9mm Brass To .380 Brass

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I have trimmed a lot of 9x19 Luger down to 9x18 Makerov. On the face of it, trimming 9x19 down to 9x17 "380" seems doable. The case wall usually doesn't start to thicken until about .250" down from the case mouth, so removing .080" doesn't seem like that much. You'd need a case trimmer and .350" pilot.

I imagine that 380 brass is much lighter weight construction than 9mm. Your internal volume would probably be smaller, so you'd need to work up all your loads again. That's the biggest issue I see.
 
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Get a mid-range 9mm to shoot ... It will be less expensive in the long run. .380 brass is NOT all that plentiful (rare is too strong a term) and loaded 380 to get usable brass is not cheap either.

If you manage to successfully trim, not just length but rim too....

* then you need to find your hybrid 9mm/.380 brass at the range. I have enough trouble when it's head stamped .380. Even more fun sorting as some out real 9mm brass as it will get mixed in with your hybrid 9mm/.380 brass you may pickup.

* The .380 uses a different shell holder... as the outer rim is smaller.

* loading .380 is tedious as its lack of case volume make slight variations in powder perform a lot differently. Couple that w/ small charges not metering well for many powders.

Because of the above ... is it worth it?

I load both, but have to pay extra attention to .380 ... as such I load a lot less of .380.

chuck
 
Most 380 Auto gun breach faces will not except the larger 9mm head, let alone barrels not chambering them. And if you got some to go in, how many would get stuck. Not worth the hassle.

The link bds provided is the best route of the two. :)
 
380 base dimentions are a lot closer to .223 than 9mm. You would likely have to ream the case too.

I am with the buy a 9mm and down load it crowd for much shooting. 380 is likely the round I have the most pistols for but do not reload.
 
.380 is the round I reload the most (mostly because there's little cost benefit in reloading 9mm, I mostly do it for fun)

I got into reloading specifically to reduce the cost of shooting my .380 pistols.

I regularly come home with about 85% of my fired .380 brass. That means every few times I go out, I run a few boxes of Winchester White Box through my PPK and collect the brass.

I've yet to wear out any .380 brass, but I also load with relatively light loads to make the recoil on the PPK more manageable for a whole day at the range.

Long story short, you can't convert 9mm brass into .380 in a cost effective manner, and you'll probably lose it anyway. Better off buying a few boxes of factory and reloading it until you lose it.
 
345 DeSoto said:
Simple question...can 9mm brass be trimmed to .380 brass...easily? The reason I ask is because there's THOUSANDS of 9mm brass at the range, but literally NO .380 brass. I was thinking of getting into reloading .380. The stuff isn't cheap...:confused:
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Sell the 9mm brass you find at the range to offset the cost of buying real .380 Brass. The above link to .380 Auto brass from amazon.com is a good idea and not expensive.
 
Can it be done? Yes, with a caveat.
Is it cheaper than buying .380 brass? Not likely.
Here's why:
The case head of a 9mm luger is slightly larger than the .380 acp. It may or may not feed by just being trimmed. Usually, you'd need to swage the 9mm brass down to size. The cost of the swaging die and a cast press dedicated to the task, plus a cheater bar for the lever is more money and effort than I'd be willing to pay. Plus, the effort of actually swaging the brass case head down without annealing it (NEVER anneal a case head you plan to shoot!!) is a serious pain. I've swaged them down before to make jackets for my .357 since I didn't want to use my precious .380 brass. Just too much effort involved.
 
Well, I'm always looking for the most cost effective way to do my shooting...not necessarily the cheapest. However, doing some fast figuring, to buy the bullets and once fired mixed brass, with out figuring in the cost of primers and powder, was more expensive than buying and having Monarch (PPU reloadable brass) Shipped to my door...$12.99/50 + free Shipping. Not only that, but I'll have the free brass to reload. Thank you ALL for the informative input to my question. It's appreciated...:)
 
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The .380 is 9mm Short in name only. Only the bullet diameter is similar. The Parabellum case is 20thou bigger at the case head. Won't go in the chamber of a .380.
 
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