.380 ammo choices

[gatorhugger]

DPX has pitiful penetration in meat.

This bullet is way too light and underpowered.
The ONE bullet I would stay away from at all cost in a 380. I am serious about this. Don't do it! Anything but this bullet in a 380.
It's almost in the fragmentation class since it just will not penetrate reliably.

 

[John R]

If I were to carry a 380, I'd go with the Golden Saber, it's a 102 grain bullet.
Don't think your going to get any expansion in a 380, so might as well have the heaver bullet.
And you never know, it might expand.

 

[flop-shank]

Pretty much any .380 will penetrate over 16" if it doesn't expand, so 90 gr. loads are fine.

 

[gatorhugger]

Originally posted by John R:
If I were to carry a 380, I'd go with the Golden Saber, it's a 102 grain bullet.
Don't think your going to get any expansion in a 380, so might as well have the heaver bullet.
And you never know, it might expand.

Have faith, sabers will expand. Even rumbling at turtle speed, these brass jackets will peel back leaving a nice hunk of lead.
These 102 grain bullets will also overcome obstacles better than the 90 grainers.
However,The corbon personal protection is a a good choice if you really want the 90 grainers.
Really a lot of it is splitting hairs.
Corbon JHP, Buffalo gold dots, Golden Sabers all are pretty darn good stuff.

 

[flop-shank]

I'm leary of the Corbon .380s. I bought some Sierra .90 gr. .355 bullets, loaded them to Min. OAL and the cartridges wouldn't even chamber in my Kel-tec. The bullet hit the rifling before the breech closed. I wonder if others have had the same results with Corbon .380 JHPs?

 

[marvin knox]

I carry a Ruger LCP when all else fails to fit the occasion. I load it up with the Hornady Critical Defense round.

I've been considering alternating with a very hot round like the BB but haven't got around to trying any.

I've gone round and round on .380 ammo until my head hurts.

I trust Mr. Camp's tests. He strikes me as someone I can trust. That's why I have happily settled on Hornady Critical Defense as my main carry round even if I do end up alternating with hotter stuff to hedge my bets.

I do think that penetration is pretty much king when considering any kind of "stopping" ability with the .380 guns. You've got to reach the vitals and hopefully the spinal area from the front to the back with any hope of stopping an assailant. But then, isn't that true of ANY handgun bullet?

That's why the hedging of bets with a hot flat point from BB etc. alternating with my main load - even though Hornady is deffinately now in the picture to stay.

 

[gatorhugger]

Originally posted by flop-shank:
I'm leary of the Corbon .380s. I bought some Sierra .90 gr. .355 bullets, loaded them to Min. OAL and the cartridges wouldn't even chamber in my Kel-tec. The bullet hit the rifling before the breech closed. I wonder if others have had the same results with Corbon .380 JHPs?

You are correct Corbons JHP's are absolutely an issue in certain guns. One of the reasons the Ruger LCP got recalled is the Corbons were not seating right. I shot em in my Keltec and LCP and in my LCP experienced just what you did. It didn't seem to chamber right.
Didn't have any malfunctions but it did make me leery.
Heck of a bullet though. They have some zip to em.

 

[flop-shank]

Thanks for the confirmation, Gator. I have to agree about Sierra bullets. If there was any bullet I would trust to work well in a .380, it would be a Sierra. Too bad they have issues with the rifling.

Originally posted by marvin knox:
I carry a Ruger LCP when all else fails to fit the occasion. I load it up with the Hornady Critical Defense round.

I've been considering alternating with a very hot round like the BB but haven't got around to trying any.

I've gone round and round on .380 ammo until my head hurts.

I trust Mr. Camp's tests. He strikes me as someone I can trust. That's why I have happily settled on Hornady Critical Defense as my main carry round even if I do end up alternating with hotter stuff to hedge my bets.

I do think that penetration is pretty much king when considering any kind of "stopping" ability with the .380 guns. You've got to reach the vitals and hopefully the spinal area from the front to the back with any hope of stopping an assailant. But then, isn't that true of ANY handgun bullet?

That's why the hedging of bets with a hot flat point from BB etc. alternating with my main load - even though Hornady is deffinately now in the picture to stay.

Marvin, stop hurting your head and just run with what you're using. I believe those Hornadys you're packing use the same bullet, at the same velocity, as the Fiocchi Extrema .380 I tested. If the bullet expands, you will get 12" penetration, if it doesn't, you're looking at around 16". I wouldn't waste my time "dutch loading" my pistol if I were you.

Also, if you do a search in this forum, I started a thread about my tests of Buffalo Bore's .380 +P Gold Dot. It is a great performer in Perma-Gel, but too hard on guns IMO. Maybe Rugers are tougher than Kel-tecs, but I wouldn't chance it. That load beat the snot out of my gun.

 

[marvin knox]

QUOTE]...........Marvin, stop hurting your head and just run with what you're using. I believe those Hornadys..................[/QUOTE]

I think you may well be right there. My head does hurt.

I remember all the considering of different carry ammo that I went through with my flyweight .357 snub. I finally settled on DPX 125 gr. at around 1100fps or a little less.

It has less kick than most all of the .357 ammo out there. The DPX bullet can expand well and still penetrate well at snubbie velocities of a little under 1100fps. Not many can say that. I've found a cheap practice round that kicks about the same and has the same POI.

My head no longer hurts from that decision. I'm set for life and I won't go through any more considerations concerning that particular carry gun's ammo.

I probably should do the same with the .380. I trust Steven Camp's evaluation. It looks like it's a fine performer (as good as can be expected any way). If it's not the best - at least it's right up there with the best. It also doesn't hurt my little gun or my hand much . I'll probably shoot better with it than anything hotter, expecially left handed etc.

A real good feeling comes over me when I consider that I have made my final ammo choice and can now just relax and practice. I think it may be wise to trust that feeling.

(My little LCP will probably thank me after a few hundred rounds as well.)

 

[flop-shank]

As long as your gun is 100% reliable, your work is done, Marvin.

I do stand corrected on one thing I said above. The Critical Defense ammo features the Hornady FTX bullet which is different from that which Fiocchi Extrema uses. Extrema uses the XTP bullet. If you haven't fired a sufficient quantity of Critical Defense through your gun to be done with reliability testing, you might want to try Extrema. It is way less expensive than Hornady or the Speer ammo I use, and every bit as good.

 

[Chromedhearts]

From my own experience; I will not ever use CorBon in .380 again. It cycled fine and is definately "high performance", but the bullets bit into the rifling when loaded, it is almost impossible to cycle the slide with a live round chambered, making it almost impossible to unload my PPK, each time that I tried I ended up pulling the bullet out of the case, spilling powder into the pistol, and the bullet had to be rodded out. I know I could have went some where and just shot it out but that was not practical.

 

[BreakerDan]

380 hollowpoints are lousy penetration wise.
Put FMJ in it and use excellent shot placement.

 

[flop-shank]

Many hollowpoint offer more than 12" pen. consistently.