What is the hottest factory load in this round? Who has the heaviest bullet, any make the 100 grain mark?
I some times carry a PPK and wonder if I can squeeze out 9mm para performance. I'm just curious, I usually use Winchester Silvertips and am satisfied with them. I am impressed with Cor-Bon performance but have had a few reliability problems with it.

I don't have a .380 anymore, but after experiencing Buffalo Bore's .38 and .357 loads, I kinda wish I had mine back. BB now has three loads for the .380, and I'm betting that their pretty good. Buffalo Bore .380acp

rd

Wow, that BB stuff looks like the ticket, thanks.

Good Luck with Buffalo Bore. I tried to go with hot-loads, but I was never able to get either Double-Tap or Buffalo Bore to cycle reliably in my Interarms PPK/S. I never had any issues with Winchester STs and still use them.

Hi, Chromedhearts. I don't know much about which .380 is "hottest," but I do have a Beretta Cheetah 84FS .380. I'm not sure if this suggestion may help. But barrel length has a lot to do with the punch. More than one person has commented (rightly or wrongly) that, with its near-full size, the Cheetah fires a .380 with about as much punch as some of the smaller 9 mm's. So if you're looking to have a .380 with performance closer to a 9mm and cannot find the right ammo, you may want to rent a Cheetah and see how it compares with the PPK using the same loads that you're now using.

Here's a different perspective.

I load .380 and have shot quite a bit of it. Some of my handloads are "suitable only for strong guns in good condition." However, a .380 is not going to match a 9mm Luger equivalent load.

Therefore, bullet performance is criical. No matter what I do, the bulk .380 hollowpints just won't expand, so they might as well be FMJ.
If you want certain expansion, it takes something like the .380 Gold Dot.
http://www.speer-ammo.com/ballistics/ammo.aspx

http://ammunitiontogo.com/catalog1/product_info.php?pNa...to-hollow-point-ammo
these seem to be about the heaviest

I chronographed some .380 ammo a while back. The best factory load was the Remington 102 gr. Gold Saber - avg. 896fps, but 3 shots had an extreme spread of over 100fps. It was faster than the 95 gr. loads I tested.

Chronographed some Santa Barbara ammunition from a Kel Tec P3AT and obtained 1030 FPS. I've read that the bullet weighs 95 grains but haven't weighed one.

quote:

Originally posted by Chromedhearts:
What is the hottest factory load in this round? Who has the heaviest bullet, any make the 100 grain mark?
I some times carry a PPK and wonder if I can squeeze out 9mm para performance. I'm just curious, I usually use Winchester Silvertips and am satisfied with them. I am impressed with Cor-Bon performance but have had a few reliability problems with it.

I use the 102 gr. Rem. Golden Sabers in my little Ruger LCP. Attached, a target I shot at 45 feet with 4 clips (24 rounds) in the litte Ruger and the Rem. GS. Not bad for such a little pistol at those distances.

quote:

Originally posted by OKFC05:
Therefore, bullet performance is criical. No matter what I do, the bulk .380 hollowpints just won't expand, so they might as well be FMJ.
If you want certain expansion, it takes something like the .380 Gold Dot.
http://www.speer-ammo.com/ballistics/ammo.aspx

I prefer a bullet that might expand over one that won't. Speer's Gold Dot load is nowhere near death and taxes when it comes to expansion. I fired one at close range into bare Perma-Gel with my P3AT and it failed to expand properly (one petal folded out). Oddly enough, the round fired into four layer denim/P-G expanded beautifully and stopped at 13" IIRC. I have wondered if the bare P-G bullet was a fluke, or somehow defective? IIRC one petal was actually folded inwards. To the bare gel bullet's credit, it penetrated 17".

Buffalo Bore and Double Tap run nicely through my LCP.

For various reasons, I recently ended up with a Bersa. (Yeah, I know, put a bag over my head...) For lack of anything better on hand, it's loaded with UMC 88gr JHPs. If nothing else, I like their feed profile. I'll probably switch back to just ball. What I'd like in a .380 would be a hot 100gr TC ball round going about 1000fps, which would basically duplicate the old 9x18mm Ultra GECO offering.

I only load up fmj in my 380, Ive got the ruger lcp, and with that short of a barrel, I cannot take a chance that one might expand. If it did, I certainly wouldnt get any penetration, and if the attacker were to throw up his arm, an expanding 380 bullet from that little of a gun would never make it through his arm and into his body.

A fmj will not expand and you are almost certain to get a vital hit, and is the only way to go in 380 IMO

quote:

Originally posted by GatorFarmer:
For various reasons, I recently ended up with a Bersa. (Yeah, I know, put a bag over my head...)

Gator, you won't hear anything negative about Bersa firearms from me. Nicely priced handguns that run like champs.

One of their UC .45's is on my short list.

rd