I'd carry them..........in my range bag, on a one way trip to the range.

I think I will get some of the Buffalo Bore ammo and perhaps keep my future LCP loaded with the Powerball in the chamber and as the first few rounds and then have 2 rounds of the 100 gr lead BB ammo just in case. I still cannot find any gun magazine tests or reviews of the 380 PB load.

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Just got back from Cabelas, and they didn't have the Buffalo Bore in 380, but I did pick up a box of Magtech 95 gr. 50 rounds for $13.99. Hell, that seems like the same price I paid for ... half as many of those Golden Sabres!

quote:

Originally posted by flop-shank:
I went to www.stoppingpower.net and did a search in the test bed forum for .380 Powerball jello tests. It wasn't too impressive. IIRC it got about 12 1/2" from a P3AT and didn't expand. It expanded from a PPK, but only penetrated 8 1/2". .380 Gold Dots expanded from a P3AT and went 11 3/4" deep IIRC. Weather that's deep enough in this marginal caliber is up to each of us to decide.

I shot Perma-Gel yesterday with .380 gold Dots. The pistol was a gen. 2 Kel-tec P3AT.

Round #1 Speer 90 gr. Gold Dot through four layers of denim; 13" pen./rec. wt. 89.6 gr./rec. dia. .442.

Round #2 Speer 90 gr. Gold Dot into bare Perma-Gel; 17+" pen./rec. wt. 87.6 gr.(one petal detatched and left in wound cannel)/rec. dia. .419 (one petal folded out, otherwise nonexpanded)this bullet left the block and was cruising like a lightly thrown rock.

Round #3 handload 90 gr. Gold Dot/4 gr. Herco through four layers of denim; 16" pen./rec. wt. 89.4 gr./rec. dia. .356.

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Very interesting. What's the purported ratio of penetration between Perma-Gel and meat again?

Erich, how it compares to meat (assuming you mean live), I do not know. Perma-Gel should be very close to 10% ballistic gelatin, so the results in one medium can be compared to the other. Many very successful handgun loads yield penetration in gelatin similar to what I got yesterday. Perma-Gel, being homogenous, cannot make a perfect substitute for shooting a human, but it will have to do, since I'm loathe to shoot people, even if I have to. One impression that the .380 Gold Dots gave me was that they were designed with a very controlled expansion in mind, at least with short barrels. That's the way it should be for an expanding bullet with such a light weight and low energy. The best expander of the bunch didn't exacly form a nuclear bomb-looking mushroom. I'm thinking that Speer's engineers designed that bullet to open somewhat out of short P3AT length barrels, but not much, so that there would be adequate penetration (we might disagree on what that means ) with the lower velocities that short barrels offer. Of course longer barrels should yield better expansion. As far as penetration from longer barrels goes, your guess is as good as mine, and it's not a huge concern of mine since the P3AT is my only .380. I am, however, curious to know. My four layer denim results were fairly consistent with what Marshall and his gello buddies got in their testing IIRC.

This thread is rather timely. I'm going to be getting an LCP here shortly. A LEO friend of mine got one for his wife, but she doesn't seem interested so he is going to sell it to me. While I won't consider this pistol as anything but an oh $h!t I'm out of ammo in my j frame option, it is HIGHLY concealable.

I'm thinking fmj all the way.

Some years ago I was looking for a good load for my Sig P230. I was using 95gr jacket bullets and a load starting at 3.2gr of Win231. The bullet bounced off a piece of culvert pipe (young and stupid I was). When the load was increased by .2 gr the bullet consistently penetrated one side of the pipe. Increasing the load another .2 gr the bullet went through both sides of the pipe. That last load was too hot so I settled on the 3.4gr load. After that I had a lot more respect for that cartridge.
A 100gr flat nose lead bullet in the Buffalo Bore package would be fun to try.

The Buffalo Bore load looks like the way to go in terms of getting good penetration. Would love to see a full blown test of the BB ammo.

I'd like to shoot Perma-Gel with that Buffalo Bore Gold Dot at some point. I can't say I'm dissatisfied with Speers's Gold dot ammo. My gun loves the stuff.