Quote:
Originally Posted by BoogersXDm
The HST suffered from failure to expand across the board in the lucky gunner .380 test.
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self...-tests/#380ACP
Is it just me, or does anyone else here think that hardball is still the way to go with .380, for the most part, especially in the itty bitty automatics?
Not just because of the extremely erratic performance of JHP's in this caliber, but for sheer reliability, I like to keep the hottest round nosed FMJ I can find, in my little P3AT.
Right now its got Fiocchi ball in it.
In any case, .38 special is, IMHO, a more capable caliber then the .380, and if done right, I don't see why the HST loading wouldn't be a good one.
But it sure is off to a .....weird..... start. |
Just my opinion, but with .380 I'd still prefer a good, deep pentrating JHP than FMJ. Rounds using the 90gr XTP bullet tend to perform well in terms of penetration. The Speer Gold Dot also seems to do well. My reasoning is that the open mouth of a JHP is more likely to actually cut and tear tissue, i.e. a "cookie cutter" effect, than FMJ, even if it doesn't expand. A FMJ will penetrate deeper, but it will stretch the tissue before breaking through it. After the bullet's passed through, the elastic nature of tissue will often cause it to spring back, leaving a hole that's actually smaller than the bullet's diameter. I'm not sure if a flatnosed FMJ would do much better than a roundnosed FMJ.
This is, of course, presuming the JHP round is reliable in the gun. I would prefer to find a gun/JHP combo that worked reliably than just default to FMJ, if at all possible. But I would rank reliability and shootability higher than terminal performance, so I wouldn't rule out using FMJ in .380, but it wouldn't be my first choice.
I know there are many people, however, who would disagree with me and stick with FMJ in .380s. To each their own.