

+1 to what Al said with respects to the use of fast powders and "stock" bullet weights. The mass slides and springs in those things are designed around a specific loading. Deviate from that, and you'll have reliablilty and/or accuracy problems.

My favorite ammo through the PPK has been the stuff by Sellier & Bellot (sp?). Accurate, Euorpean hot, and with its nickel plated bullets, sexy. :mrgreen:

I've had a few PPKs over the years, and accuracy-wise, they really wake up with cast bullets. For some reason they've all had really oversized groove diameters in the neighborhood of .359", which always struck me as pretty sad for a quality German weapon with a "supposed to be" size of .355"...

But anyway, I've always had excellent results with a 95-100 gr cast bullet sized .360, Remington or Federal cases (thinner brass), and a stiff charge of 231.

[9.3X62AL]

S+B, eh? Gotta remember that. No 380's in the barn at present, but things like that are always subject to change. The Makarov has supplanted the 380 for me, and it's a winner.

The SIG P-230's I've had (2) both "ran fat" groove-wise, too. This may explain why the 32 ACP has been generally more accurate than the 380 for me--although like SuperMag I ran fattened boolits through the 380's and improved their accuracy noticeably. With factory ammo or J-words, the 32 leaves the 380 in the dust as to accuracy. I hunt small game and varmints with my Walther PP x 32--I generally didn't with the 380's.

[Mallard57]

I actually had pretty good luck with the 124gr. RCBS TC bullet in my PPK. It's been awhile since I had that pistol, I don't remember how many grains of Red Dot I used. I believe they were sized to .356. They shot better than factory ammo by a bunch and they functioned well too. That being said, I always felt a little self concious shooting bullets that heavy in a case that had such a small powder capacity. I always hoped to come up with a mold in the 90- 100 gr. range. Jeff

[S.R.Custom]

S+B, eh?

Yup. Pretty neat stuff... 92 gr. bullet with an advertised muzzle velocity of 950 fps (according to their website). Although it doesn't appear that they nickel plate their bullets any more...

http://www.sellier-bellot.cz/img/boxes/sb31033-kd.jpg

[Bret4207]

I find S+B to be pretty darn good stuff. I've got some S+B '06 brass thats been through at least 20 firings and is still good. Only annealed it once.

[Larry Gibson]

I've been loading the Lee 356-102-1R over 2.5 gr Bullseye for 25+ years or so. That load runs about 750 fps out of the short barreled .380s. It shoots very well in several PPKs I've shot it in. Only .380 I've these days is one of the better made AMT "Backups". That load shoots quite well in it also. The Lee 358-105-SWC over the same load shot really well in a Makarov .380 but I don't recall shooting that bullet in any other .380.

Larry Gibson

[400cor-bon]

I use 2.9 grains of bullseye behind a 100 grain hard cast round nose
great target ammo in my full size walther PP Hungarian production
Alliant shows a max charge of 3.3 grains, but I always found just under 3 to be a good load