Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns reloading problem, looking for ideas

I am reloading for a 380 and picked up some .355 115gr Hornady XTP. book OAL is 0.956" for that weight bullet. When I seat them that far in I get too much case bulge and the rounds will not cycle thru my handgun. Leaving them around 0.975" decreases the case bulge to where they will cycle but magazine will not swallow anything longer than about 0.970". Any suggestions other than a shorter (and lighter) bullet? I tried removing the decapping pin and squeezing the bulge in my sizing die but it squeezed the bullet as well and loosened the bullet in the neck. I'm thinking I may just have to go to the classifieds and trade with somebody for some 90 grainers. Any suggestions appreciated.

My first thought is that seating a bullet in deeper shouldn't bulge your cases. I would guess that what's going on is you're running your case up into the crimping portion of your die too far which puts too much push on at the case mouth, and that's what's causing your bulging.

Try backing off your die body a few turns, then get your OAL by turning your seating stem down and see if those will chamber. If so, back off your seating stem, put that round back in the shell holder, run it up into the die, turn the die body down until you feel a little resistance. Lower the cartridge out of the die and give the die another quarter to half turn down. Run the cartridge back up and turn the seating stem down until it touches. Seat a bullet and see if it works.

My thought is that you should be using bullets for the .380 and not a 9mm.

It is a 380 bullet. Lyman's says that the longer heavier bullets can sometimes cause bulges due to the internal taper of the case but I'd never run into it before and was wondering if anyone else had this happen to them.

I guess if you're sure that's what's going on, the only practical remedy is to look for cases with thinner walls. How much longer is the 115 grain bullet, compared to the 90 or 95 grain bullet that would ordinarily be used? Have you checked your case wall thickness that far down?