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Once upon a time, an enthusiastic new reloader had so much fun working up his .45 ACP reloads that he decided to expand his operations. He knew his wife would plow through copious amounts of 9mm rounds, so he prepared to load those cases, too. He'd scrounge for brass at the local range and carefully clean and sort the calibers when he got home.

One time, he accidentally loaded a .380 ACP case as a 9mm round! He didn't catch it in the sorting phase, nor in the decapping/resizing operation, nor in the loading, crimping, or final inspection phases of the process. Not even when he marked the cases with a Sharpie did he see the headstamp declaring that it didn't belong with the others.

It wasn't until he ran the cases through the tumbler again and started decapping/resizing the re-recycled brass that he noticed a .380 ACP case with the telltale mark of a red Sharpie. He almost needed to sit down as his heart did a little skip and jump. as he wondered what could have been.

The End

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I'm not exactly sure how this round made it through the firing process, but I know how it slipped through the earlier steps (except for the loading/crimping phase - that still befuddles me). Looking at several hundred cases at a time can give one a sort of "highway hypnosis" and those 2mm of case length suddenly vanish.

I've made it a point to look at headstamps only now on "found brass" as a means of making sure this doesn't happen again.

I guess that since the bullet stopped at it's 'normal' place during loading (and wound up being the same OAL as all the other rounds) that this is the reason there wasn't a pressure issue. The case had the same internal volume as a 9x19 case, there just wasn't as much brass holding the bullet in place.

Since my wife and father-in-law were doing about 95% of the shooting from that batch of ammo, I have no way of telling how differently it performed that any of the other rounds. The gun is a Ruger SR9c, and I guess extractor tension is what held the round in place for the striker.

How do y'all make sure that you don't do something like this? There's enough variation between .45 and .40, and .40 and 9mm, but 9mm and .380 are awful close and I don't want to make this mistake again. I suppose I'll also sort smaller batches of brass at a time, too, to avoid a repeat.

I read each headstamp outloud and triple check them during the entire loading process,

I hate .380 brass. Every so often one gets into the shell feeder passes through QC and so far, I've never had one fire.

I've missed .380 while sorting, but it is pretty hard to miss when inspecting the rounds. I noticed this one as the ram lowered when seating the bullet. Needless to say, that is where its journey stopped.

There is no substitute for visually verifying every round as you reload. I visually inspect the powder level in every case, look at the seated bullet, and verify the primer is in correctly.

I have seen the same thing happen with .45Glock cases run through a batch of .45ACP.

I visually check the cases as I put them in the cleaner, when I take the out of the cleaner and when I dump them in the case hopper but occasionally those cursed .380s seem to get by and I normally catch the rogue .380 when the ram on my Dillon doesn't have the normal resistance during the sizing/de-priming stage. I can say I've never actually primed a .380 case.

Well, I suppose I'm glad that I'm not the only one that this has happened to. Guess I need to be a bit more diligent, probably by working in smaller batches at a time.

With Montana Gold bullets, I guess my eyes didn't catch the case length difference on the last one.

I ran into a few 380's last night while loading up some 9mm.
I never seem to have this problem where they get past the powder drop stages. However, I don't use a progressive, so that likely plays a major part.
I use a turret press and as such I handle each brass more often and I am only doing one operation with each stroke of the handle. As i place it into the shell holder, the smaller brass is a bit looser and I've caught a few that way. Other times, when I do the decapping function the .380 brass clearly feels different through the press arm (only operating one round, dont' have the 3-4 other simultaneous stages). caught one that way too. never any past these two points.
I also give a quick glance at each finished round as it pull it out of the shell holder and drop it into my catch tray, another screening point, looking at the OAL, primer depth, and overall result.
I've had .357 brass get in w/ the .38 brass. even harder to pick up w/ 1st pass visual however those are quick to notice on the belling stage as the 1/8" longer case makes quite a bit of difference...

y5e06 wrote:I never seem to have this problem where they get past the powder drop stages. However, I don't use a progressive, so that likely plays a major part.

Makes a huge difference. My case feeder is inserting the brass, my priming station is priming it, the powder drop happens automatically, and my bullet feeder is placing the bullet. I have very little manual handling.

In my reloading world there are three evil calibers, S&W 40, the 380 and 22 rimfire. The 380 will cycle completely thru my Dillon 650 when I am making 9mm. The few times this has happened I caught it at the crimping station, never had one make it to the range. The S&W 40 will not cycle while reloading 45acp but it will jam up the case feeder which can be a pain in the neck to clear.

I often store reloaded ammo in bulk boxes but all ammo taken to the range is put in ammo boxes before leaving. This forces me to handle each reloaded round and once they are in the box I glance over them to make sure all have primers seated correctly, and all appear to be of the same height. I consider boxing ammo to be the final inspection station.

A 22 rimfire case laying in the bottom of a 357 case results in a broken decapping pin every time. I actually broke two pins in a row several years ago while reloading 357.

Depending on the powder used,the 380 wouldn't hold the powder needed for a 9mm.There are several ways to tell,particuly if you tumble 9 and 380 at the same time.

sjones wrote:Depending on the powder used,the 380 wouldn't hold the powder needed for a 9mm.There are several ways to tell,particuly if you tumble 9 and 380 at the same time.

I use HP-38, so there is still room in the case.

I beleve that is the same as win 231.I use unique.It will just about fill the case sj

I ran into the same situation last month loading .40 S&W. One did not feel right in my Lee Turret. Upon closer inspection, someone had worked over a .357 sig case! Almost the same size as .40! No telling what condition the brass was in once the neck was expanded out to .424.

First one of those I had seen.

Anyone use one of these brass sorters? Does it work? More importantly does the add on .380 separator work?


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