9mm & 38 special dies=38short colt

[scrufff]

Good day everybody,,I want to start reloading 38 short colt to shoot out of a TRR327. Does anybody have any idea which combination of dies do I use to get this done?Also a powder,length overall,.All help is greatly appreciated

[gwpercle]

A 38 Short Colt is basically a shortened 38 special . Case length is .765 in. They can be safely fired in 38 special and 357 magnum revolvers.

A 38 special resizing die and shell holder will handle full length sizing.

Because the case is so short the neck expanding die will deprime the case but wont expand the neck but A Lee Universal Case Neck Expanding Die will take care of the neck expanding.

Okay we got the case resized , deprimed , priming is done normally and the case neck flared. Next comes a powder charge and seating the bullet.

A 9mm Luger seat/crimp die will seat and apply a taper crimp.
I have used the 9mm seat/crimp die on smooth sided cast bullets bullets, intended for 9mm , in 38 special and 357 magnum loads.
even with magnum loads the taper crimped bullets held fast.

I have no load data and the OAL will depend on the bullet used , lighter bullets being shorter , heavy bullets being longer.
Do a search , 38 Short Colt Load Data , and you will find some. Brian Enos has some listed on his site.
I'm thinking 38 special, 9mm Luger dies and Lee universal neck expanding die should be all needed ...but I've never tried it .
Good luck,
Gary

[MWC2068]

For around $40 bucks you can buy a LEE 38 Short Colt die set. I've been using one for over 5 years and it works great. I use 145 to 150 grain coated round nose bullets OAL is 1.125 , Bullseye, Auto Comp, and BE-86 all work well in it.

[tommy F]

Good suggestions

[DWalt]

I resize and deprime .38 SC cases in a .38 Special die and mouth expand and seat bullets with 9mm dies. Works fine for me. I normally use 125 grain truncated cone .357-.358 lead bullets.

.38 SC is great for use in snubbies having short extractor rods - case ejection is much better than from .38 specials. Any .38 S&W load recipes found in reloading manuals will be fine, and in fact conservative if you plan to fire .38 SC in a .38 Special/.357 magnum revolver. .38 SC and .38 S&W cartridges are virtually identical except for a slight difference in case diameter. In fact .38 SC can be fired OK in any .38 S&W revolver. The .38 SC should be more popular than it is as it is fairly useful. Many ICORE shooters use it in .38 Special revolvers due to its superior positive extraction capability which promotes rapid reloading. And it can be handloaded to meet ICORE minimum ballistics.

[Ignatz]

On my Dillon 550,
38/357 sizer die
9mm powder funnel
38/357 bullet seater...….you can use a 9mm seater here
9mm crimp die
All Dillon dies