Proposed: ban on .380 cal pistol

[rdtompki]

My 9mm reloading has been (almost) flawless. But when I have a manufacturing "escape" it absolutely always winds up in my wife's gun. I've discovered that my Hornady LNL AP press, set up for 9mm, also excels at assembling 147gr .380 loads. Also discovered that said rounds will chamber and fire just fine in our 9mm 1911s. What they won't do is extract; the case just sits in the chamber thumbing its nose at my wife. This happened at a match on Saturday and today during practice.

Since the first time this happened I've been even more observant when reloading. It's not hard to detect the shorter .380 case if your looking for this sort of thing. It would be a whole lot easier if the cowboy shooters (our practice range) allowed to use .380. They should man/woman up an get a real run chamber in 9mm

Has anyone else done this?

 

[kcofohio]

That is why I use an empty cartridge tray to put the casings in prior to reloading. Hard to miss the height difference standing side by side.

 

[Candyman87]

If I ever found a range that banned .380 they'd see my backside walking away and never coming back as both my carry guns are chambered in .380 and I practice the most with these two.

That being said, why not ban .40 since my 9mm cases get stuck in them, and they get stuck in my .45 cases?

 

[otisrush]

I've found all sorts of 9mm headstamps in the stuff I've picked up. But every .380 that has worked it's way into the mixed is marked ".380 Auto". (Not sure about the "Auto" - but I am sure about the ".380".)

So just recently I decided to look at every single headstamp when I pull it from the cleaned-but-unsorted bin to go into the sizing die. Maybe I should have been doing that from the beginning. When I wasn't doing that and I resized a .380 in my 9mm die (single stage press) the case would "break loose" in the die before the end of the stroke. That's how I would learn something was askew.

OR

 

[Candyman87]

I've found all sorts of 9mm headstamps in the stuff I've picked up. But every .380 that has worked it's way into the mixed is marked ".380 Auto". (Not sure about the "Auto" - but I am sure about the ".380".)

So just recently I decided to look at every single headstamp when I pull it from the cleaned-but-unsorted bin to go into the sizing die. Maybe I should have been doing that from the beginning. When I wasn't doing that and I resized a .380 in my 9mm die (single stage press) the case would "break loose" in the die before the end of the stroke. That's how I would learn something was askew.

OR

I've come across the following headstamps for .380: .380 AUTO, 9 x 17, 9mmBr.C., and .380 ACP.

Long story short, I look at EVERY headstamp. And I still put them in loading blocks to confirm before reloading. Never hurts to be extra careful.

 

[Dudedog]

If it sizes way to easy it's probably .380. They fit in a 9mm shellholder so so, but won't stay in the 9mm shellplate on my LNL. Now my 9Maks are a different story, just a bit harder to spot in regular 9mm brass.

 

[jmorris]

A long time ago I would set my powder measure so it would drop in a 9mm case and not in a 380, the powder check die would always catch is before it made it to the bullet seating station.

I case gauge all of my competition ammunition and 380 will fall deep into a 9mm case gauge.

I would up building a brass sorting machine that among other things will sort 308 from 9mm.

 

[choppinlow]

Ban the round? Little extreme

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/270949/shell-sorter-brass-sorter-380-acp-adapter-plate

I don't mean to sound rude, but you should be more careful and check your rounds and cases better. You are lucky something worse did not happen other than no-extraction.

 

[RealGun]

My brass sorter has the added insert for 380 to drop below 9mm. The stack is .45 bowl, .40 bowl, .377 insert, .357 bowl, and then anything smaller falling through.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=brass+sorter

 

[ReloaderFred]

Cowboy shooters don't shoot bottom feeders unless they're shooting a Wild Bunch match, in which they would be using .45 acp 1911's, not wimpy 9's.

Brass inspection is very important. Not only could you get an occasional .380, but you could also be loading 9x18 Makarov and not know it.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[howlnmad]

That's the thing with mass production, you get the occasional flaw. That's where QC comes in to play. Don't blame the product. ...

 

[dnfd737]

Well let me offer you this, I say ban 9mm as I run 38 super a lot.....so I have no issue with 380.

Folks I really try to be non controversial but with last weeks events and this thread I grow tired of people constantly being a victim of some sort, grow up be more meticulous in your brass sorting problem solved.

