9mm load in a .380 case

[JANIJ00]

Has anyone accidently loaded a .380 case while loading for 9mm and shot it in your 9MM? The reason I ask is that I was picking through cleaned assorted brass separating 9mm, .40. and .45 and I believe I accidently dropped a .380 case into my bin of 9mm cases. This bin holds several hundred cases and I could not locate the .380. No I'm worried that when I grab some 9mm cases to load and if I don't notice the .380 I may go over pressure if I fire it in my gun.

I am loading 4.0 grs of Titegroup with a 124 gr Berrys.

[RDA]

Has anyone accidently loaded a .380 case while loading for 9mm and shot it in your 9MM? The reason I ask is that I was picking through cleaned assorted brass separating 9mm, .40. and .45 and I believe I accidently dropped a .380 case into my bin of 9mm cases. This bin holds several hundred cases and I could not locate the .380. No I'm worried that when I grab some 9mm cases to load and if I don't notice the .380 I may go over pressure if I fire it in my gun.

I am loading 4.0 grs of Titegroup with a 124 gr Berrys.

What type of press do you use to reload? You should be able to feel it when you size the case assuming you do it by hand.

[Bkreutz]

Has anyone accidently loaded a .380 case while loading for 9mm and shot it in your 9MM? The reason I ask is that I was picking through cleaned assorted brass separating 9mm, .40. and .45 and I believe I accidently dropped a .380 case into my bin of 9mm cases. This bin holds several hundred cases and I could not locate the .380. No I'm worried that when I grab some 9mm cases to load and if I don't notice the .380 I may go over pressure if I fire it in my gun.

I am loading 4.0 grs of Titegroup with a 124 gr Berrys.

What type of press do you use to reload? You should be able to feel it when you size the case assuming you do it by hand.

+1, if you use a Dillon, when it goes to the primer station, the act of inserting a primer will pop the .380 case out of the shell holder, you waste a primer but that's not a big deal (I have a plastic glass half full of primed .380 cases )

[dansedgli]

A guy at my club accidently shoots 380 out of his 9mm shadow now and then. He doesn't spot it in his press.

It shoots OK and ejects but the case splits.

[rowdyb]

i've had them get all the way to the seating die on my 1050. never have shot one though.

[b1gcountry]

I catch them on the sizing die sometimes, the priming die other times, and the powder check all the other times. No big deal if you are paying attention, but it ruins my rhythm.

I shake about 200 cases at a time in a cardboard box. Almost all the cases stand up, and it becomes easy to pick out the short ones, cracked ones, and the deformed ones.

[kneelingatlas]

I was loading some light steel loads (3gr Clays under a 115, so I loaded one up and shot it, interesting experiment, here's what happened:

If one is not available how about running a 10mm with bullets long? ( Atlas hows that working out?)

I send my slide off for milling work, so I've haven't fired any more .40 through it, but I did do an interesting experiment with a .380 case which made it's way into my 9mm loads: it was a light steel load (3.15gr Clays under a 115) so I figured I'd shoot it and see what happens

It chambered fine and I could see the rim was securely behind the extractor so I shot it; it sounded funny as the brass fire formed to the chamber, but when I extracted it I could see what that article (http://www.thegunzone.com/10v40.html) warned of: there was a scratch in the rim where it pulled past the extractor with the primer ignition then it was slammed back into the breech face, flattening the primer against the head stamp.

Granted, this is obviously less likely to happen with 40/10 because the rim is exactly the same, but I can now see how it could happen.

[razorfish]

Use the following technique and you'll easily find that pesky .380 hiding in your 9mm stash:

[hondakilla98]

Use the following technique and you'll easily find that pesky .380 hiding in your 9mm stash:

I'm going to use this next time. You gotta love free tips that save time.

[texasref]

I had one get by me.

Chambered the thing, but it didn't fire. Not sure why.

That being said it's a good reason to not load to the max.

A better reason to make sure of what case you have on the press.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I almost always find the .380 brass before the powder goes

in, but once I loaded a bullet into a .380 brass....

Boy, did that look funny - bullet barely in the case.

You can't miss that when you're loading your mag.

[Travtastik]

I have had 1 slip by and get loaded up. Found it when I was checking the primers.

[CZinZA]

I've seen guys shoot them off a few times now, with no ill effects at all - which shocked the hell out of me the first time

[DEP44]

I once ended up with 1 in my UZI. It didn't fire and when I cycled the gun manually, I felt powder spray over my hand. Unscrewed the barrel and sure enough there was a projectile in it. A light tap on a cleaning rod was enough to get it out.

[David.Hylton]

I fired one in my Glock 34. I did it deliberately in case I ran into one accidentally. I ran it through my magazine and it functioned normally. It did not split the case. I wouldn't want to shoot one in a .380 pistol though.

[bikerburgess]

I have run a few all the way through before. The only issue I had was a failure to eject due to the smaller case dia at the base.

[CeeZer]

My Hornady LNL won't drop powder in .380 as it's too short to activate it.

[Hi-Power Jack]

My Hornady LNL won't drop powder in .380 as it's too short to activate it.

That's a nice safety feature.

I know I've loaded one completely in my Dillon SDB -

guess the case wasn't too short for me.

[ShadoFann]

I had one make it all the way through my 650. Was shooting in a match and loaded it in a mag without knowing. It was the very first round in the big stick. It chambered and fired and didn't eject. I couldn't get it out and zeroed the stage. It was the last stage of the day. I was having one of my best matches ever until then.

You can usually feel it when it goes through the sizing die or it will pop out when you seat the primer. I now have a bullet feeder and the bullet won't drop on the .380 case, one more reason to get a bullet feeder.

[buffalo chip]

Use the following technique and you'll easily find that pesky .380 hiding in your 9mm stash:

Thank you for posting this^.. I just switched to a 650 with case feeder and the .380 go all the way through the loading process. I shoot 9mm major. Its been quite a worry setting off a .380. The posted technique is fast to use and I am catching all .380 now.

[phecksel]

Fed fine through the 650. Caught it during primer inspection, pulled it out and set it aside. Couple of days later, cleaned up the work bench, saw the live round sitting off to the side and threw it in the ammo box. Went to the range, it was only my brass there, and while sorting brass... came across the 380 again. So it made it through the press, through the XDM without an issue.

Side note, local commercial reloader was attempting to use 9mm bullets in .380. My wife's bodyguard did not like his experiment as it ejected into her forehead. She was not happy with me... and she did know in advance it was an experimental load.

[wgj3]

Agree with most others that you will generally notice it being too easy to size and/or the case will pop put of the shellplate when priming on a 650. I went ahead and loaded up 3 of them and ran them through my M&P with no ill effect to the firearm. A couple of the cases did split.

[Butterpuc]

I have loaded quite a few 380 cases whil loading 9mm on accident. You will feel the difference during the sizing station. You will easily catch this when you gauge your ammo.

[L3324temp]

They generally do pop out of the shell plate on a 650. I did have one make it through and caught it when inspecting the rounds. Never fired one.

[rtp]

Haven't shot one, but...one of these is not like the other..