Downloading 9mm rounds to .380 levels?

Help Support Ruger Forum:

Skinnedknuckles

Bearcat
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
Messages
68
Since the LC380 came out, I've been thinking of getting a set of LC380 recoil springs for my LC9 and loading some 9mm brass at .380 levels with 95/100 gr bullets. I thought it might be a fun plinking load and also a low recoil load for a introducing someone to the LC9.

I use HP-38 for my 9mm reloading and Hodgdon has published loads for 90/95/100 gr FMJ bullets. Xtreme or Berry's plated bullets are .355 for .380 Auto, same as 9 mm but are 100 gr. The slightly larger case volume of the 9 mm brass doesn't seem critical, and actually works to further reduce pressure.

Has anyone tried this? Seems no different that loading .38 Special powder loads in .357 Mag brass, as long as I can adjust the recoil springs to cycle the slide properly.
 
not a common thing to do but hp38/ww231 is forgiving somewhat of light loads...I wouldn't screw with the gun springs just work your loads down, just enuf to make the pistol reliably operate...
 
With reduced springs in the pistol downloading 9 mm and shooting them sounds like a real possibility. It would be the only way to make the gun work. Start low and work up until you get reliable operation. Of course you couldn't shoot factory loads because it would batter the gun. :D
 
Hi,

A buddy loaded 9mm for indoor range use for his group of friends and relatives who used to get together each week. He used the Alliant starting recipe for a 124/125 gr lead bullet and Red Dot then reduced the load a tenth of a grain at a time until his gun (a rather forgiving Smith M39) would no longer function. No mods were made to the gun. Then he kicked things back a couple of tenths, and took some to the range.

Everybody tried 'em, and, of course, a couple of guns weren't happy. So he upped the charge a tenth or two at a time until everybody's gun would function. I believe he was about 20% below "max" from the book when he got everybody on board... and no mods were made to anyone else's gun, either.

Rick C
 
I shoot "minimum level" loads in my P95's w/o any adjustments. These loads would be very close to the upper end of the .380 scale. Brass lands at my feet rather than 6-8' to the right as normal loads do. No tolerance for less than a solid grip with this low powered stuff, though.
 
At one time I used a 12 pound Wolff recoil spring on a G19 in 9mm. IIRC, the stock spring was 17 pounds. I pushed 124 grain SWC/TC bullets with about 2.7 - 3.0 grains of 231 and they ran just fine.

Just don't go so low that you have a bullet stuck in the bore.

I worked up these loads for brand new shooters who weren't used to recoil. And back then a friend and I used to take new shooters to the range frequently.

I don't do that much anymore, and have swtiched to downloading revolvers rather than semiauto pistols. But I did it just fine. You just need to keep those springs in clearly marked ziplock bags or whatever so you don't mess up and forget which spring is which.

The way we used to run the shooting part of our instruction was to have the person fire a little 22 pistol, then work up in power/recoil like so:

38 special light loads, then standard, then +P, then 357 mag;
9mm lite, then standard, then +P;
45 auto target load, then std, then +P.

If anyone wanted to shoot 44 mag or 454 - and we thought they could do so safely - then we'd help them out with that.

I do the same with the Boy Scouts from church when we shoot rifles also:

22 LR, then 30-06 with lite cast bullet loads, then 30-06 with med heavy varmint loads, then full house 150's and 180's. Shooting water jugs at 100 yards keeps them interested. 8)
 
Top