Newbie Needs Help [Archive]

GunShy

05-20-2010, 03:14 PM

This was my first attempt at reloading. I followed the procedure in Modern Reloading using all Lee equipment. I am reloading 380 small pistol ammo. The bullet - Remington 95 Gr, the brass - once fired (from new) 380, the primer - Federal small pistol, the powder - IMR4064, smokeless. I used 1 scoop of powder .3cc per round. The scoop came with the set of 3 Lee graphite reloading dies. I reloaded 2 rounds as a test. After reloading the rounds I checked their length and they measured up exactly. Also the primers were seated correctly in the brass, flush with the base.

When I fired each round there was no loud explosion but rather a noise like a wet firecracker. The first bullet left the barrel but the second stuck in the barrel. There was evidence of unburned powder in the brass.

I am not sure what went wrong. I suspect the powder I used was not the correct type. I was unable to find that powder specifically listed in the starting load charts but most powders listed used approx .3cc so I went with .3cc, having no other powder or option.

I need some help and guidance and would appreciate it if someone could respond.
Also can you suggest an easily available powder I could use to reload 380 and 40 S&W ammo. The charts use Bullseye, Red Dot and IMR 700X for both calibers.

I thank you in advance for your help.

versifier

05-20-2010, 07:46 PM

Welcome to the Guide.

4064 is a rifle powder for rounds in the .308-.30-06 class and MUCH too slow for such a small handgun case. You are lucky you did not damage the pistol or injure yourself. Never attempt to load without data for a specific powder/bullet combination. Assumptions like the one you made about an unknown or inappropriate powder can be fatal to you or to unlucky bystanders.

It was a mistake anyone could make without sufficient reading and research. 4.0 grains of 4064 (.3cc) is way below a minimum charge, but sometimes with some powders really small charges like that can detonate to ruin gun and shooter. The unburned powder may have been because there was not enough of it in the case for the primer to ignite it even though there was enough oomph in the primer alone to push the bullet into the barrel, or it may have been because there ws not enough time for it to burn before the pressure dropped.

Get a powder listed for the cartridge. Before you load another round, get a copy of the Lyman manual and another from one of the big bullet manufacturers (Sierra, Speer, Nosler, Hornady, etc.) and read all the information in them about the process of loading ammunition. Three different ways of explaining the same process will help you to understand things much better, including (and especially) the basic safety issues. We only get ONE big mistake and you've used yours up. Fortunately it was a cheap lesson instead of the disaster it might have been with another powder. I'm glad you stopped there to try to figure things out. Any of those three powders will be appropriate as will Unique, though that will require a different dipper. Hold off on the .40's until you have gotten the hang of .380's, which run at a much lower pressure.

Whenever you are shooting and something seems wrong, different, or unexpected, always stop there. You knew something wasn't right when you touched the first one off. Firing the second round was an extremely dangerous thing to do, but if you had fired a third round with that bullet stuck in the barrel....

The scoop method of measuring powder is slow but usually very accurate. I will use them when I have just a handful of rounds to load and don't want to take the time to fill and set my powder measure. I like to dip then level it by passing a playing card or credit card over the rim to remove any excess. You can get an entire set of scoops in increasing sizes for different powders and weights. Your next tool purchases should be a powder funnel if you don't already have one, a powder scale that reads in grains to double check charge weights, a loading block to set your cases in during charging (and to inspect them after charging with a bright light source to make sure the powder levels in all of them are even before you start seating bullets) and then possibly an adjustable powder measure to speed things up when you are ready for it.

I will pass along an amusing story. A man and his wife/girlfriend were at the next bench at our range one day and they were preparing to shoot a new Redhawk revolver. They loaded the cylinder and he cocked the hammer, aimed, and squeezed. There was a loud "pop", no BOOM. He was unable to cycle the action or to swing out the cylinder. After scratching his head, he decided to ask for help. He said he'd just started loading and these were his first handloads. Something was wrong but he had no idea what. Looking over the revolver, there was a bullet lodged in the forcing cone still partway in the cylinder, locking the whole thing up completely. I used a range rod to remove it for him. I asked him what load he was using and he told me it was a charge of 6 grains of Unique, the starting load he found in the manual. I thought that was kind of odd as I knew it should have worked just fine. Then he told me it was awfully hard getting the powder into the case. Even odder as the .44mag is a huge handgun case with plenty of room, so I asked him what he meant. He told me he needed a big magnifying glass and a tiny pair of tweezers to pick up just six tiny grains of the powder and get it into the case. He never realized that it meant six grains of weight. He thought he needed six individual grains of powder (less than 1/10 of a grain by actual weight). As you and he both learned, the primer alone has sufficient force to get the bullet out of the case, and often a few inches up the barrel. He got himself a bullet puller, a scale, and a powder measure and they were back the next week when they successfully began to test their handloads, eventually working their way up over the summer until they could both hit targets with it at 75 and 100yds with full power loads for deer hunting.

It's easy to make what seems to be a logical assumption, but it's not always safe to act on it. Don't ever try to make up your own loading data. After many years of experience, you might someday decide to learn to use surplus powders or work with wildcat cartridges, but those are for experts, not beginners. There is all kinds of data out there for just about anything you want to try.

When I learned to load, there was no one to ask, and no one within 50 miles of my farm who knew anything about loading. Sometimes you could call a powder or bullet maker, and if you were lucky there might be someone around that day who felt like answering a question. Computers filled whole rooms and there was no internet. I could get good advice from our local gunsmith, but it was an hour drive to his shop and he didn't believe in telephones (they interrupted his work), so if he wasn't home I was SOOL.

Ask whenever you have any question or anything is not clear. That's why we're here. One of use has very likely been there done that and will happily get you straightened out. The only stupid question is the one a man is too proud to ask, and in that case it's not the question that's stupid. There is a lot of information to process and remember, and no one can do it all at once. None of it is rocket science though (except ballistics), so it is nothing a patient person cannot master.

Good luck and keep us posted.