anyone here load 380 acp

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coldmold

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I have fallen heir to a bursa thunder 380 along with a goodly amount of brass. I reload for everything I shoot so figured to load for it to.
My question is what bullet would be a good one. I have just about any powder on hand so what would be a good powder for it. Oh and by the way the dies came with it.
coldmold
 
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Hmmm , ya know , I've been reloading for about 35yrs , and I always figured I should at least own reloading stuff for every caliber I own guns for , and I own about a half-dozen .380s. I've been saving my .380 brass for years , have a set of used RCBS carbide dies I picked up from the pre-owned bargain shelf at the LGS for $10. I keep plenty of small pistol primers in stock.

But I've never reloaded a single round of .380.

But hard-cast RN bullets as well as bulk factory FMJ is readily available. Bullseye and W-231/HP-38 are probably the most logical powders.
 
Havent loaded any in a while but IIRC I was using a LRN 95g with 3g of bullseye. Someone once said you could lose 380 brass on a tennis court
 
I load it. I use the Berrys plated bullets and some lead, HP 38/W 231. Have not loaded some for a while now. Just make sure you start with the low end of the data and pay attention to OAL as there is not much room in that little case.:) I like to load them single stage because if the brass is not perfectly centered under the rezing die you will crush a lot of brass.
 
95 gr. Speer FMJ and a mid-range amount of Hodgdon Universal (look up loads on their web site).

wyo-man
 
I load it plenty...
90 XTP, 95 FMJ, 100 FMJ, 102 Golden Sabre, 90 Gold Dot, 95 Magtech JSP and whatever else I can lay my hands on.

I have tried a lot of powders but have settled pretty much on 3.4 N-320 for ALL of the above bullets. Gives me 950 ~ 1000 fps. My 2nd choice is 4.7 of AA-5. for around 900 fps out of my Bersa Thunder.

Of course all disclaimers apply and you should work up your loads in your gun....
 
I had been saving .380 brass for quite some time, and finally got around to getting dies and loading up some earlier this year. I had bought a bunch of Berrys 100g. rnhb bullets at a gun show at a really good price a while back. After trying several different loads I settled on 3.0 grains of 231. Although they are near the top listed loads by Hodgdon, they feel just a tad lighter than some factory ammo that I have on hand. After finding that they shot much better groups than the factory ammo, I loaded up a bunch and could not be more pleased.
 
This caliber and below are the only places I would use Titegroup for. THERE, I SAID IT!

I would use Titegroup for the 380 and below! No room in the case and almost always a jacketed or plated bullet.

I use Bullseye myself because I hate Titegroup and I only load 100 rounds of 380 a year.

;)
 
Skip Sackett said:
This caliber and below are the only places I would use Titegroup for. THERE, I SAID IT!

I would use Titegroup for the 380 and below! No room in the case and almost always a jacketed or plated bullet.

I use Bullseye myself because I hate Titegroup and I only load 100 rounds of 380 a year.

;)
Click to expand...

You must load those 100 for someone else, you certainly wouldn't have a 380 would you??;):D
 
I load 380 a lot I use Power pistol o. Most of my standard hand gun loads and Rainer plated 100 grn from Midway USA.
 
I reload for my Berretta 380 and Browinig BDA 380. I use 95gr FMJ rather than cast which I have. The reason, they malfuntion in my pistols even with factory crimp dies being used. I don't have a problem with FMJ bullets. I don't want my life to depend on my cast bullet reloads. As for powder I use Accurate #2 because I use it in my little 32s also. BTW plated bullets work well too. Enjoy!
 
During my heavy shooting days I cast bullets and reloaded for every caliber I used. I even cast bullets for some rifles. But I never reloaded anything for .32s .380s or .25s.

While the dies are made, the casting blocks can be purchased, brass is plentiful and there are numerous powders at the proper burning spectrum, I never did it.

Simply said, I hated handling the little stuff. And based on the volume of cartridges needed, I would have never recovered the costs of production.

If I needed/wanted a pistol in this caliber range I would do something akin to buying a Minx in .22 Short and a Jetfire. in .25 ACP. I'd practice with the .22 and carry the .25 ACP. I did that for an entire year.

As time progressed, I even sold my four-ganger 125 grain 9mm casting blocks.
 
I use Hornady 90 gr XTP over3.2 gr Titegroup. works welll in ruger LCP, Kel Tek p3At, Kahr P 380, and old Colt mod 1908.

john
 
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