380 carbine reloading

I searched going back to 2014 for a 380 carbine reloading post, no dice.
Don't say get a 9mm carbine because I will at some point. This is all part of a plan, since my wife took my 380 sig P232 and I'm thinking she might do the same with a 380 long gun.

The idea is reload maybe some +P ammo in the 100 to 115gr range, because I would like the rounds to stay subsonic.
Going from a 3 inch sub compact to a 16 inch barrel should give about a 100 to 150fps boost.
The "high performance" 80 to 85gr 380 ammo will probably be supersonic.

Also I like to use unique.

So I found a nosler load for a 115gr JHP.
They recommend 3.3gr of unique. 3.5gr being absolute max.
3.3gr did 800fps out of a 2.25'' gun.
Probably won't get much over 950fps in a rifle. Think this might be best.

A 100gr fmj over 4gr of unique at 950fps in a pistol, should make 1,050 to 1,100fps in a rifle. High sub sonic, should shoot flat enough, really hurt when applied to coyotes.

Or a 9mm speer gold dot (plated) 90gr.
I have used near the max of 4.6gr but usually try for 4.4 to 4.5gr with plated 90gr bullets in the past. Should do at least 1,030 out of a pistol so they might crack out of a rifle.
Going to say 90gr might be too light.
Normally load 80 to 90gr stuff for the pistol.

25-20 WCF said:

Depending on the powder used, the OP may find his velocity is a little higher than he estimates.

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/380auto.html

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/380auto2.html

BTW, FMJ bullets are not the best or most humane projectiles for hunting coyotes, especially those of small diameter and low velocity.....



.

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So definitely no 90gr and lighter, probably should stick with 100s. More FPS is better.
I would prefer to use an ax on coyotes but their just too darn quick.

Walkalong said:

I did not know that, but I would rather have a 9MM, brass is free, the power is there is needed, and it can be loaded at .380 levels for recoil control. I have multiple 5 gallon buckets of free 9MM from the range, not much .380 at all, maybe a gallon at most.

And it's building up on the shed floor, I really need to sort it out. The blue, gray, and yellow bins on the right are all 9MM, plus some in the middle, .223 on the left, and in the middle. The white bucket in the middle is all .40.

So I would go 9MM, save money on brass, and load it to suit me (Or the wife).

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In time.
I will get a Beretta storm 9mm eventually.

I got one of those but not from there.
Normally I only buy stuff like FN, ruger, sig, gemtech, rem, win. From what I can tell it seems pretty hard to make a pistol carbine that really sucks.

Strange thing is the 380 carbine uses pretty much a 9x19 mag.
So unlike a normal 380 round the COAL can be stupid long, so long as the outer diameter of the bullet doesn't crash into the lands.

Little bit of an update.
I bought some new primed 380 brass so I'm set for a while on cases.
I found some more 115gr jacked 380 loads.
AA7 5.4gr 872fps, max load reduce at least 10%
HS-6 4.5gr 885fps, max load reduce at least 10%
Those are velocity numbers for sub 3 inch barrels, a 16 inch tube should spit them out a bit faster.

I am going to form 1 a solvent trap to make a quick and cheap 9mm can with no moving parts. It's serviceable so I can clean it. But I'm lazy and would rater not. Unique is pretty clean burning, but I find AA7 is normally even cleaner so I'm going to try that first.

I don't have any AA2, it's a little fast burning.
I'm good with smoking 4 or 5 grains of slower burning propellant per shot in a long gun.
I think something like AA2 would be ideal in a sub 3 inch gun.

I'm pretty sure these 115gr 380 rounds will be too long to fit in most 380 pistol magazines. High point was cheap and lazy and it looks like they just used a 9x19 mag in their 380 carbine. When I load the mag for the first time i noticed theres at least 1/8'' of room between the bullet and the magazine. The first time I loaded up the magazine I saw this extra room compared to how tight the rounds are in the sig mags are and thought a frankin380 loaded with an extra pointy 115gr nato style 9mm ball projectile would easy fit. Im sure they will fit, but would they feed?
The coal will be way over spec but should chamber as long as they feed.

In my sig, standard round nose 380 ball rounds just about fill the mag completely, there's no extra room.

I'm going to put a big cheap form 1 solvent trap silencer on it. I say cheap but it was nearly $300.
I hope that it will sound like my gemtech mist 10/22 but put 9mm holes in stuff.

I just noticed just about everyone was out of 380 ammo.
Glad I would go to the range and shot 50 or 100 and pick up 300-400 and reload them all.
And the form 1 silencer works great.

kelbro said:

Never heard of a 380 carbine. What's the effective range of something like that?

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With the velocity and ballistic coefficient of the projectile it's should be about 22LR capable.
I haven't taken it out and put it on paper, I just sighted it in by blasting junk.
But it's not a quiet as the gemtech mist 10/22.