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71 Posts
I was really tired of overpriced/unavailable .380 ammo; still had .380 dies from an unsuccessful attempt to run ammo for a PPK 30 years ago. Our range officer casts bullets and helped me scrounge up some brass from his endless collection.
The problems with the Walther years ago, were, IMHO, caused by the blowback action and a slide that moved too fast. The locked breech of the P3AT/LCP seems less abrupt.
Now, the usual disclaimers, CHECK ALL DATA AGAINST A KNOWN PUBLISHED SOURCE. I used Lyman 47; always a valuable source of lead bullet data.
Here's what I used: 2.3 Bullseye/102 LTC/OAL 0.920"/Av vel 712 fps/st dv 11/ExtSp 27. The brass was everything that the Range Officer gleaned from the brass barrel.
The Range Officer used the same data except for only using 1.7 of Bullseye. Both loads gave 100% feed, shot to point of aim, and allowed about the same level of acccuracy as WWB.
Subjectively, the load seems a little less 'rappy' than WWB or my Gold Dot carry ammo.
I realize, like all things .380, dies and other loading materials may be a challenge, but our guns don't seem to be hard to load for. I did all my shooting with an LCP, but it ought to work in a P3AT.
Moon
The problems with the Walther years ago, were, IMHO, caused by the blowback action and a slide that moved too fast. The locked breech of the P3AT/LCP seems less abrupt.
Now, the usual disclaimers, CHECK ALL DATA AGAINST A KNOWN PUBLISHED SOURCE. I used Lyman 47; always a valuable source of lead bullet data.
Here's what I used: 2.3 Bullseye/102 LTC/OAL 0.920"/Av vel 712 fps/st dv 11/ExtSp 27. The brass was everything that the Range Officer gleaned from the brass barrel.
The Range Officer used the same data except for only using 1.7 of Bullseye. Both loads gave 100% feed, shot to point of aim, and allowed about the same level of acccuracy as WWB.
Subjectively, the load seems a little less 'rappy' than WWB or my Gold Dot carry ammo.
I realize, like all things .380, dies and other loading materials may be a challenge, but our guns don't seem to be hard to load for. I did all my shooting with an LCP, but it ought to work in a P3AT.
Moon