Up to this point I've only reloaded 9mm using W231/HP38 powders. Finally got all my .380 dies to load about 500 Zero brand projectiles. These are actually 88 grain JHP's. Could not find exact load data on that particular projectile, so I'm using an averaged data from three sources (Lee, Lyman and Hodgden's online) for 90gr JHP's.

The issue (that has not been an issue with various 9mm loading) is the auto disc. Min charge of W231/HP38 that I have is 2.7 gr and all three state a max load of 3.5 gr. The .30 disc throw 3.1grains every time according to my two scales, but these are only doing about 760-820 FPS. My new Glock 42 does not cycle well with anemic ammo. Stove pipes mostly. The .32 auto disc throws 3.4-3.5 gr. This is skirting max pressure. Even saw one go through the chrono at 960 FPS. Most are just under that, but that one was 10 FPS over listed safe max. I don't want to go quite that side of the safety envelope. If I could just keep charges at 3.3-3.4 grs, I'd be happy, but this Lee disc isn't going to work in this situation.

BTW, this G42 is the only  finicky Glock I've owned. The little Keltec P3AT cycled all the same rounds flawlessly, again. If it had night sights, I'd sell that Glock. :)

Any of you have a favorite ball powder, other than W231 that you like to use for .380 rounds?  I also have a jug of Unique, but have not popped the seal on it, so I don't know how it meters.

I will eventually get a Lee drum powder measure to make more exact charges, but that will be a bit.

Funny you should mention Unique...

That's what I use for .380acp.  IIRC, 4gr. under a 100gr Berry's bullet.  Meters "well enough" in my autodisk.  I tap it a little on each charge to help it fill the cavity fully.  Have used it for years just because it works well.

I just switched to a Lee Auto Drum for the exact same reason you state.  The Auto Drum is easily capable of being dialed in by 0.1 grain increments.

Here’s a .380 thread with some useful information.. Note that the mods goggles this thread do it wouldn’t go into the archives, so you can post in it.

I wouldn't be too worried about being at max in a G42. They can handle more than the other 380s out there.

I load 90gr XTPs to 1025fps with Tiregroup

You mentioned tapping the auto disc. Are you running a single stage or progressive press. I'm using a Lee Loadmaster progressive. I just crank the handle and set projectiles when using W231. I will check and cross reference the data I can find for Unique and give it a go next session.

Yeah, I've been watching Youtube videos on that thing. Looks nice. I'll likely leave the auto disc on the 9mm die holder after I do the auto disc.

Interesting. It shot the ones that were running around 950 FPS, but after the third shot, the gun locked back and it still had three in the mag. Did it again on the third mag full (different mag) on the fifth shot.

I have two .380's, the older, a P3AT, and it's "upgrade???", a G4. I am Glock's biggest fan, but I am about sick of this finicky 42. It is the most Un-Glocky Glock I have ever owned in regard to eating ammo. The P3AT has never, ever had a malfunction in the five years I've owned it.  Wish they made a Keltec with night sights and this Glock would be owned by someone else.

Main reason i'm reloading some .380 is to give it precisely what it wants so I can practice with it more and not break the bank. Love the size and with this set of I-Dots on top, it is a laser beam, but if I run most bulk it stove pipes/FTF's and if the ammo is hotter it locks back, even if there is still ammo in the mag. The only thing it has run perfectly is the carry ammo (Underwood loaded Lehigh Xtreme Penetrators and XTP's) but that is too expensive to just plink with. Shame, too. It is the softest shooting .380 I've handled.

Lee makes an adjustable charge bar that replaces the single/double disk arrangement on their powder measure. I got one for my Lee progressive that I use just for small pistol cartridges. Gives you almost unlimited range of charges.

Go here:

https://leeprecision.com/adj-charge-bar.html

You can do 2 things.

Option1
Put a small piece of tape in the .32 hole, burnish it down well, play with this until you get the charge down to where you want.

Option2 is
open up the .30 hole to get what you want using a drill or file.

Disks are cheap, and I somehow ended up with several complete sets anyways.

While working this, don't put the disk in the unit, simply use a piece of paper or card stock, set the disk on it, fill the cavity, then measure this.
Once you get it close then put it in the unit to test the drops.

Mark/label the modified disk well.

I'm running the turret with the auto-indexing.  A "poor man's" progressive.

And I 2nd the adjustable charge bar.  Much better than the disks.

Holy crap!  I forgot I got one of those when I first got my kit.  Clean forgot about that dod-dad because I never used it.  Now, finding it.....:)

Good idea, but the previous poster reminded my of the adjustable deal I never used. Will give those a go if I can't find that adjustable deal.

I can tell you from experience, the charge bar will not go low enough to consistently throw small charges.  Mine had a warning in the instructions not to use it below 9mm loads.  There's a reason they tell you to use the LDPM(Lee Drum Powder measure) on the data charts.  I ditched the disk, and now have drums preset for all my loads.  They even include a plug so you can convert a large drum to a small drum.  All my charges are within .1 grains, however, you do have to factor in a longer holdover time when throwing larger charges for rifle.  I like this "set it and forget it" option.  I plan on getting another auto-drum measure later so I can have a backup.

If you like the disk, scoot over to eBay.  There are sellers making blank disk you can custom tailor.  They are already center-marked, so you simply drill to whatever size you need.  Lee used to make a disk smaller than the 30, but discontinued it due to unreliable throws.

I use 6-ish grains of AA#7 for 90xtp at 910fps(matches Hornady AG pretty close)and 100gr bulk at 950fps.

