luger bullets in a .38?

[Sunray]

"..."neck-sized" the case with a Luger die..." There's no neck to size. No such thing as a Luger dies, bullets or expanders either. 9mm Luger/Parabellum uses .355" jacketed bullets or .356" cast bullets. Use the right diameter bullet.

 

[918v]

Why should it work?
Before crimp a .38 Special case mouth is .379", a 9mm P case mouth is .380". The bullet is smaller but the brass is thicker so the 9mm die will not reduce the .38 case mouth any smaller. You might could play that trick with a .380 die if you did not mind the extra step and the extra work hardening of your brass just to be able to use the wrong bullet.

A .357 die oversizes the case by about .002" and the case mouth expander opens up the case body by about .002", so a .357 sizer followed by a 9mm expander should work fine. The only issue is crimp.

Group size and POI are another matter, but these issues can be addressed with proper load development.

 

[GLOOB]

Berry's and cost:
I don't know about you, but Berry's charges me the same price (within a dollar or two) for bullets sized 0.358" and 0.356". It only gets more expensive when you get heavier bullets. The caliber doesn't matter.

So if you're going to buy Berry's, why not just buy the right bullet?

Oopsie. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I was never interested in shooting 125 grainers, before, so I only had the 158 grain price in my head. I suppose it'll make more sense to buy the 125 grain .357 bullets, and maybe occasionally use those in 9mm.

 

[Oyeboten]

Have you measured the Cylinder to Forcing Cone gaps on your Revolvers?

There really should not be any such mess as you describe, if those are correct.

I do not even have any mess shooting Black Powder .38 Specials ( and, of course, Lead Bullets).

If you really wish to shoot .355 or so Plated Bullets in .38 Special or .357...one way to do it with good results is to take a .358 Sizing Die, and, make a Top Punch suited to the Bullet Nose shape...set the Sizing Die on an Anvil, put a Bullet in to it, and, then set the Top Punch on to that, and give it a really hard wack or two or three, with a four pound Sledge Hammer, so the Bullet will then be .358-ish.

That or get a Hydraulic Swaging set up, and, swage the .355 Bullets to be .358 so they may fit correctly.

 

[Jim Watson]

so a .357 sizer followed by a 9mm expander should work fine.

Maybe it should... but it doesn't.
I've tried it and it did not work.
That was with MY dies and MY brass and MY bullets.
How does your stuff do with that approach?

 

[RandyP]

And which "Luger" caliber?

The .30 Luger (7.62x21mm) or the 9mm Luger (9x19mm)?

To totally nitpick on us all hinting that the OP use the correct terminology, I have seen references to a .45ACP Luger at Wiki, for what that's worth.

 

[918v]

Maybe it should... but it doesn't.
I've tried it and it did not work.
That was with MY dies and MY brass and MY bullets.
How does your stuff do with that approach?

There is no difference between my 357 and 9mm brass in terms of case wall thickness.

My RCBS .357 die sizes a Winchester .357 case to .374" at the case mouth. My redding 9mm die sizes a FC 9mm case to .373" at the case mouth.

A Hornady .355" bullet sits under adequate tension in either case if a Redding 9mm case mouth expander is used.

 

[zxcvbob]

I bought some Berry's plated hollow point bullets for my BHP a few years ago and they would not feed. So I used them in .38 Specials and they worked just fine. Flared the ends of the cases with a Lee universal flaring die; the case tension was just fine. They looked better if I taper crimped them using a 9mm die, but they shot better if I lightly roll crimped them with the .38 die.

 

[PO2Hammer]

130 grain .356" plated RN bullets worked very well in my .357 with .358" throats and groove diameter at around 1,000 fps.
I used my standard Redding .357 dies with profile crimp.

 

[GLOOB]

Have you measured the Cylinder to Forcing Cone gaps on your Revolvers?

There really should not be any such mess as you describe, if those are correct.

No. I don't have any feeler gauges. They look fine to my untrained eyeball. I have no endshake. I don't get any spitting. The forcing cones aren't fouling. There's no significant leading. Isn't the gap fine as long as the gun shoots straight and doesn't have these symptoms? Anyway, I've heard others are experiencing the same thing with cast bullets + revolvers.

After 50 rounds, the cylinders get greasy, and it transfers to my left hand while reloading. I have to be careful not to get it on my clothes. The smoke and the grease don't happen with plated bullets, nor with the cast bullets out of my locked breech pistols.

I noticed one weird thing, though. I found some soot streaks on the sides of the recoil shield of my Ruger, so it looks like the cases aren't sealing. I'm pretty close to the top end of manufacturer data for cast, and I'm giving the cases a good crimp, but I guess I can try bumping up the load a bit more. Would a hotter charge burn up some of the excess lube??

so a .357 sizer followed by a 9mm expander should work fine.

Maybe it should... but it doesn't.
I've tried it and it did not work.

Course, it depends on your dies and brass. Heck, we all have to toss the occasional case that no longer holds even the intended bullets. So this is why I suggested using a luger die to size the neck of the brass. That should certainly help in getting good neck tension.