# 380 ammo - favorite



## hideit (Oct 3, 2007)

for those that have 380's
what ammo do you prefer?
i have a ruger lcp on order


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## big dutchman (Jan 9, 2007)

i use the pmc starfire in my kel-tec P3AT. these rounds have functioned flawlessly and give me the tightest groups. i also liked the winchester silvertip and the federal hydrashok. these three hollow points were the most accurate from my kel-tec and everything i've tried through it has functioned just fine.


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## forestranger (Jan 20, 2008)

Dpx


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## cupsz71 (Nov 19, 2007)

*BERSA Thunder .380 *-
Winchester 95grn FMJ for target shooting
Federal Hydra-Shok Low Recoil 95grn JHP for CCW & home defense

Wifey's gun - Wifey likes.:smt023


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## toopercentmlk (Apr 25, 2007)

WWB for my P230, makes nice little round holes  Although I may order a bunch of Magtech from Sportsmanguide since it's rather cheap.


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## Snowman (Jan 2, 2007)

Hydra Shoks


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## AZ Outlaws (Dec 3, 2007)

hideit said:


> for those that have 380's
> what ammo do you prefer?
> i have a ruger lcp on order


I'm sure you're going to be happy with your LCP when it comes in. Mine has already been promoted to full time summer carry status and goes everywhere with me in my right front pocket in a Desantis Nemesis pocket holster...








As for .380 ammo, I'll nominate Remington Golden Sabre 102 grain BJHP for self defense and WWB 95 grain BEB for putting holes in paper for no other reasons than they both work in my LCP (and the other pistols I own) and the Remington is a heavier bullet while the WWB is a cheap target round.

I hope I'm not taking this thread OT by talking about I've also been pondering bullet sizes and brands for all of my pistols. I have been spending a lot of time reading up on self defense rounds for .380 Auto, 9mm, .40S&W and .45ACP calibers. There seems to be two camps... small and fast or big and slow AND then there different bullet weights and opinions within each camp on which round is best.

It seems like everytime I read a post or an article where someone references a study, someone always comes along and knocks it down as being out dated, it didn't take into account, or several other reasons the study is worthless. So, it's not an easy tasks picking the best overall self defense round in any caliber.

With all that said, I've narrowed my choices down to three brands...

- Remington Golden Saber
- Cor-Bon Traditional JHP
- Cor-Bon DPX

The Remington Golden Sabers I'm using now for all four calibers I own are the heaviest, while the two types of Car-Bon are the lightest.

I currently use Remington Golden Sabers in the following calibers and bullet weight:

- .380Auto... 102 grain BJHP
- 9mm... 124 grain +P BJHP 
- .40S&W... 180 grain BJHP
- .45ACP... 230 grain BRHP

I'm considering:

Cor-Bon Traditional JHP offers:

- .380 Auto in:

90 grain JHP rated @ 1,050 FPS & 220 FTLBS

- 9mm in:

90 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,500 FPS & 450 FTLBS
115 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,350 FPS & 466 FTLBS 
125 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,250 FPS & 434 FTLBS

- .40S&W in:

135 grain JHP... rated @ 1,325 FPS & 526 FTLBS
150 grain JHP... rated @ 1,200 FPS & 480 FTLBS 
165 grain JHP... rated @ 1,150 FPS & 485 FTLBS

- .45ACP in:

165 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,250 FPS & 573 FTLBS
185 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,150 FPS & 543 FTLBS
200 grain +P JHP... rated @ 1,050 FPS & 490 FTLBS

Cor-Bon DPX offers:

- .380 Auto in:

80 grain DPX rated @ 1,050 FPS & 196 FTLBS

- 9mm in:

115 grain +P DPX... rated @ 1,250 FPS & 399 FTLBS

- .40S&W in:

140 grain DPX... rated @ 1,1,200 FPS & 448 FTLBS

- .45ACP in:

185 grain +P DPX... rated @ 1,075 FPS & 475 FTLBS
160 grain +P DPX... rated @ 1,050 FPS & 392 FTLBS

Isn't it wonderfull to have choices??? I'm still confused as to which brand/round is best for self defense. :smt119 :smt119 :smt119

Again, I hope this post didn't go too far off topic in talking about other calibers than the .380 Auto....

The sources I used in this post are:

Remington who offered no ballistic information on their web site.

Cor-Bon Traditional JHP

Cor-Bon DPX.


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## forestranger (Jan 20, 2008)

This data is from 11/06 when I was playing around with chronographing and wet pack testing different loads in p3at:

WWB 95fmj-806fps 
S&B 92fmj-826
Fed 90HS-874  } all 5 shot avgs.
Rem 102GS-787
GB 80DPX-1020

Didn't keep wetpack (covered w/layer of denim & towel) info but remember 102GS didn't expand any over half time. Fed expanded some w/all shots. DPX expanded dramatically w/all shots. fmjs penetrated a little more than all but GS, it was about same when it didn't expand.When it did expand, DPX penetrated little more than HS & GS. 

All this did was make me try as much as possible to carry something more powerful than a 380 but there are those times when mini-380 is all I got. Expect lcp velocities be close to p3at's.


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