Safetychain
Member
My first venture into pistol reloading was with 380 ACP. That was 15-20 years ago. My pistol was a WWII aged Husqvarna Browning Short. I reloaded 90-95 gr fmj and then plated bullets over Unique in the mid and just above mid range. Tried them out in the Browning Short for around 250 rnds with no problem. Then loaded up 1000+. The next trip to the range I was advised not to shoot the Husqvarna as I would ruin the collector's value of it. Acquired a S&W 639 9mm police trade in and dropped the 380 shooting. Finally realized the foolishness of not shooting the Husqvarna and even got a TCP for carry. Now while shooting my previous cache of 380 reloads, I am finding a 40%+ rate of split cases after firing them. The same happens whether the gun is TCP, Husqvarna, Keltec, or Kahr. They shoot unnoticeably different from factory loads and show no flattened primers or cratering around the firing pin dent. Does anybody have any idea what may be happening? I plan on continuing to shoot them but not try to reuse the brass that doesn't split as I have 40-50 lbs of the initial range brass still.
When I first noticed that the cases were splitting, an inspection of the rest of the reloads shows a rate of 2-3 per 50 that now have minor splits in leading edge a few millimeters long. Being my first reloads, I cannot see how I could have missed the splits as I was so proud of them and showed them off often and, no splitting showed up that first time shooting them since that was what I was looking for when test firing them. Again, I see no reason to not fire these with the minor splits either (at the range). What ya think?
When I first noticed that the cases were splitting, an inspection of the rest of the reloads shows a rate of 2-3 per 50 that now have minor splits in leading edge a few millimeters long. Being my first reloads, I cannot see how I could have missed the splits as I was so proud of them and showed them off often and, no splitting showed up that first time shooting them since that was what I was looking for when test firing them. Again, I see no reason to not fire these with the minor splits either (at the range). What ya think?
