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With loose bullets in your .38 cases you're going to get very erratic velocity and sooner or later a squib load with a bullet stuck in your barrel. The primer will start the bullet out of the case before good powder ignition. The larger volume created by the bullet moving forward will cause very low pressure and a bullet can stick in the barrel. Since the .38 SPL case wall is thinner than .357 Magnum case walls, some 38/357 Mag sizing dies will not squeeze the thinner .38 cases down enough to hold bullets tight enough. My .38/357 sizing die won't size some .38 SPL cases enough. If your expander die offers almost no resistance when expanding your die may not size enough either. It could be your expander plug is too big, bullets undersize, or your sizing die. Either a sizing die made for thinner .38 cases or you can use a 9MM carbide sizing die. Size normally with a .38/357 sizer, then run all case into the 9MM sizing die down to just where the bullet would stop when seated. Then run all the .38 cases thru the expander die. The smaller 9MM die will reduce the thin .38 cases and your expander will expand them back to where the bullets will be held tightly. I've found that I don't like combination die sets. I've also had trouble with a 40/10MM die set not sizing .40SW cases enough.
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