[Tac. Gunner]

Been considering the purchase of a .380 pistol and have thought about reloading for it. I found another thread on here that is from 2006 on this same topic. In here there is mention of using Clays powder. Is this Clays, International Clays, or Universal Clays? I have Clays that I use for .45 reloading and hope to use it. Is this possible?

Here is the link for the other thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=200847

[MrOldLude]

What do your published loading books/references say about Hodgdon Clays in .380?

If nothing, my advice would be to eat the meager cost of a pound of powder with published loads and call it good.

[JDGray]

Universal would be the better choice if your looking for any velocity. I like Power Pistol myself:)

Reading through the link, he seems to be indicating Clays, as he said he "cooked that one up himself" as there wasn't data for it.

[Randy1911]

I know that you are asking about Clays, but I like W231 alot better. 3.2grs. witha 95 gr. bulllet is a good load. Well published data too.

[Sunray]

Hodgdon lists 'Clays' as 'Clays' and 'Universal Clays' as 'Universal' on their site. Universal is given on their .380 ACP page. International Clays is only given on the 20 Guage shotshell reloading page.
Mind you, the web site isn't as complete as a manual will be.

[cfullgraf]

I use 700-X and Unique in the 380ACP.

[Tac. Gunner]

I'll have to look around for some data on it if there is any. Right now all I reload is .45 and that is 3.8grs of Clays with a 185gr. LSWC on top of it

[RidgwayCO]

I've used Clays in the .380 Auto for 95gr lead RN bullets at moderate velocities (a target/plinking load). These bullet are available at modest cost from Tennessee Valley Bullets, Missouri Bullets, and others.

Using 2.1gr of Clays (Lee .32cc cavity) gave me 803 fps from my Bersa Series 95 (3.5" barrel) with clean burning and nice target performance. The only problem I noticed was that Clays tends to bridge in the powder measure at such light weights, so you need to carefully monitor each and every powder throw (which is always a good idea).

If all I had was Clays, I could still load my .380 Autos confidently for target work, just not for full power loads. For those full-power loads (with jacketed bullets), I've found Accurate #2, VihtaVuori N320, or VihtaVuori N340 to be better choices. Actually, if I could only have one powder to cover the spectrum from mild to wild in the .380 Auto, it would be Accurate #2. YMMV.