Starting to reload a new cartridge

Late to the party again but it was my week to work at the shooting range.

I load for a number of 380's but mostly a Witness Pavona, S&W 380EZ and a Ruger I inherited. I've loaded mostly 10gr Berry's and Xtreme. but have now started casting my own 102gr and love'um. Shoot these in front of AA#2. If you'd like to try some PM me, I have lots! Lead comes out of our pistol berm and only costs me the effort.

DSCN0723.JPG
 
kmw1954 said:
Late to the party again but it was my week to work at the shooting range.

I load for a number of 380's but mostly a Witness Pavona, S&W 380EZ and a Ruger I inherited. I've loaded mostly 10gr Berry's and Xtreme. but have now started casting my own 102gr and love'um. Shoot these in front of AA#2. If you'd like to try some PM me, I have lots! Lead comes out of our pistol berm and only costs me the effort.

View attachment 1175746
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Thanks for the offer, but for now I'll just start with plated and jacketed bullets, and then see where I am. I have no idea what the LCP is going to like, so baby steps for now.

Nice looking bullets.
 
vaalpens said:
Thanks for the offer, but for now I'll just start with plated and jacketed bullets, and then see where I am. I have no idea what the LCP is going to like, so baby steps for now.

Nice looking bullets.
Click to expand...
I can understand that. Don't confuse the issue as it where, but the offer still stands down the road. I had a few members forward me samples when I fisrt started casting so it is a "Pay it Forward".

Also thanks for the compliment but those in the picture are junk, they were some of my first. The ones I shoot are much nicer.
 
kmw1954 said:
I can understand that. Don't confuse the issue as it where, but the offer still stands down the road. I had a few members forward me samples when I fisrt started casting so it is a "Pay it Forward".

Also thanks for the compliment but those in the picture are junk, they were some of my first. The ones I shoot are much nicer.
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Thanks again for the offer. I will keep the offer in mind if after some testing I decided to go the lead route also.
 
There was not much progress last night and today, but I did manage to install and setup the dies into the turret last night. The sizing and expanding dies should be close to set. I also picked up a box of factory ammo. This will purely be used as control ammo. One thing I realized is the 380Auto ammo is not cheap. It is a good thing I'll be reloading.

I am expecting something in the mail tomorrow, so I would think the cases will go into the FART by Monday or Tuesday.

IMG_5186.JPG IMG_5187.JPG
 
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The Dudedog care package arrived today while I was out. Thanks a lot Dudedog! Your generosity is much appreciated. the package contains some much needed cases and bullets, so I'll catalogue everything tomorrow and post it in this thread. The bullets will be great since it will give some direction what to buy, and the cases will help me with inventory so that I don't constantly have to clean before I can load again.

IMG_5191.JPG
 
:cool:
Glad it got there ok. I didn't count cases just bullets, but there should hopefully be enough there to get you started.
My club has a bug match in Nov, so I can probably scrounge at least another SFRB worth for you then.
I have plenty, but most of them are primed.
I am not sure but I believe most of the bullets are still available if you gun prefers one flavor over another.
Guns being what they are it will probably like the Sierra HPs the best since they are the most expensive ones I sent.:evil::rofl:
 
Dudedog said:
:cool:
Glad it got there ok. I didn't count cases just bullets, but there should hopefully be enough there to get you started.
My club has a bug match in Nov, so I can probably scrounge at least another SFRB worth for you then.
I have plenty, but most of them are primed.
I am not sure but I believe most of the bullets are still available if you gun prefers one flavor over another.
Guns being what they are it will probably like the Sierra HPs the best since they are the most expensive ones I sent.:evil::rofl:
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Thanks again for the generosity. The cases seem all clean. Not sure if that was because of the rough ride in the USPS truck, or if you cleaned. Either way, they seem ready to be loaded.

The Sierra bullets are definitely premium bullets. They look like the Sig V-Crown bullet, which is a Sierra bullet. I will probably load those last, once I figured out what work velocity wise.
 
Dudedog said:
Brass that was deprimed should be clean, pretty sure I used my Lee .380 sizing die to deprime it not my universal decapper, but best to size it again to be safe.
Click to expand...

They were all deprimed and clean, but I decided to throw them in the FART with my other brass, since I had to clean them in any case.

Dudedog said:
I figure I only need 123,456 more good deeds to offset all the bad ones
Click to expand...

Does it really qualify as a good deed if you are enabling a reloading addiction? I am ok counting it as a good deed.
 
So I cleaned the 380Auto cases today, with a few added 38spl/357mag cases. Looks like the cleaning went well, no complaints. I also used the rotary tumbler straining caps for the first time. It worked great. I don't think I lost any of the pins at all.

I am still waiting for the LCP Max to ship, so there is no rush. Next step will be to load some dummy rounds for plunk and setback tests, but I will need the pistol for that. So for now, prepping and planning.

