Help with Bersa 380 Handloads

Hello All

I have been loading some for my son's Bersa 380 and we are having trouble with 90 grain XTP bullets. Brass is assorted range pick up. The trouble we are having is finding an OAL that loads in the magazine and feeds properly.

Lyman manual says .984 as max length and that feeds great .....if you only load one bullet in the magazine, the magazine is to short to handle this load. When we shorten the OAL to accomodate the mag length we have feeding problems .975-.978 loads in the mag but does not feed well. The bullet hits the top of the barrel and the slide come forward and catches the case and jams the slide.

We have tried shorter and it increases the jams. The .975 length feeds but is not reliable.

Any ideas? Round nose bullets work well but I would like to be able to use the XTP.

Thanks
Mike

You are seating them way too long.
Hornady manual says .965".

That bullet, seated .955" COL feeds perfectly in both my Kel-Tec P3AT and my SIG P-232.

.984" is only the SAAMI max length for any bullet, but a RN bullet particularly, as shown in the cartridge drawing.

That length has nothing at all to do with JHP bullets however as the nose shape is completely different.

rc

My Bersa Thunder .380 shoots and feeds the Hornady 90 XTP-HP fine. Hornady's manual recommends an overall length of 0.965" and I load them from .960 to .965". My .380 also feeds Federal 90 gr. Hydra-Shok's 100% along with factory Win 95gr. FMJ flat points.
Federal Hydra-Shok's overall length is approx. 0.945" and the Win 95 FMJ-FP's are approx.0.950" oal.
I would suspect the magazine or the load data if they don't feed at the above overall lengths.

Ive loaded those bullets, the OAL was .965"

They were successfully shot in 3 different Ruger LCP's a Keltec P3AT and a Bersa 380 plus. I think I gave some to my buddies wife last year who has the standard Bersa 380, and I didnt hear anything bad which means they worked fine at that OAL. Hope this helps

Thanks for the responses
We have tried shorter but we may have been shorter then .965 I will try a few at .965 and see happens. If that does not work I will get a new magazine. Load is 4.3 grains Power Pistol, cycles fine if I can get it in the barrel.

Mike