.380 Range Loads

[2firfun50]

I've finally collected all necessary reloading equipment and brass to start loading range fodder for 2 hungry Bersa Thunder 380s'. looks like I'll be using Berry's 100 grain bullets. I was wondering if anyone had a favorite receipe for this bullet using W231, Power Pistol, or Unique powders. I was considering Power Pistol or Unique as I prefer a load that pretty much fills the case and may be less sensitive charge variation. All I expect the loads to be is safe, function well, and go bang everytime. We use Rmington GS for EDC as these have proven 100% reliable in both pistols.

[Middle Age Russ]

Trying to produce reasonable factory-type loads, here is a Power Pistol recipe I used.

Berry's 100gn plated round nose
4.0 gn Power Pistol
CCI500 primer
.968 OAL range brass

Average velocity from my Bodyguard .380 is right around 750 fps, slightly higher than the 94 gn Monarch at around 730 fps.

[NcongruNt]

I've gotten good results using Bullseye, shooting through my LCP.

I used:

Berry's 100 grain RN
Federal #100 SPP
2.3 grains Bullseye
OAL 0.980"

I found both 2.3 and 2.5 grains gave me impressively accurate results, so I settled on 2.3 as my standard plinking load to conserve powder.

This is a fairly tame load, but does cycle the action and has no issues at all. I never got a chrony on them, as the day I tested them out it was too overcast. I'll have to do that next time I hit the range.

I have some W231 loads worked up that I've never gotten around to trying. I'll have to test those, too.

[Jumping Frog]

I would recommend against using Unique. I know it is an old standard powder that has been around for 100 years, but it measures far less reliably in a powder measure than more modern pistol powders. This is exacerbated by the small charge and case size for a .380, where you cannot afford to have the powder clumping or bridging in the powder measure. Both W231 and Power Pistol are going to be produce more consistent charges through a powder measure.

Here is an interesting article on powder measures and repeatability that does a statistical analysis of various powders through powder measures. http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_6-4_PowdersA ... asures.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An excerpt:

Unique has an average SD of .140 for all the measures tested. Five percent of the time a set of five charges or shots will have a range or spread of .5 or half a grain. For ten shots, five percent of the time the range will be .6 grains, for twenty shots the range will be .7 grains.

In my opinion, based on these results, no measure tested will dispense charges of big-kernel extruded powders or Unique repeatably enough for bench rest match shooting or load testing. Weighed charges are required for any powder-powder measure combination that dispenses charges with a standard deviation above .1 grain.

[2firfun50]

Thanks everyone for your responses! I found the article on powder metering to be quite informative. As a long time quality engineer, I'm pretty familar with statistical process control and found the article to be spot on. I've been out of reloading for about 30 yrs now and that article may explain why many years ago I would randomly pop a primer on .357 mag loads with Unique powder, but never had any problems with W296.

I think I'll be staying away from the faster burning powders such as 231 or bullseye until I get a little experience with the smal 380 case capacity. I picked up some power pistol last night and set up my Lyman #55 to the 4.0 gr charge Russ recommended. Some quick and dirty testing indicated the Lyman will throw charges in that range very consistantly. I then metered a known double charge (8.0 grs) and poured it into a fired 380 case. The double charge filled the case to nearly the case mouth making it visually very obvious that something was amiss. Since the case was nearly overflowing with no room for a bullet, that should greatly reduce the risk of an accidental double charge.

Being a risk averse type (check and double check), I'll try and duplicate Russ's recipe to use as a baseline.

Thanks again for everyone's input!!!!

[Middle Age Russ]

FWIW, it is difficult to find recipes for plated bullets. I used the lead bullet recipes as a baseline rather than the jacketed bullet recipes at 100 gn. The reason for this is that the plated bullets are engraved by the rifling nearly as easily as a lead bullet and considerably easier than a jacketed one as they leave the case and enter the barrel. In the Lee manual, I did not have a recipe for lead bullets with Power Pistol to compare to. Using AA#5, which did have comparative recipes for both lead and jacketed, I extrapolated a reasonable load for lead with Power Pistol. Here is the documentation from the Lee loading manual I had to work with.

AA#5
Lead 100 gn, start 4.1 gn, never exceed 4.5 gn
Jacketed 100 gn, start 4.4 gn, never exceed 4.9 gn

Power Pistol
Jacketed 100 gn, start 4.2 gn, never exceed 4.6 gn

Since lead loads seemed to have 70 - 75% of the powder for AA#5 with close to the same loading density, I used 3.9 to 4.3 gn as the range for Power Pistol.

[Sputz]

Trying to produce reasonable factory-type loads, here is a Power Pistol recipe I used.

Berry's 100gn plated round nose
4.0 gn Power Pistol
CCI500 primer
.968 OAL range brass

Average velocity from my Bodyguard .380 is right around 750 fps, slightly higher than the 94 gn Monarch at around 730 fps.

I have used this load and 3.6 succesfully also. It's a good load for the range and easy on the wrists.

Sputz

[2firfun50]

Thanks again guys. Here are my results from a sample of 4o rds. with Russ's load. We ran 20 thru each pistol. They functioned flawlessly thru both pistols with recoil and primer appearance nearly identical to the remington FMJ factory loads we had to compare with. A nice, reliable easy shooting round. Exactly what I was looking for

[Middle Age Russ]

I'm glad to hear that they are working well for you too.