Was just given a Bersa .380 that belonged to my late brother-in-law. Nice gun and great shooter, but if you want to carry this for CC what would you fill mag with. Thanks Buckey08

I carry my .380 Walther PPK loaded with Winchester Super-X 85 Grain Silvertip Hollow Points.

Cor-Bon DPX. The .380 is marginal and you need the best bullet available.

Here's a recent pic of my .380 inventory, ball is on the left and HP's are on the right.

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Life Mbr:DAV-USMC-DAV-NRA-MOPH

Do a search for posts by Erich. He is our only Saint and pretty much of an expert on the 380. I believe his preference is for ball. He is also an expert on places to eat in his fair city.

My Ruger LCP loves "Gold-Dots"

Hornady Critical Defense. Nuff said!

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Rick
American Blacksmith

I would also use Hornady Critical Defense! Too bad they don't make in in .32 Auto...

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

I've done a lot of study on this particular issue. I like Corbon DPX in many calibers, but not .380 for two reasons; one is the cost of making sure it functions in your pistol. One magazine doesn't prove anything. The other is slightly less than desirable penetration. Hornady Critical Defense looked really promising and then I started reading about issues involving the primers. At first I didn't believe it, but I shoot a lot and own a lot of guns and I started to have Failure To Fire with Critical Defense in some of my reliable .38s. I really don't trust it now. Anyway, I have seen a lot gelatin/denim tests listed and came to the conclusion the best compromise between expansion and penetration is the Speer Gold Dot. If I can find the link to the test site I will post here here.

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Loyalty Above All.. but Honor

I carry RWS ball ammo in my 380, but what do I know.

I jam a MagSafe in the pipe,a Hornaday Tap,then stack ball,HP,ball,etc,,,you never kno what you are going to run into,denim,glass,drywall,,,just make sure your weapon eats whatever is stacked in the mag....
Sig P232
Bodyguard.380
Sig P238

Silver Tips, Gold Dot, and Star Fire are all great self-defense rounds, IF your particular firearm will reliably feed them. I had a Colt .380 Govt. that would not feed most hollowpoints. Finally found that Remington had a 95 grain hollow point that looked like a hardball from the side, but still had a deep cavity in the front. Not sure what the designation is, but they must still make it, as I recently bought some through Sportsman's Guide. Some 380s are pretty particular; you might need to try several rounds. Fire several magazines full to make sure there are no hiccups.

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LEO since 1981.

I like the Remington Golden Sabers, 102gr make them one of the heavier rounds in .380, feed well in the guns I've tried them in.

ditto Rem's hp's and Golden Sabre. fed well, no failures in a Walther, CZ83 and my BDA.
the GS seems fairly 'hot' compared to others.

Thanks for all the reply's , Not sure what to stick in the mag now. In the mean time I'll stuff some Power ball in my pocket and call it good

I get deeper penetration in pine and wet newsprint with Rem-Umc 95gr
fmj than with other brands of same ammo so thats what I carry in my
1934 Beretta and 1955 Browning.

With the Bersa, you have three-quarters of an inch or even one full inch of extra barrel compared with a lot of the 380s that people carry these days (e.g., S&W BG380, Kahr P380, Ruger LCP), so I would think that any namebrand hollowpoint would serve you pretty well. Based on the tests that I've read (some of which were worth reading and some not), it's at the lower end of the spectrum of barrel lengths that the 380 hollowpoint starts to get a little quesionable.

After reading his posts in this thread...

.380 load (Calling Erich)

...I took the Gold Dots out of my P-3AT and went to WWB FMJ. Flat nose so hopefully would cause more damage than a round nose, kind of underpowered so less possibility of over penetration, and it feeds great in my pistol.

+ with Erich on the Winchester white box FMJ flat nose.

My LCP gets fed Hornady Critical Defense and has never had a hiccup with it. Unlike Badge 130 I've never experienced a FTF and I use their .380, .38 Special, .357 Mag, and .45 Colt in the Leverevolution line. If I were experiencing a lot of them I darn sure would bring it to Hornady's attention. I had a friend who was experiencing that problem with his ammo and come to find out he was poisoning his primers with oils & cleaners. Have another who was getting light strikes but a trip to the gunsmith fixed that. These days I hardly even get a misfire with rimfire ammo and have never experienced it with a centerfire. If I didn't use the Hornady ammo I would be using Buffalo Bore-I've used their .38 Special ammo and it is top notch, just not for the recoil sensitive.

The Gold Dots are good, but I found my gun was more accurate with Critical Defense. I have been able to get some Winchester Ranger T-series for .380 which seems very promising. I will test it when the snow and cold let up, but this may end up my carry load in .380.

Here are the results from some .380 loads I chronographed a couple of month ago and posted on another forum-----
The loads were tested in both a Walther PP (3.86" bbl) and a Walther PPK/S (3.2" bbl).

All are averages of 10 rounds (including the Winchester Talons at yes, approximately $1.00 per round!).

ES = Extreme Spread in feet per second.

Sellier & Bellot 90gr. FMJ - 988 fps, 74 ES in PP; 941 fps, 73 ES in PPK/s.
PMC 90gr. FMJ - 935 fps, 64 ES in PP; 879 fps, 39 ES in PPK/s.
Winchester Talon 95gr. JHP - 953 fps, 134 ES in PP; 911 fps, 80 ES in PPK/s.
Buffalo Bore 90gr. JHP - 1228 fps, 9 ES in PP; 1232 fps, 25 ES in PPK/s. (!!!)
Hand Load-95gr. JHP 3.7gr. 231 - 1045 fps, 32 ES in PP; 1023 fps, 67 ES in PPK/s.

Chris