Sorting 9mm and 380 . . .

[seanc]

My eyeball test is to take a handful of cases and put a known 380 case between opposite hand's index finger and thumb and pass over the cases looking for a size match. That goes pretty fast. Usually about 2 or 3 per 500 get past the eyeball test.

The ones that get past my eyeball test get caught when sizing them via the 9mm shell holder: 380 cases slip out of the shell holder and get set aside.

Depriming doesn't make any difference since I use a universal depriming die for everything. I deprime, clean, sort, then size.

 

[Marco Califo]

I sort 9mm by headstamp. While doing this I find any stray 380's not previously detected.

 

[Prof Young]

Sorter for 380 . . .

Okay, I just ordered the 380 sorter plate noted in the post above.

Will give it a try and let you all know.

Life is good.
Prof Young

 

[Unclenick]

Prof Young,

The 9mm Luger/x19/Parabellum (for war) has a thicker case wall at the mouth, and greater taper, widening a little over 0.01" from case mouth to the reference point 0.2" forward of the back of the head, while the 380 Auto/9mm Browning Court (Short) only fattens about 0.0009" from the narrower case mouth to that same 0.2" forward reference location on the case, so it is almost straight in the SAAMI drawing, and is perfectly straight in the CIP drawing. Additionally, neither the 9mm Luger nor the Court are exactly 9mm, with the 380 bullet being 9.04mm and the 9mm Luger being 9.02mm in the CIP drawings' and 0.3555" and 0.3545", respectively, in the SAMMI drawings after you take the usual 0.001" off the maximum diameter those drawings give. Practically speaking, they run the same 0.3550 bullets, but this still helps understanding the ideal dimensional differences.

 

[Prof Young]

Thanks Uncle Nick!

Thanks Uncle Nick:

Have you, by chance, written books about firearms. If not, you might want to think about it.

Life is good.
Prof Young

 

[jetinteriorguy]

Okay, I just ordered the 380 sorter plate noted in the post above.

Will give it a try and let you all know.

Life is good.
Prof Young

For a little more investment you can improve sorting with the plate. I picked up a paint bucket at Home Depot a number of years ago and this plate fits perfectly down into the mouth of the bucket. It’s a 2 gallon bucket made by Leaktite.

 

[Prof Young]

Bought the 380 sorter plate and . . .

By the way, I bought the 380 sorter plate noted above and have tried it out.
It works well with one drawback. The 9mm fill up the 380 slots and clog up they system. But, it beats the snot out of going through all those cases a few at a time. It's worth the price.

Life is good.
Prof Young

 

[HighValleyRanch]

Why complicate things? Just put them on a table and sort by size. The 9mm are going to be taller. You can do a hundred in a couple of minutes. Just set them on their base and group the tall and short ones together.

 

[rc]

Scoop them into a plastic 50 round cartridge tray from a remington or federal commercial ammo box. 9mm will stand proud and you can pick them out, then dump the shorter 380 in another pile.

 

[JKP]

I do as rc does. It works for me.

 

[totaldla]

I sorted about 5-6 hundred and culled about a dozen evil 380. I just dribbled them into my hands and I could spot the villains pretty easily.

I don't load much 9mm anymore so this isn't a big deal.

 

[Ricklin]

Scratchin my head too

IMO life is too short to reload 9mm range fodder. That said that pesky .380 is quite pricey. I have not shopped for 9 mm Makarov in a very long time I'm sure it is not cheap to shoot these days. I think I shall focus on the .380 for now.

 

[seanc]

It defiantly pays to separate and save your 380 cases! When you can reload 380 for less than 9mm, and get better performance than range fodder, I take the effort to pick up my own brass.

I don't load range fodder. When I'm tempted to buy cheap range fodder, I just have to remember my cheap reloads are consistent, clean and don't take that much time, unlike rifle ammo with all the case prep there. Reloading pistol ammo is how I kill time every once in a while.

 

[zeke]

Am certainly glad of having separated all those 380 cases over the years, and maybe appropriate jacketed bullets are available again? 380 acp and it's components seem to get scarce every shortage go round.