Anyone else shooting short colts in their 929?

[Ty Hamby]

When I had my 627-4 .38 super revolver I found nothing faster than Short Colts in HearthCo clips. You could not goof a reload even if you tried. It was as if they were magically being sucked into the .38 super cylinder by magnets. Got rid of the dash4 a couple years back. I now have a 929 on the way and getting ready to do the same load with the short colts I did in the .38super gun. Of course I will reload them using a 9mm or 9mm-u die. Wondering if anyone else has beat me to this combo? Just not really jazzed about going out and buying 929 clips when I have over a 100 Hearthco EDM clips that will hold the Short Colts perfectly.

If not I will report back after I get a couple matches under my belt. My only concern is extraction. I know the Ti cylinder is much more sensitive to that than the steel cylinder of the dash4.

I run .900 brass in my other Ti 627's with ZERO resistance during extraction. Hoping for the same with the 9mm and Shorts.

[BBeavers]

My 627 short colt loaded moonclips fit perfectly in my 929 - all I have loaded are .358 .38's though. I'm not feeling that adventurous so I think I might wait and load some .357 9's. Don't know what might happen to the cylinder. Sounds like a great weekend project!

[MWP]

I did it for a while Ty. There's a pile of guys down south of you that have been doing it for a year without an issue. As far as I know they're using 38 dies like always, not 9mm dies. I only used a 38 die as well.

The case would swell, just above where starline thickens the brass. But it always sized back down, and it always went into my 627 after resizing. You can feel the bulge as you push it back though the sizing die, but it's not terrible. I shot .355-.358 through it, with no problems.

The only reason I stopped and switched to 9mm brass was that occasionally I would get a light strike and the 9mm was 100%. I think I did some measuring and the SC set just a hair further from the breach face than 9mm did.

Never had extraction issues with SC, and accuracy was the same as 9mm brass. The 929 was even a hair faster than the 627 with the same load, maybe 20fps.

Let us know how it goes over the long run.

[Ty Hamby]

Great to hear. I never thought about the thickness of the brass shoulder or clip thickness.

The 38 special uses a rim thickness of 1.50mm with a .025 thick clip = 1.75mm from cylinder

The 9mm uses a 1.27 thick rim with .035 thick clip. = 1.62mm from cylinder.

You would think the opposite would be true. Anyway I will test and report back. My brass is all shot out to .38super so I got nothing to loose.

[Gregg K]

Ty

In my 929 I measured from the back of the cartridge to the cylinder face with moons of Short Colt with .025 clips and with moons with Starline 9mm in .035 clips and the difference was only .001" so you will have no spacing issues or ignition problems.

I would not use the "U" die since the 9mm cylinder is already larger than the Short Colts and they will already be expanding enough as it is. Fired Short Colt cases from my 627 easily drop into my 929 and have a little rattle room. You may need the "U" die if you want to put them back into your 627 after firing them in the 929 though.

[BadShot]

Since using the Short Colt in the 929 causes the brass to expand a bit more, will the reworking of the brass eventually cause it to fail sooner? I hadn't heard of anyone doing this. I would much rather use one load for my 627 and 929...

Skip

[MWP]

Since using the Short Colt in the 929 causes the brass to expand a bit more, will the reworking of the brass eventually cause it to fail sooner? I hadn't heard of anyone doing this. I would much rather use one load for my 627 and 929...

Skip

In theory it would. But plenty of people did it in the supers and cases lasted a long time. I still haven't seen a starline short colt case crack anywhere except the mouth.

I was worried about cases when I started. Loaded and fired the same 8 15 times, none cracked. They all went in the 627 chamber when I was done. Those cases came out of my used bin, and had already seen the press 12-15 times.

Edited August 7, 2015 by MWP

[Ty Hamby]

929 arrives tomorrow. Super stoked. My new 929 will be for the 2016 season. So I got plenty of time to get it all sorted out.

I have my Lew Horton 627PC dialed in and I use .900 length special in it now. This is what I will have at have at the IRC.

When I ran the short colts in both the 38special and 38super cylinders in the past I had to run the short colts through 2 dies to return them size suitable for the Ti .38Special cylinder. I finally gave up on short colts for Long Colts that I later cut down to .900

These short colts I have will be returned to 929 sizing only. I will never run them in a special cylinder. Makes sorting easier. I own in 38 special a sizing die by Dillon, Redding, Lyman, Lee, EGW-U and RCBS. In 38ACP I have Lyman and RCBS, In 9mm I have Lee, EGW-U, Dillon, Hornady and Redding.

I have plenty of dies to find the right fit as they all vary slightly. I love hearing what others have done although I still run all my own experimentation.