 

[Rule3]

Heck ban 22lr, those little things always find their way into brass cases.

The brass sorter 380 plate works, but is not fool proof. It also can not handle many cases at one time

The reloader needs to have their eyes on the cases. Is the op using a case feeder???

 

[Schwing]

I have never had an issue with this. I do see the occasional .380 shell make it though my sorting process but I have yet to not catch one when priming. On my Pro1000, they pop right out of the shell holder.

 

[jrdolall]

We all make mistakes and hopefully they aren't fatal. Every reloader has made a msitake.

I don't try to load fast so I am pretty meticulous about sizing brass but I have had some get by and even loaded but I have always noticed the difference when I transfer the loaded rounds into containers. If you don't notice the smaller brass before loading then you should notice it during loading. If you don't notice it during loading then you should notice it after loading. If you don't notice it after loading then you should notice it before you put it in the gun. If not then you WILL notice it.
Pay attention to every step and mistakes like this can be kept to a minimum but they can still happen.

 

[RealGun]

Long story short, I look at EVERY headstamp. And I still put them in loading blocks to confirm before reloading. Never hurts to be extra careful.

Bringing a rifle mentality to handgun loading can limit productivity too much for the volume of rounds typically needed. I would expect the 380 to miss out on the expander and then fail at bullet insertion.

 

[Rule3]

I have never had an issue with this. I do see the occasional .380 shell make it though my sorting process but I have yet to not catch one when priming. On my Pro1000, they pop right out of the shell holder.

I have also. I load both 9mm and 380. I sort clean tumble etc but still place each piece of brass in the shell holder, Kinda hard to miss a 380. Even If I do not see it I feel it when pulling the lever as you say.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

On my Dillon 650, a 9mm case won't fit into the .380 shellplate; that solves one problem.

Not sure what I'll do when reloading 9mm again, careful sorting of the brass beforehand probably beats trying to find bad rounds after loading.

People sometimes accidentally load normal .380 rds into a 9mm mag, usually they feed and sometimes cycle the gun. I need to watch that carefully when shooting both calibers together.

BTW, I bought the .380 shell sorter from Midway and it didn't work for me; 90% of my .380 brass (fired in a pair of Glock 42's) wouldn't fall through the slots. I spent several hours with the aluminum plate clamped in a vise, draw-filing the slots to make them wider, and checking frequently with fired R-P .380 cases (which expanded the most of any brand, must be thin or weak brass). I finally got it to work properly and it fits nicely into a 10 qt Miller brand bucket ("Dillon" blue!) bought at the local Farm & Fleet.

 

[Zendude]

I have never had an issue with this. I do see the occasional .380 shell make it though my sorting process but I have yet to not catch one when priming. On my Pro1000, they pop right out of the shell holder.

Same here.

 

[lauderdale]

xxx

 

[Reefinmike]

This is akin to the people that cry about the free small primed 45 brass they picked up. You also gotta watch for crimped primer pockets and cases with an internal step in 9mm. If you didnt load it and bring it to the range, you gotta inspect it. Progressives are nice and fast, but if you dont have all your ducks in a row, it is very easy to make a mistake without noticing.

 

[wlkjr]

I say ban stupid or laziness. That'll cure the problem.

 

[rdtompki]

Let's put this in context. Since I couldn't figure out how to get a smiley in the title (too dumb I suppose), I proceeded under the assumption that the tongue in cheek nature of the thread would be obvious.

I'm 20K rounds into 9mm reloading career and it's only in the last few weeks I've even encountered a .380, probably swept up at the cowboy range where we practice. The .380s are easy to spot on the case feed ramp when you know what to look for (I do) and it's probably the only case that a)isn't really, really obvious and b)will actually cycle completely through a Hornady LNL AP press set up for 9mm.

I can't see examining 4K+ cases/month or setting this many cases 100 at a time in a case tray, but I'm going to add a short post to the v-block at the height of a 9mm case; this will be a no-doubt way of id'ing the shorter .380 case.

 

[wlkjr]

Don't you case gauge every round?

 

[Caliper_Mi]

If it sizes way to easy it's probably .380.

This, and pay attention. I have a few 115gr 380 loads also. They were easy to spot when they came off the press so got set aside. After that, it was easy to feel the difference and snag the case out of the process after "resizing" it.