IMG_5195.JPG
IMG_5196.JPG
 
Does it really qualify as a good deed if you are enabling a reloading addiction?
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Guilty as charged;)

Did you just get the FART recently?
I have a Lyman, I normally use auto wash and wax, whatever flavor the car is getting, car gets what's on sale usually Turtle, but have used others, and citric acid, I bought 5lbs from Amazon,
I figure the 5lbs will probably last me the rest of my life.
I usually do a quick 1/2 hour run, (my range has nasty 60 grit dirt) then deprime/resize and do another for about an hour.
 
I load a ton of .380. I get once fired cases, either lead or plated bullets (100 gr), using a load in the neighborhood of 2.5 grs of 231. I'm not overly concerned about accuracy (let's face it, have you ever seen a target .380?) Your main concern should be feeding and extraction.
 
Dudedog said:
Guilty as charged;)

Did you just get the FART recently?
I have a Lyman, I normally use auto wash and wax, whatever flavor the car is getting, car gets what's on sale usually Turtle, but have used others, and citric acid, I bought 5lbs from Amazon,
I figure the 5lbs will probably last me the rest of my life.
I usually do a quick 1/2 hour run, (my range has nasty 60 grit dirt) then deprime/resize and do another for about an hour.
Click to expand...

I have had the FART for a while now, not sure exactly how long. A while ago I had a thread about what recipe to use for wet tumbling. This was the result, with my recipe that I follow at the top:
wet_tumbling_recipes.PNG
 
Bush Pilot said:
I load a ton of .380. I get once fired cases, either lead or plated bullets (100 gr), using a load in the neighborhood of 2.5 grs of 231. I'm not overly concerned about accuracy (let's face it, have you ever seen a target .380?) Your main concern should be feeding and extraction.
Click to expand...
Definitely, feeding and extraction at the top, but then good accuracy. I'll be testing at 7 yards, so I should be able to get all in the A/-0 zone for an IDPA or USPSA target. Live Life shared some 1.25" grouping results, so that is probably what I'll try and reach.
 
So it looks like the LCP MAX has shipped, so I should be able to pick it up in a couple of days. At least the process/project keeps on moving with no stumbling blocks.

I decided to sort the cases by headstamp like I normally do. The benefit is removing one of the variables, but it also helps by allowing a closer inspection of each case. The mix bag of headstamps is maybe still too big, but as I add brass, the mix headstamps should get less as a percentage of the overall cases. With the added inspection, I know I have no stuck pins, found one 32acp case, and one case with a live primer.
IMG_5199.JPG
 
Dudedog said:
Your welcome!
Brass that was deprimed should be clean, pretty sure I used my Lee .380 sizing die to deprime it not my universal decapper, but best to size it again to be safe.

I figure I only need 123,456 more good deeds to offset all the bad ones:D
Click to expand...
My yard needs mowing if you want to make it 123,455.
 
For 380 acp I have only loaded Extreme's 100gr FP, Accurate #2 and #5 preformed very well in a 3.5" blow back action. I did try WSF with this bullet at 3.7gr with good results( don't the recall the COAL but I can find it) W-231 also did well with the before mentioned bullet.
I do not load mixed brass, as there are too many variations between head stamps.
 
joneb said:
For 380 acp I have only loaded Extreme's 100gr FP, Accurate #2 and #5 preformed very well in a 3.5" blow back action. I did try WSF with this bullet at 3.7gr with good results( don't the recall the COAL but I can find it) W-231 also did well with the before mentioned bullet.
I do not load mixed brass, as there are too many variations between head stamps.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. I am going to try and load by headstamp, but my case volume per headstamp will determine how much I can stick to that rule.
 
I have not bought any bullets yet, but will use the bullets Dudedog sent me to initially evaluate what will and what will not work. Following are the bullet I will initially load. Left to tight in the picture:
RMR 95gr. FMJ RN, length .458"
Sierra 90gr. JHP, length .400"
TJ Conevera 95gr. JHP, length .464"
XTreme 100gr. plated FP, length .433"
Berry's?, 100gr. plated RN, length .464"

I still need to decide on a COL for each of these bullets, and load I want to test. The Sierra bullet will probably be loaded last since it is a premium bullet.
IMG_5204.JPG
 
joneb said:
For the Extreme 100gr plated FP for 380 acp I loaded those at .950" COL. That worked well for a Bersa 83.
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Thanks for the information.

So for now I'll probably be starting with the following COL's for plunk and setback testing, but still researching:
RMR 95gr. FMJ RN, length .458", COL: .970"
Sierra 90gr. JHP, length .400", COL: .930"
TJ Conevera 95gr. JHP, length .464", COL: .970"
XTreme 100gr. plated FP, length .433", COL: .950"
Berry's?, 100gr. plated RN, length .464", COL: .970"
 
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