.380 plinking rounds

[toysoldier]

I bought a $99.95 Hatfield shotgun at Wal-Mart, and Short Lane sub-caliber inserts in .380 and .45acp. In the odds and ends of stuff I'd picked up over the years, I found a Hi-Vis rear sight that clamps onto the shotgun rib. It was made for a wider rib than on the Hatfield, but with some shims, I got it mounted. I wanted some lower-power plinking loads for the.380, so I got out my lead pot and cast some 83 grain .380 round balls, then swaged them down to .358". Looking through my reloading powders, I found some powder I'd scavenged from 6.5mm Swedish blanks. Online sources suggested it was similar to Unique, so I loaded 20 rounds with .3cc (2.7gr) using a Lee dipper. Performance at the range was pretty good, with 2.5" groups at 50 yards. Point of impact was 3" below factory .380 ammo. Pretty dirty, though.

 

[mikld]

Glad you survived the questionable, unknown powder. Two things I would never do; first I would never use an unknown military surplus or pulled powder. Second, I would never use any "they said", unproven internet data.

 

[buck460XVR]

Glad you survived the questionable, unknown powder. Two things I would never do; first I would never use an unknown military surplus or pulled powder. Second, I would never use any "they said", unproven internet data.

^^^yep.

 

[mikld]

I just reread my earlier post and I want to apologize if I came off as "Mr. Safety Reloading Monitor". I really have nuttin' much to say about how some one chooses to reload and my post was about my fears, what I would/wouldn't do, not a criticism of a brother reloaders experiments...

 

[toysoldier]

Yes, I used an unknown powder. It came from a wooden-bullet rifle blank, so was almost certainly a fast-burning pistol powder. It was a tiny load, fired in a heavy sub-caliber adaptor in a modern 12ga shotgun. I figured the risk of a problem was very low. Actually, I was more concerned that the powder wouldn't burn at all.

 

[Kenny B.]

Just throwing something in the "for what it's worth," or, "just my opinion" category. I don't know if you own a .380 pistol. If you do, I find Alliant's Bullseye propellant a good choice. First, because I can get a lot of mileage out of a pound. Second, it gives what I call snappy recoil out of my pistol, which translates into reliable cycling of the action. I once tried a book spec starting load for Universal. It did not fully/reliably cycle the action of my pistol once out of five tries. However, if you were to use it in your sub-caliber tube only, it wouldn't be an issue. And, I'm sure anyone who hand-loads ammunition on a regular basis would advise, use only a reliable data source, i.e. up-to-date reloading manuals from Alliant, Speer, Sierra, Hodgdon, Hornady, etc. to manufacture your ammunition. Enjoy your new-found sport!

 

[toysoldier]

I have more than one .380 pistol, which is why I bought the sub-caliber adaptor. I've used Bullseye to reload .380, .45acp, .38 special and .357. It works.

 

[Skoopski]

My favorite. 380 load is a 95gr with 3.0gr of HP-38. Cycles reliably but the brass falls right at my feet. Should work with your 83gr's as well.