Lee .380 bullets

[maliveline]

I have a lee 380 2 cavity mold. It drops 100gr round nose bullet. I’m trying to run these bullets in a sig p238 and the dam things will not go into battery for anything. Any help is appreciated. Maybe someone could tell me a better mold.

[allsy]

A group of shooters and I were discussing 380 this week, I took notes on two molds the Lee 102-1R and the Lee 95-RF both for a Bersa pistol, I was interested in the 95gr bullet. One gentleman indicated he had trouble with the 102-1R and ended up seating deeper than he wanted in order to lock the slide closed. He started with a Lyman book loading of 0.960 and could not get the bullet to chamber regularly. He ended up with an OAL was .930 to get the slide to lock. I think he started with 2.5gr of unique but ended up at 3.0gr before he was happy with the .930 OAL. The bullets he shared with me to try were lubed with red grease (don't know the brand), dropped from reclaimed lead and weighed around 104gr. with lube. At 0.930 they chamber just fine in the Bersa sized @ 0.356.

[Cherokee]

I have the Lee 95-RF TL and it works fine, mostly, in several 380's. There is an occasional feeding jamb but it is accurate @ 357 size and cuts a nice round hole in the paper.

[bedbugbilly]

I wouldn't toss the mold in favor of another one yet. A lot of folks have that mold from what I've read and they like it a lot. I'm going through the "leaning curve" on .380 myself so I feel for you. I don't have a p238 - have a friend who has two of them though so am familiar with that pistol.

In my case, I bought some coated RN boolits from a member here. I'm loading for a Smith 380 EZ Shield and a Beretta 84. For the road nose, the recommended COAL was .980. I want to be able to use the same cartridge in both pistols so I loaded up dummy rounds to try and fortunately, the .980 worked in both. But I have a 100 grain Ranch Dog design that I have the mold for - like that boolit - so loaded up dummy rounds. As in your case - they wouldn't chamber in either pistol so the slide would go back in battery. I kept playing and shortening the COAL (increasing the seating depth) and finally settled on a COAL of .950. With dummy rounds, that works. We'll see if it does with loaded rounds.

It comes down, in my case, to boolit profile I know. But, I think form talking with others, one of the problems with the .380 (as with other calibers) is that not all chambers are created equal - just as bore dimensions can vary from one mfg. to another. Try making more dummy rounds and increase your seating depth a smidgen each time until it will work in your chamber - then once you find the "magic spot", increase it a few thousandths to guarantee that once you load a batch, the will fit. Then adjust your load grain amount for the decrease in case volume.

In the case of the ranch dog style I'm working with, one fellow sent information of what his COAL was with the same boolit - it was quite a bit shorter than what I came up with for my pistols as he was working with a Taurus - but that's what his particular pistol needed in order to feed/function.

If I"m "off base" on this, someone will come along and correct me and probably have even better ideas.

When I learned to load 9mm, I didn't have any issues at all and everything worked perfectly from the get go - and I'm sure i was just lucky on that as far as COAL, function, etc. The 380? I'm finding it a little more finicky but am also enjoying the learning experience. Good luck to you!

[Ed_Shot]

Shortening the OAL and downloading is one option....each weapon has its own likes/dislikes. The 356-102-1R is pretty standard for .380. I size mine .358 and use the Lyman spec'd OAL of .960 for my Bersa and LCP. My brother's Colt Mustang chokes on .960 but runs fine with a .955 OAL. I am not familiar with the P238. I have two questions: Does your sized brass (before you expand the case mouth) easily fall "plunk" into your chamber to the correct depth? and; What is the diameter of your loaded round at the case mouth after you crimp?

[Reddirt62]

I run a 359-92-RN 4 banger from NOE and my 238 gobbles them up.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[EMC45]

I ran them at .358 (as I do all my other .356-358 bullets) in my .380s and they didn't go into battery at all. I sized them down to .356 and feed like butter now.

[maliveline]

I got mined sized to 356 and was running my OAL at .960 I thought it was working when I was trying to cycle them in my house but when I went out to the range it wasn’t working for ****. I guess I will try seating them deeper.

[ThomR]

I use the 95 grain Lee round flat for my wife's 380EZ and it feeds them just fine.

[maliveline]

Ok got them feeding better at .940 OAL. Not impressed with this mold at all I might try the 95gr at some point

[DonMountain]

I had a lot of trouble also trying to get the Lee 356-102-1R running in my antique 380 pistol and finally ended up with COL of 0.950" to clear the rifling so it would chamber, and a sized diameter of 0.354" so the brass would fit in the chamber with the bullet seated. Using 2.6 grains of W-231 powder and Remington 1-1/2 pistol primers I am getting good accuracy and function now. I spent a good amount of time dropping loaded rounds into the barrel chamber until I arrived at these COL and bullet sizing diameters. I think some of the older European guns have smaller chamber than the more recent American made guns. It helps to load a test round and put black magic marker all over the bullet and the casing and then drop it into the chamber to see what is causing the chambering problem. Push them in tight in the chamber and see where the black is rubbed off.

[trixter]

In 2001 My son and I purchased a Springfield Armory 45 XDm. We soon realized that unless we cast our own and reloaded them we couldn't afford to have much fun. After several boolit styles we settled on the Lee 452-200-SWC. So when I acquired my KekTek 380 the same thing applied and I found the Lee 358-105-SWC It works just fine and after messing with the OAL a little had it making 'paper punch' holes in the targets. When I acquired my XDs in 9mm............ Well you know the rest of the story. powdercoating them made them even better. I have a hard time keeping up my boolit supply. I so love this hobby. I am starting to look at my 30 cal rifle boolits and willl be powdercoating them in the future.

[fatelk]

It seems that there’s a wide difference in bore throats in 380 pistols. My first 380 is a little Taurus. I already had the Lee 105 swc mold, but there was absolutely no way that bullet was going to work in that Taurus. I’d have to seat it so deep the sides of the brass bulged out.

I then got the 102gr RN bullet. The shape of it was such that I had to seat it really deep too. Some brands of brass taper more than others, so if I sorted brass carefully it could work ok. Otherwise you end up with a round with a bulge in the middle that won’t chamber.

Then I bought the Lee 95gr RF mold. It works great, exactly what I was looking for.

[allsy]

Glad to hear the 95gr is working, I am not happy seating the 102 as deep as I had to and opted for Hornady XTP's for the wife to shoot with. 100 rounds last her all month in 380, not so much for me.

[EMC45]

In 2001 My son and I purchased a Springfield Armory 45 XDm. We soon realized that unless we cast our own and reloaded them we couldn't afford to have much fun. After several boolit styles we settled on the Lee 452-200-SWC. So when I acquired my KekTek 380 the same thing applied and I found the Lee 358-105-SWC It works just fine and after messing with the OAL a little had it making 'paper punch' holes in the targets. When I acquired my XDs in 9mm............ Well you know the rest of the story. powdercoating them made them even better. I have a hard time keeping up my boolit supply. I so love this hobby. I am starting to look at my 30 cal rifle boolits and willl be powdercoating them in the future.


The little 105gr. SWC works great in my KelTec .380 as well. Nice clean holes. It won't feed in the Diamondback though.