does anyone load the light .380 ACP bullets for 9x19?

Mr. Friendly

Mr. Friendly

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just curious. you should get quite a bit more velocity out of the round which would compensate for the lighter weight when hitting a target.

but, because I don't see any 85g, 88g, 90g options in 9mm, I could be wrong?

ejumicate me please. :)
 
gewehr76 said:
Yeah you are wrong
380 case is small and straight
9para is tapered. 9 para bullets have ogive to them so when loaded in 380 case
They leave unsupported area of the case because of the length of the cartridge.
You need to use proper bullets.
Marstar has them
Click to expand...

Your reply makes no sense to me either.

He is asking about loading a light 380 projectile into a 9x19 case hoping for a faster/flatter round.
 
I think Gewehr76 is talking about using 9mm bullets in .380ACP cases... the reverse of what was asked. Not sure. :confused:

As far as using .380ACP bullets in 9mm cases, you've gotten me curious because I reload 9mm too.

Everything I find says the 9mm Luger and .380ACP bullets have the same .355" diameter. The lighter .380ACP bullets are likely a tad shorter, so you may end up with a very short COAL cartridge (min for 9x19mm is 1.000"). Not sure how a fast, light bullet will stabilize but it's likely possible to check for stability online.

Hornady has load data for 80gr Barnes TAC-XP bullets and 90gr Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point.

So I think that yes, you can use .380ACP bullets in 9mm cases, but you're really in the land of experimental loads. You cannot use the load data for .380ACP because that round is rated at max pressure of 21 500 PSI by SAAMI, not at the 35 000 of the 9mm Luger. So you have to use 9mm load data, extrapolating for a lighter bullet.

Barnes 9mm Luger TAC-XP
Diameter .355
Weight 95
Length 0.597
S.D 0.108
B.C 0.120

Barnes .380ACP TAC-XP
Diameter .355
Weight 80
Length 0.525
S.D 0.091
B.C 0.107

Above all, don't take my advice as holy writ. Research! :)
 
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I've done it- works, with light recoil, but doesn't knock down steel very well- there mass wins. Lightest thing I ever loaded in 9mm was a 115gn FMJ jacket full of Somchem MS200 over a case nearly full of MS200. Went POP, and penetrated an inch into a fence post. Didn't cycle the gun (BHP).
 
I've used 90gr Hornady XTP's with 6.4gr of Autocomp and 5.7gr of HP-38. The Autocomp was gentle and soft, the HP-38 was much snappier. Nice and fast for both with flat trajectory. Actually seemed to work pretty good. And thanks to this, now I think I'll load up some more. Most of the time I use Campro 115's for general target use. They work fine too and are more cost effective.
 
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