Have you used out of 642 Hornady Critical Defense Lite Ammunition 38 Special 90 Grain

[MickeyR]

Looking to see if anyone has used Hornady Critical Defense Lite Ammunition
38 Special 90 Grain from a 642 especially with stock grips.
How is the recoil?
Just bought one last week and no chance to use it.
Thank you

 

[MickeyR]

Also my thinking is it’s lite but still better than .380?

 

[Baltimoreed11754]

I like the Hornady critical defense but don’t use stock grips liking these Ergo’s better.

 

[K Harris]

Not the 90, but the 110 standard pressure. The 110 has light recoil, so I would bet that the 90 is even more so seeing as how the velocity close to the same. Lucky Gunner did some testing on both these rounds as well as the 110 +P. The short of is the 90 did not penetrate to the 12" mark, but the 110 made it to 14" out of a 2" barrel. Both rounds expanded about 125% which is not too bad. I still have a couple boxes of the 110's, but I prefer the 148 grain HBWC.

 

[Breakaway500]

Make sure you put it on paper.The recoil wasn't bad but mine printed 2" high at 7 yards. No..not a miss (on a large target) but certainly not what I expected. I also use the Liberty Defense 50 grain 1500fps and it also prints high at 7 yds (3")

 

[Rammer Jammer]

I shot some out of an LCR years ago and though recoil felt lighter it wasn't by much. Purely subjective but that's my recollection.

 

[HardToHandle]

110gr is comparable to a light Wadcutter. Noticeable but if the grips fit your hand, they are manageable for me.

90gr is comfortable, almost to the point of having to make sure you touched off the round… It is not moving very fast and the report seems a bit quieter. I find it much more comfortable in a J or K Frame than a .380 in a Keltec P-3AT.

 

[southchatham]

I would like to try them but have been unable to buy them anywhere.

 

[Rpg]

This low weight ammo has little to recommend it.

It depends on relatively high velocity to sustain sales. The problem is that you won’t get the advertised velocities out of a 642. This means you won’t get the penetration you need and any expansion you get works against penetration and will be both trivial and very uncertain.

If you’re looking for a low recoil load that will actually penetrate while leaving a great wound channel try the standard 148 gr target load.

I know these light weight things can be impressive in ballistic gel, but I’ve never needed to defend myself against jello. Ballistic gel performance doesn’t correlate with performance in in the field at the velocities you can expect from a 38 revolver with a 1 7/8” barrel.

 

[jeeps]

These fixed-sight 38's are sighted for 158-grain loads anything lighter will hit way low. Dropping down to 90grain will cost you accuracy and the penetration needed to reach vitals to put down and bleed out a bad guy. I would trust a standard 158 swc load a lot more.

 

[michpatriot]

Wife started out with that Hornady lite in her 642 with the stock grips, after a few trips out we tried the Buffalo bore Standard pressure short barrel low flash heavy 38 special..a litt?e bit more recoil but she does fine with it and now carries it. Its a 150gr wadcutter @850fps.

 

[556A2]

The recoil isn't bad, but the muzzle blast/flash is higher.

Hits fairly low due to the 90 grain weight, but accurate enough. Would recommend just buying the 110 grain version instead of the Lite.