Making 380 Auto Brass--The HARD way

[Hick]

Strange thing happened this morning at the range. I was shooting 223 reloads for group size. Fired a shot and checked the spotting scope and the shot was right in the center of the very small group. I then opened the bolt to eject the brass and what popped out looked like a piece of 380 auto brass. I took it home and measured. It was very, very close. 3 thousandths over on rim diameter, one thousandth over on case diameter, correct length (but not quite square). Of course, it wasn't 380 auto, it was the bottom half of a Lake City case that I just reloaded for the very first time.

Not the best way to make 380 Auto brass, but until now I never realized how close to identical 223 Rem and 380 Auto cases really are. If I really needed 380 auto brass I wonder if I could really convert 223 rem cases?? Just cut the 223 cases down, take a few thousandths off the rim diameter, then run them through a sizing die??

[Harter66]

380,9mm ,222,223 and 25-45 are basically sisters. I would speculate that neck reaming would be in order much like 45 GAP,ACP, 308, x57 and 06' .

[bouncer50]

From 223 you can also make 9mm largo, 38 super, 7.63 Mauser pistol.

[spfd1903]

And 7.62 x 25.

[farmerjim]

I just bought a lot of 2'500 380 mixed range brass. I deprimed , resized, and cleaned the entire lot. I found about 5 9mm in the lot because they would not fit in the shell holder. I primed 300 of them at random and started working up some loads. In doing this I found that one of the brands of brass had a thick case and would not chamber with a .357 sized boolit in the case. So I went about sorting all the cases by head stamp. In doing this I found a 9mm that had gotten through the sizing step. Then I thought, how did it get sized. A lee no 4 shell holder is too small to hold a 9mm. I had it in the press in front of me, so I tried and it fit fine. 9mm Luger was vividly stamped on the case. So out came the calipers. Same case length and diameter as the 380. Somebody did make a 380 acp out of a 9mm case.
I think it would be a bit of work to squeeze the base down and trim the case, but if you had to have the 380 brass, 9mm is cheaper and more available.

[OptimusPanda]

The .223 and .380 use the same hornady shell plates. On a whim I just checked...a .223/5.56 clip holds .380 cartridges just fine. Might be a neat storage solution. (I do this sometimes with .38/.357 on sks clips and it works great)

[bouncer50]

The Grendal 380 auto pistol used m-16 stripper to reload them. The gun had a inside mag like the C-96 Mauser

[MI2600]

The question that comes to mind is what happened to the remainder of OP's 223?

[Hick]

MI2600--The remainder was still in the chamber-- but dropped out easily. In looking at the two parts, I found that there had been a spiral defect in the brass up toward the shoulder that gave way causing the case to fail. The defect wasn't anywhere near the normal failure points for a reloaded cartridge, and I know for a fact that this was the first reload for this piece of brass, so I'm thinking it was just one of those very rare situations of a materials defect that made it through the case forming system at Lake City.

[Eddie2002]

I was playing around with converting .223 brass into .380 auto. The volumn of the converted .223 brass is a lot smaller than the .380 ACP brass and the neck needs to be turned down to fit the chamber of my Ruger .380 LCP. Don't know what load data to use, the smaller case volumn of the converted brass would give higher chamber pressures. I never tried to load and fire a converted case, it didn't seem safe.

[Multigunner]

Interesting discovery.
I'd been wondering if cases for such obsolete cartridges as the 9X20 Browning Long could be formed from any easily found modern cartridge cases.
I'd figured one would have to shorten some longer pistol case such as the .38ACP and turn down the rim.

I don't have a pistol in 9MM Browning Long at this time, but I have on occasion run across rare pistols in obsolete chamberings fairly cheap, and have been asked about finding ammo for such pistols in the past.
I once had a 7.65 Longue French pistol, which worked fairly well with .32 ACP ammo, but gave it to a friend after failing to find any proper ammunition for it. I found out later that cases could be made by trimming and turning off the rim then cutting an extractor groove into a .32 S&W Long case.

A casing with a thick head would be a safety feature for a 1907 9mm Browning Long blowback operated pistol. It being a bit more powerful than the .380. If a handload was a bit on the hot side it would be less likely to split a thicker casehead on early opening.

The Finns occasionally used the specialized 9X19 SMG cartridges loaded with slower powders in the 1907 pistols when proper ammo was hard to get. The slower powder which allowed higher velocity in the long barrel of the Soumi did not burn completely in the short pistol barrel so it didn't damage the blowback pistols. Just a bit more muzzle blast and flash.

Many 1907 pistols were later converted to .380 ACP.

[rintinglen]

9mm Browning long is more easily made from 38 super brass. All it take is the removal of about .010" off the length. .223 brass can be used but the rim will be about .020 undersized which may cause extraction difficulties.

[GONRA]

GONRA made couple hundred 9mm Browning Long by shortening .38 Super brass.
Both are semirimmed cases.

Also setup lathe for couple hundred 7.65mm French Long from .32 S&W brass.
(In a similar fashion, made 9mm Steyr from .38 Special brass
and .455 Webley & Scott Auto from .45 Long Colt brass.)


Can make perfect 7mm Nambu from .30 Carbine brass.

Head diameters match perfectly.
Many auto pistol caliber brass conversions from .223 brass are waaay off.

Even European ammo factories have really screwed up auto pistol case head diameters!

[grullaguy]

And 7.62 x 25.

I also make 7.62 X 38R brass from fired 5.56 blanks.

What can I say, I like playing on the lathe.

[bouncer50]

How do you make 7.62 x 38r from 223 brass. The russian round has a rim case. I make mine from 32-20