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Reloading .380 acp...your pet loads/suggestions?

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Vodoun da Vinci

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Long story short, my Wife has found her "Soul Mate" pistol and caliber (we are thrilled!) in the Glock 42. We have been waiting on one since January but have managed to shoot the LGS owners gun a few times to get the flavor. Nothing like having your own gun - we put about 300 rounds of various makes of .380 thru it yesterday and saved the brass to add to the stash I already have.

I ordered bullets and RCBS .380 dies and a shell holder yesterday as soon as we got home from the range. Presently I load all we shoot in .38 Special, .357 Mag, .32 acp, 9mm, and now I'll be working up .380 acp. We always practive with what we use for SD and in autoloaders I *really* like flat nose lead or plated when I can get it. I ordered Xtreme Bullets 100 gr. plated flat noses for the .380 and will start with Unique, CCI small pistol primers and the RCBS .380 dies featuring a taper crimp.

I do all my 9mm on RCBS dies with the taper crimp and it has been simple and precision. :)

Suggestions? Good/bad things or stuff to watch for? I have not done .380 but I'm assuming it'll be the same as 9mm and .32 - I only have one .380 gun but will be getting another .380 this year and I know Glocks tend to have deep chambers so I want to be careful to work up my OAL short enough to function in other guns as they are acquired.

Thanks in Advance!!

VooDoo
 
Nahhhh..... .32 bullets and cases are small. 9mm/.380 not so bad. I have small fingers and good lights... :)

But it's a good idea!

VooDoo
 
Yeah I have found in 380 I really preferred the performance of a good hard cast flat point I have some xtp's I bought hoping I could push them hard enough to expand reliably but I couldn't safely do that :banghead: so it is flat points for me
 
My .380 hates flat points. I run the Berrys hollow base round nose.

It's easy to reload. Same bullet diameter as a 9mm just smaller. Powders I like are Titegroup, Unique and Autocomp.

Make sure to do the plunk test in all three and you should be good. I load .380 for my wife and 2 of them for my parents. All using same OAL and same charge and they all work great.
 
FWIW these are my 2 favorates for .380

Berrys 100gr rnfb
3.1gr Universal
COAL .965

Speer Gold Dot HP 90gr
4.2 gr Unique
COAL .960
These both feed and function perfectly out of a Kahr P380. Both very accurate.
 
Currently, I load 380ACP with Unique or 700-X. I have used W231 in the past.

Since you load 32 ACP, 380 ACP is a piece of cake.

I enjoy shooting my 380 ACPs but they tend to spray cases all over the place. It makes policing cases frustrating at times
 
cfullgraf said:
Since you load 32 ACP, 380 ACP is a piece of cake.

I enjoy shooting my 380 ACPs but they tend to spray cases all over the place. It makes policing cases frustrating at times
Click to expand...

I didn't think I'd have problems but it's always good to ask around at THR...there's always someone who know a little something I have not seen before. I had the very first squib in my life yesterday shooting "re manufactured" .380 that we bought because it's hard to find .380 locally. My Wife pulled the trigger on one that went "Pfft" instead of bang and stopped and looked at me like *?* "What was *ThAt!*" :what:

Sure enough, bullet was stuck halfway down the barrel. Buddies at the range pushed it out for us. I traded the price of the box of ammo for 2 hours of range time (next time) so it was a lesson learned for all. One more reason to roll my own ammo....I have never had a failure in my ammunition.

The cool thing about my range is that they don't care if I sweep up my brass or any other brass on the floor. There are so many folks shooting .380 that I'll never have to buy brass again even if I lose half what I shoot. :)
 
I enjoy shooting my 380 ACPs but they tend to spray cases all over the place
Click to expand...

Why is that I wonder? I thought I was the only one. Mine even come flying backwards, somehow.
 
I loaded up a bunch of 380 a year ago that shoots very nicely. 3.0gr of bullseye with 100gr round nose plated. If anything, they are just a little soft in a P238. Next time I reload for 380, I'm going to try 3.1gr.

I picked 3.0gr bullseye based on reading a number of threads here, checking several manuals, and it was a toss up between 3.0 and 3.1gr.
 
I own a KelTec P3AT 380. It is my only 380. I bought it for deep carry. I did a lot of research about the gun and feed reliability was an issue.
I have all the components for reloading for the 380 but still haven't reloaded for it. IRCC, the greatest concern for reloading for MY 380 is the guns small size made for a rather abrupt feed ramp and many HP or FN bullets might end up jammed into the top of the throat rather than cambering. Just keep that in mind if you think it could be an issue with your gun.
The rounded nose of Golden Sabre chamber really well as does Critical Defense. Regular UMC chamber very well and are the only bullets I have for reloading the 380 as I bought gobs of Critical Defense finished round years ago.
 
4 grns of Unique, Rem or Sierra 95 grn FMJ or 90 grn JHP. .984 COL. Works great, not even a peak load in many books.

I seen up above, others use the same thing.
 
BUT guys half of you aint paying attention. He is gonna be loading for a Glock 42 which means that he will have to be using plated or powder coated bullets.

You already load for 9mm. What bullet do you use for that if that bullet is 115 grains or under you could use the same bullet.
 
