Lyman 365402 Mold

[Pirate69]

Has anyone used this mold with a Ruger 380 LCP? Looks like the mold is dropping a 0.359" bullet. The barrel slugs at 0.357". And the chamber seems huge at 0.373" from the best slugging I can do. Anyone see any issues I should be concerned with?

[BCall]

Wil it fit in the mag? I don't have an LCP here to check, but I wouldn't bet on it fitting in the mag. I used the 356404 with limited success, I would be worried that the nose was too long on the 402.

[Will]

My 380 is not a ruger but it won't feed the 356402. They fit the mag but hang up on the ramp. They will shoot ok if loaded single shot.

[Pirate69]

Thanks for the input. I am ordering the Lee 358-105 SWC. It appears some people have had success with that mold with the 380s. We shall see.

[Pirate69]

Ok guys,
As indicated above, I have order a 358-105 mold which is represented as being good for the 380s such as the ruger 38 lcp. Earlier, I has suggested the Lyman 365402 Mold and the length of the round was questioned. Help me out here, if I set the Lyman 365402 to the correct length., where is the problem?. Please bear with me, I am still learning this game. Your humble student.

[BCall]

Do you have some of the boolits cast from the 356402? If you do, make a dummy round and see if it will fit in the mag and feed from it. Not saying it won't work, but I simply questioned if the nose was not too long to fit in the mag. It might work, but those little 380's have pretty small mags and it might not fit. If it fits and feeds, give it a try. The Lyman manual has load data for the 356242 at 121 gr that should give you a starting point.

[Pirate69]

Well, I am still waiting on some cases to arrive from Starline, so I have not loaded anything yet. I saw a reference earlier that stated the bullets greater than 115 grains are not recommended for the Ruger LCP. However, I have also seen loading data for 125 grain 380 ACP. Does anyone know of a reason I should not shoot 125 grain cast bullets in a LCP if I can get them to function, assuming I am using safe powder loads? What to make sure Iam not missing something.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Ok guys,
As indicated above, I have order a 358-105 mold which is represented as being good for the 380s such as the ruger 38 lcp. Earlier, I has suggested the Lyman 365402 Mold and the length of the round was questioned. Help me out here, if I set the Lyman 365402 to the correct length., where is the problem?. Please bear with me, I am still learning this game. Your humble student.

Well, I don't have any 402 boolits handy (but my LCP is always in my pocket), but as I recall, I had thought about this a long, long time ago (decades before the LCP came along - referrence a different 380.).

The main problem is that if you seat a 402 boolit deep enough to get to the correct OAL for a 380, the bullet will be seated so deeply that the case mouth will extend past the sides of the bullet into the air because the angled part of the nose (ogive) will be even with the mouth of the case. This is usually a recipe for poor feeding, because the case mouth has a lot of chances to hang up on things, such as the feed ramp.

[HORNET]

I'll agree with post #8 and add that changing the seating depth that much will significantly reduce the case volume and increase pressures a considerable amount. I used the Lee 125TC several years ago but it has a much shorter nose which reduced seating depth for the same OAL. I used healthy doses of Blue Dot, IIRC. Took it up until the cases started to bulge into the feed ramp and backed off a tad. It went over minor Power Factor for IPSC at the time. Probably not a good load for any steady use...