Looking for 380+P loads

[happy7]

I see Buffalo Bore has cartridges in the 1200 fps for this cartridge. That really has to up the effectiveness of this cartridge. Is anyone aware of any loads that can get anywhere near that safely?

I have recently acquired a 380 for CCW. This question is not about whether 380 is good for self defense or not. I think everyone agrees it is not as good as 45. But given that I will be carrying a 380 and that it is a marginal cartridge, I want the best loads for it. As far as bullets I am open to suggestions, even using j-word, but am liking the looks of the Ranch Dog bullet.

[Treeman]

IMO +P .380s are not a good idea. The reason I carry a .380 is because there are tiny pocket pistols available in that caliber.....My P3at and TCP are both surprisingly accurate and shootable little pistols but they are a handful with top standard pressure loads. Ball-including flat point bullets- has adequate penetration at standard velocities. Hollow points are marginal penetrators in this chambering and speeding them up is unlikely to help that. Therefore, I see only down sides to hotting up the little cartridge. The tiny pistols have limited ability to withstand overloads , The guns are harder to control as recoil increases. Speeding up the normal bullet weights gains little and increasing the bullet weight will make it hard to achieve expansion velocities and exacerbate the recoil issues.

[rintinglen]

+1 to the above. I have a Berretta 84f and have run it a little hotter than the books say, BUT this is bigger gun. And I still went nowhere near 1200 fps. I would not try it in any smaller blowback pistol, like an LCP or a P3AT. There were a few locked-breech guns, like the LLama that supposedly could be hot loaded, but I would try to dissuade you from doing so. There are several tiny 9 mm's that can safely do what you ask and are very little larger than today's crop of 380. That is the route I would recommend. In particular, the compact Kahr 9mm is a very tempting gun.

Now, if you really want a 380 as a nifty hideout gun for that gravest extreme situation, then I think that RD mold would make for a great practice boolit. I use the 356-242 95 grain Lyman, but that is simply because that is what I have, not through any great excellence of the design. It feeds well in both the afore mentioned 84f and in the Walther PPK/s that is more frequently my companion. For carry puposes, I stick with Hardball. A while back they ran tests on 380 ammunition in GUN TESTS Magazine and they were of the opinion that virtually all of the hollowpoint ammunition was lacking in penetration to the point of failure. Now I don't remember what issue it was, but following FBI protocols they found most HP ammo to give less than the desired 12 inches. Only the hardball ammo would punch in deep enough to be likely to poke holes in the vitals of an attacker. Marshall and Sanow reported better stopping power with the WW Silvertip ammo than with Hardball. Your mileage may vary.

[happy7]

I am not talking about loading to excessive pressures. The buffalo bore rounds are supposed to not exceed Saami specs.

The Kahr 9mm does look like a very nice piece. Very compact, but I have stuck one in my pocket a few times at gun shows, wanting that extra power, but in my opinion it is just that much bigger that it won't fit in my pockets, not practicallly.

I realize that the little guns are not pleasant or easy to shoot, and much less so with higher power rounds. I do not dispute that lower power rounds may be a better choice for many shooters and I know a couple older gentlemen that carry a 32 for that very reason. But I am built pretty solid and have been shooting a lot of magnum rounds of all flavors for a couple decades, so I think for me a more potent round would be a better one in terms of self defense. I have seen a deer live for a half hour after being shot through the chest cavity with a 50 caliber ball. My house gun will not be a 380. My car gun will not be a 380. But my carry gun often will and I think for me, the more potent I can load it, the more effective it will be in helping me to improve the outcome of a bad situation, should the need arise.

[fecmech]

I have a Keltec and they and the LCP are locked breach pistols not blowbacks. I have the RD 100 mold and my Keltec with the RD 100 at 900 fps is a handful and that's what I carry. That load is under what sammi max is for the .380 so I'm sure the bullet could be pushed up around 1000 fps although I don't want to shoot it! Is Buffalo Bore getting their 1200 fps out of a 2.75" bbl?? If so that would be like shooting one of the S&W Scandium .357's with full power loads that the shooter than loads with +P .38 spls for carry.

PS BB .380 ammo is 1150 fps out of a 3.75" bbl, out of a Keltec it's 1061 fps per their web site.

[happy7]

Ah, fecmech, good observation. Looks like their ammo is still powerful, but not as powerful as I was thinking compared to most factory. I guess I will get that ranch dog mold and start doing some experimenting