.380 acp-90 gr. or 115?

[zt77]

Has everyone seen those titanium plated "rainbow" finished sig p238's that are out right now?

well my girlfriend had to have one.

so she gets that for christmas on the condition I get two moulds.

I need some suggestions on which mould to get for .380. my lyman manual has data for 90 grain roundnose and a 115 grain roundnose. I thought 115 was a tad heavy and it was going rather slow (750 fps), but it would be useful for 9mm luger as well.
I'm mainly concerned about POI and accuracy, not velocity, since this is to be a practice load, so if the 115's POI is pretty close at ~15 yards and it shoots ok, that would be nice.

any suggestions?

the other mould I'm looking for is a 200 grain swc .45 mould for a 1911. I've heard the H&G #68 is the best but are there profiles that duplicate it well?
I was considering RCBS 45-201-swc or RCBS's 225 grain roundnose.

[MtGun44]

I just cast up a bunch of 358242s, but no dies yet, will ask Santa for a set, so I will be
working on .380 in the new year. I just can't bring myself to pay $30-$40 for a box
of 50 .380s. Saw a few for $29 at last gun show, no brand I ever heard of. These
are 90 gr nominal (stamped on mold) but mine are about 94 gr. Seem just right length
for the .380.

Bill

[zt77]

I think I will be asking for the 90 grainer.

I hear you about the prices. last year at a show we had three boxes of remington .380, and before we put a tag on them, a different dealer came up and offered $150 for the three boxes!

sad part is he went to his table and put $300 for the three and sold them all in about 15 minutes.

that's a little over the edge I thought.

[JIMinPHX]

For the .380, I've had good luck with the 102gr RN & the 105gr SWC from Lee. Both also work well in a regular 9-iron. If I had to pick just one, it would probably be the SWC. It's really versatile. It's good in .38 Spl & .357 mag too.

When I had a table at a show a few months ago, I was selling my few extra boxes of .380 factory ammo for something like $30 each. I would only put one or two boxes out at a time so that a single person would not clean me out. I was trying to spread it around to as many of the people who really needed it as possible. The high price was there to weed out the speculators & the hoarders. The ammo dealers had no .380 ammo that show & the poor individuals who had just bought pistols in that caliber were really SOL.

[Shiloh]

My limited experience with cast in a .380 is a 90 gr boolit. A Lyman 356242. Accuracy was fair at best. This was more than likely the pistol rather than the boolit or mold. A surplus European pistol, heavily used, with a worn out barrel.

Shiloh

[Springfield]

I've got some RN 90 grainers I just cast up for my .380 if you'd like a few to try out. I can send them as cast or sized, your choice.

[Bret4207]

I got a 90 gr FN for the 380 some time back. It seems to work better than anything in the HP line I've tried out of my particularly accurate Astra Constable II. It's an old NEI mould.

[Dutchman]

I'm 1/3rd way through loading 1,500 rds of .380 acp for my Beretta 1934. I'm using a round nose 92 grain with 3.7 grs Unique. Shoots good. Had to seat a touch deeper than Lyman48 to fit and feed easily into the magazine.


Dutch

[MtGun44]

Suddenly we're all gearing up to load .380, which used to be something that I really
never thought I'd load. I sorted out all the .380 from my 9mm range pickup brass and
had put it in a box, kinda expecting to give it away some day if somebody wanted it.
Now that 2-300 cases picked up over 5-10 yrs is going to be useful.

Amazing what ammo shortages will do.

Bill

[Daddyfixit]

I tried a RCBS 82026, 09-115-RN and found the OAL was too long to fit in the mag. I would go with the 90gr. My PPKS shoots great with factory 90gr ammo so I'm looking foward to working up a better load casting my own! Now I too must find that golden mould.

[NickSS]

I load the Lee 120 gr TC bullet in 380 and get good accuracy with my Bersa I also load 115 gr FMJ slugs on occation. They work good as well. The lee TC bullet I bought for my 9mm and use them only because I have the mold. I have been thinking about buying a 90-95 gr mold for the 380 for practice as this would save me lead. I load better bullets for self defense ammo, however, the 120 gr TC works well on raccoon as I shot one in my back yard a week or two back with one. One shot did the trick with no problems.

[FISH4BUGS]

I load 380 for the Mac M11A1 Submachine gun. I must say it is the most fun gun in the world to shoot. My load is the Hensley & Gibbs 10 cavity S55 which produces a 100 grain rn bullet, sized 356 with Magma Blue lube, and used with 3.1 gr 231. I could bump up the load just a hair to maybe 3.2 or 3.3 gr, but I don't like to beat the MAC to death. So far I have put some 10,000 rounds through it and it is reliable and shoots well. Certainly not a target gun but at 1200+ rounds per minute, you don't need to be quite on target.

[Cherokee]

I have an old Lyman 356404 that cast a 99-100 gr flat nose that I use some time but it is not reliable in all my 380's. Also have an old NEI 356109 that cast @ 109-112 gr TC design that feeds great and is accurate. 3.1 of 231 works great but work up to that load.

[Will]

I use the LEE 356-112RN, I don't think they still make it, It works real well with 2.4gr of RedDot or BullsEye. I'v never had a malfunction with it and I like the heavier slug for a self defence weapon. It looks like to 102gr version just slightly longer. I seat it to max OAL and put a slight taper crimp on it. Reducing the load opens up the group considerably. It casts .358 and 112gr whit WW.

[putteral]

Another vote here for the Lee 358-105-SWC. I size it to .356 and works wonderfully in my PPK/S and all my 9's. Like either 2.4 grs of Red Dot or 4 grs of AA#5 in the .380. Extremely accurate boolit.

[JIMinPHX]

I load 380 for the Mac M11A1 Submachine gun...
1200+ rounds per minute

Really? I knew that they were fast, but I had no idea they were that fast. Isn't that like 20 rounds per second?