WB
That didn't go quite as planned...
Saturday, August 23, 2025, 14:57

The reloading is of course straightforward. I forgot the need for a more specialized loading tray to hold things, the cases are so short. Like the .32 ACP! Not to mention that the RCBS powder measure was not made for this, unless using the special small capacity drum. 1.8 gr. Bullseye was about the lowest I could consistently throw.

I thought I was being real smart and loaded to max. allowable magazine dimensions, it's not much, until it is. The first pic shows where I wanted to be, just a smidge longer than factory but worked fine in the mag. Until I tried to eject the loaded round. It was stuck! Too long to clear the chamber port. It's just a teeny dimension but it's there. The chamber port can't me made bigger or case support would suffer. That's one reason .380's have such blunt stubby bullets. Very unforgiving.

I had to seat a little deeper. I did not see any case bulge and the rounds chambered fine, ejected loaded too, after shortening them. Took a lot of zip out of my zeal. MY little pocket pistol was a booger to clear too, much less safely. Can't get in a hurry.

I'm going to look at a very blunt and short ojive design next.

I have one of those PA63 Hungarian versions of the Walther PP, which I love. Again a cartridge never really intended to be sporting reloaded, but you can. I got a set of carbide dies for it and a 95 gr. RN bullet mold. It's hot, runs about 1100+ fps! Like the difference between the .40 and 10mm to the .380 and Mak. But it's mostly that one or two bullet choices. It's actually a 9.3x18mm, .367" bullet. The fixed barrel, blow back action gun is very accurate too. Something about that size of a semi-auto, not too big, not too small, just enough without much waste.