I'm with cfullgraff on the unique and 700X. Also with jwrowland77 on the hollow base Berry's. I have been able to develop very good results with those combinations.
 
hartcreek said:
You already load for 9mm. What bullet do you use for that if that bullet is 115 grains or under you could use the same bullet.
Click to expand...

Yeah...the .380 bullets I ordered are 100 gr. plated flat noses from Xtreme Bullets. My "go to" 9mm load is a 124 gr. Berry's plated flat nose and that'd be too heavy of a bullet for a .380 IMO. Great idea, though!

I'm prolly gonna run my first batch of 100 gr. plated with about 3.9 gr. of Unique and see how it goes...the Glock is a very soft shooter due to it's locked breech and low bore axis so we might try and push the .380 loads a little to get as much oomph as we can without sacrificing accuracy or getting over pressure. The Wife really likes the accuracy and soft shooting simplicity of the Glock. The G26 9mm i have has a very deep chamber comparatively and I'm thinking the G42 might be similar?

I am concerned about developing a loading that is too long for the next .380 which will likely be a Beretta Pico when released.

VooDoo
 
Light loads that work in other small .380's such as a Ruger LCP, most likely won't cycle the slide on a G42. I've had to get close to book max on all my loads and still some powders won't work. After a few hundred rounds it seems to get a little better but I haven't had the chance to go back and retest my lighter loads.
The only powders I've gotten to work are Autocomp, Titegroup, and Bullseye, all at max or very near. I'm using 100 grain Berry RN hollow base bullets with an OAL of .966. I'm open to other successes. No luck with SR4756 or Power Pistol which shoot fine in my Ruger.
 
My fave load is a Berry's 100gr. hollow base on top of 2.8gr. Titegroup.

I shoot the stuff out of a Sig P232, and I too have a problem with the brass ejecting all over the place. I usually recover about 50% of my brass. I mark my brass with a red, bold Sharpie around the primer, so I can tell my loads from the rest of the brass I may find.
 
wlkjr said:
Light loads that work in other small .380's such as a Ruger LCP, most likely won't cycle the slide on a G42. I've had to get close to book max on all my loads and still some powders won't work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we managed to put a few hundred round thru the LGS owners gun and about 300 rounds of various ammunition including "low recoil" Winchester "Train and Defend" .380 this weekend. The only hitches we had were with some junk re manufactured rounds that were *highly* variable in report and recoil and eventually resulted in a squib at about 75 rounds thru. We traded the remainder back for 2 hours of range time.

Other than that we have yet to have a single failure on the G42 in around 600 rounds or so. I'll report back in a couple weeks when I have some reloads under my belt and see if we experience any G42 problems.

Our support group has shot most .380 offerings and find that the G42 is most finicky in the hands of women/small structured shooters with less experience... we have encountered several FTF's and FTE's in some shooters with ammunition that functioned flawlessly with more aggressive shooters. My Wife had several issues with the borrowed G42 and we suspected ammunition but in my hands it functioned flawlessly with the same ammo. When I instructed her to change her grip and grip tighter and "provide a solid platform" the gun became a sewing machine. Accurate and flawless.

I think the G42 in the first 500 rounds wants to be finicky with some ammunition which is exacerbated by improper or compromised grip on the gun. I'll know a lot more when we start working the gun with hand loads and more factory which has been donated locally for me to test.

VooDoo
 
WLKJR same here w/ near Max loads. Been using W/231,Power Pistol ,bulls Eye. P.P. no luck B.E.,near max was my best w/M.G. 95gr. xtp"s90gr. jhp"s one thing I"ve been noticeing, was my barell looked like would you say leading up? As I clean my grouping comes back allot better. Shoulder surgery is made it hard to try and set up chrony! 3.3gr.M.G. 95gr. B.E.
 
Due to the small volume of the 380 case your better off using a powder that meters accurately. Since most load ranges are 0.4 gr or less min to max, inaccurate metering of powder is not a good thing. Since Unique meters ± 0.2 gr (0.4 gr spread) on a best case on my equipment I will not use it unless I'm weighting every load. I load on a AP so I can not do the tap dance to settle the powder. I only use ball powders when if comes to small case rounds.
 
wlkjr said:
Light loads that work in other small .380's such as a Ruger LCP, most likely won't cycle the slide on a G42.
The only powders I've gotten to work are Autocomp, Titegroup, and Bullseye, all at max or very near. I'm using 100 grain Berry RN hollow base bullets with an OAL of .966. I'm open to other successes. No luck with SR4756 or Power Pistol which shoot fine in my Ruger.
Click to expand...

So, to be clear, you are having problems working up loads that function well in your G42? Lauderdale - same question. Any other folks here reloading .380 for a Glock 42 specifically or shooting your .380 reloads in multiple pistols including a G42?

Thanks in advance.

VooDoo
 
For the G42 only loads close to max will work. Lighter loads won't function the slide. But, it seems to be loosening up some, so I'm going to retest the lighter loads. Bullseye and Titegroup are the two powders that I'd found to work the best. Factory loads that work for me are HPR 100 grain and Remington 95 grain.
 
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