Both cycle my G42 perfectly fine.

I experienced very poor performance from my charge bar when I tried to set it up for light .38 special target loads.

While setting it up I was seeing erratic charges, so I decided to do a test to obtain a large sample size of throws.

I ran a bunch of loads through it to make certain any strangeness would not a result of simply using a new setup.

Then I ran 100 charges, weighing each one and then jotting down the weight.

I observed significant charge dispersion, with statistically significant deviations of +/- 0.2 grains.  Most concerning were a few (3 or 4) throws where almost no powder was dropped.  I don't know what caused this to happen, but it would have created a squib load.  So 3% to 4% squibs is a no go for me.

I've never used the charge bar again, and quickly switched to an Auto Drum.

My first loads in 380 were with Winchester 231 - it was "the recommended" powder according to the folks who gushed about it.  I had a really tough time getting consistent powder drops at the small volumes needed (3.2 - 3.5 gr with a 90 grain bullet), with +/- 0.1 grain "acceptable variations" being way too wide for that range.

I bought AA#5 to address that; Western's load data calls for 4.3 - 4.8 grains of AA#5, and #5 is "bulkier" than 231 as well - I can maintain much less than +/- 0.1 grain tolerance with #5.

I want to find a "smaller than 'pistol'" metering insert for my Hornady measure, which would allow me to dial in small drops with finer control than the regular pistol or micrometer pistol insert.  I may have to work that out with a machinist who could make such a super-small part for me...

I will look around for some of that AA#5 and data sources I have. Judging by the case fill using 231, I could afford a bulkier powder.

I did a slight mod to my .30 disc. Whittled the inside a  tad with a sharp knife. It now consistently throws 3.2 grs. FPS   was averaging about 860...closer to the 900 FPS I thought would make this 42 function correctly.  Wrong! Four out of six test rounds  gave FTFs....ran six in my lowly, but faithful P3AT. Functioned perfectly and FPS average was around 835.  If the Keltec had three dot night sights, I'd glue a dime to this G42 and throw it in the trash. :)

I did find that adjustable charging bar.  It would not work sub 4 grains. Did fine above that though.

I'm going to whittle that .30 disc out until it throws enough 231 to get me to 900-920 FPS. If the 42 is still acting stupid, it's getting sold.

Really starting to hate this pistol.  I thought I might just have a lemon, but my daughter's  (a gift I bought and ecommended for her to CC and purchased near the same time) acts the same way. FTFs if FPS is in the 800's and slide locking open on unemptied mags if using hotter ammo.

My G42 runs great on the following two loads.

For practice:
Bullet: Remington 95gr. FMJ RN
Case: Remington, Winchester, Fiocchi, Starline; COL - 0.960"
Powder: Bullseye, 3.4grs
Primer: CCI 500
935fps

For carry:
Bullet: Hornady 90gr. HP XTP
Case: same as above, COL 0.967"
Powder: Power Pistol, 4.7grs.
Primer: CCI 500
1,000fps

You prolly don't want to hear this part, but I'm a single stage handloader and I measure every charge.
In my experience, Power Pistol can be a little bit touchy.  You prolly don't want to accidentally drop 4.9grs/5.0grs of Power Pistol in a .380Auto case.

Cheers!

Thanks.  These actually run stock XTP's fairly well, but it is just irritating to own a "Glock" that doesn't boringly eat anything you feed it. I've become accustomed to that.

Are you maybe gripping the slide? First thing I noticed was I cannot grip the 42 like I could my 27 on low power loads.
After a hundred rounds or so of consciously  keeping my paws off the slide, I since have not had any problems.

Nope. Noticed there is considerably less real estate on the 42. Not touching the front with my weak side thumb or getting slide bit in my strong hand. I also have large hands.

If it’s a new G42, it may just need some break in time.  This was particularly noticeable when they were first introduced, but it’s still a thing now.  I bought my 42 used, and it still needed a little babying in terms of which loads it liked.

PPU hollow points were great, but some other rounds, like Winchester’s FMJs occasionally wouldn’t feed all the way.  Those aren’t really “light” loads, but they were just a tad light for this gun.

After a thorough cleaning, including undoing the original owner’s poor gun hygiene (), the gun did much better with the Win FMJs.

If you run a bunch of rounds through it, it should start being less picky about which rounds it likes.

To date, it's likely had about 200 rounds of various brands ran through it. I did whittle out my .30 disc to where it's throwing 3.2 to 3.3 grains of 231. I ran a small batch and test fired. Did not have time to chrono them, but all 24 rounds cycled through the thing flawlessly.  The next day, I decided to run another 300 rounds on that recipe.  Intention is to see how it behaves after a total of 500 had been run through it.

Both of my physical manuals, a Lee and a Lyman, do not mention test barrel length in the data. I know my Lyman manual lists 2.1 -3.2 grain (latter being max) for a JHC 90 gr bullet. The Lee lists 3.2-3.5 grains of W231 for a jacketed 90 grain bullet.  The online Hodgden chart was close to the Lee manual.

The bullets I'm using are jacketed HP's made by Zero. They actually scale out at 88 grains, so I went with the 90 grain data at hand.

(edit...took a look at Hodgden's online data that I also referred to) Their data states the same grain spread (3.2-3.5 of W231) as the Lee manual does for a 90 grain Hornady JHP.  That data does list the test barrel at 3.75". The G42 has a 3.25" barrel.

Running 100 grain berry's with power pistol - Several powders (silhouette, universal clays) would not cycle my 42 at max charge when it was new.