TODAY'S GUN TIME

[GeneV]

Got these new ones here for the .380 Ruger. I had to make an organ donation to help pay for them, but I hear they're worth it.

 

[shooterdon]

Got these new ones here for the .380 Ruger. I had to make an organ donation to help pay for them, but I hear they're worth it.



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I normally run 100 rounds of the ammunition I will carry to test for reliability. How the bullet works on target is not as important as getting the bullet on target.

For the .380 you may find some interesting reading under the .380 testing in the link below:

Handgun Self-Defense Ammunition - Ballistic Testing Data

Lucky Gunner tests more than 110 different 9mm, 45 ACP, 40 S&W and 380 ACP handgun self-defense ammunition loads in ballistic gel with analysis and video.

www.luckygunner.com

Some decent and more affordable options are listed.

 

[AWSubie]

Got these new ones here for the .380 Ruger. I had to make an organ donation to help pay for them, but I hear they're worth it.

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U may find this video informative regarding that type of bullet:

 

[GeneV]

U may find this video informative regarding that type of bullet:

Guys, if you only knew how much I scoured the interwebs and also watched ballistic vids on youtube for the .380 Ruger, you'd probably make fun of me for my latest fixation. I get kinda stupid obsessed with stuff. Anyways, as far as the above vid, that's a Lehigh round. Underwood uses their bullet, but makes their own loads with it. Underwood has their own Xtreme Penentrator round as well, billed as hunting round. Their defense round though (what I bought) is the Xtreme Defender.

There's a bunch of ballistic test vids on it on Youtube, but here's Paul Harrell giving you the news on it:

 

[GeneV]

.380 auto is a funny round. Hollow points don't do great there, often fail to fully expand. Just FYI from my research on it, 3 good ones based on testing (ballistic gel, and meat jacket like Paul's up there): Sig V-crown, Hydra-Shok, Hornandy Critical Defense.

But Underwood Defender is a whole other animal. Nothing to expand, yet it it leave a real nice wound channel, with a lower grain bullet.

 

[shooterdon]

Gene,

Thanks for posting the video by Harrell. My fiancé is looking for a carry gun and likes some of the .380 offerings.

Like you, I can be a bit "obsessed" about stuff like this and I am trying to steer her to a 9mm as I know it will be a better performer. My carry guns are 9's and .40's for that reason.

She shoots my Kahr 9mm well so recoil should not be a factor. Her issue is arm strength, due to medical issues, so rackng the slide gets difficult.

It will boil down to what gun she likes and can operate. I am not going to interfere. Too many guys make that mistake IMO.

If she goes with a .380, I am going to get her the Hornady 90 gr FTX critical Defense as it seems to perform the best with over .5" expansion and 13" penetration.

In the end, any gun is better than none and shot placement trumps "ballistics". She can shoot almost as well as I can so a BG will have a troublesome day.

 

[GeneV]

Gene,

Thanks for posting the video by Harrell. My fiancé is looking for a carry gun and likes some of the .380 offerings.

Like you, I can be a bit "obsessed" about stuff like this and I am trying to steer her to a 9mm as I know it will be a better performer. My carry guns are 9's and .40's for that reason.

She shoots my Kahr 9mm well so recoil should not be a factor. Her issue is arm strength, due to medical issues, so rackng the slide gets difficult.

It will boil down to what gun she likes and can operate. I am not going to interfere. Too many guys make that mistake IMO.

If she goes with a .380, I am going to get her the Hornady 90 gr FTX critical Defense as it seems to perform the best with over .5" expansion and 13" penetration.

In the end, any gun is better than none and shot placement trumps "ballistics". She can shoot almost as well as I can so a BG will have a troublesome day.

Roger that on everything! Yeh same here, we got the Ruger mostly for my wife. We went shooting last week, and she really liked that thing. I also rented us a Sig P365 in 9mm to try out. She actually preferred shooting the Ruger. But, that has to be taken with a grain of salt, because honestly I think she just fell hard for the Ruger, so only sees the positives in it...so far. The slide is a bit stubborn on it though, she had problems with it at first but worked it out eventually.

But yeh me shooting both, I could safely say that the Sig is a better shooter in every sense, accuracy, comfort, follow-up shots and all that. Not to mention yup it's a 9mm (they make one in .380 now too). However there's definitive reasons why it's better at the range...it's bigger, heavier, and has a longer barrel. As a carry pistol, between the two I'd say the Ruger makes it really easy.

Here's them side/side:







Yeh that Hornandy FTX round seems a winner, per what I read. That and the other ones I was talking about, those three all have some sort of spacer engineered in the hollow of the hollowpoint to keep them from plugging up with clothing, hence failing to expand. I think that's been the main issue with .380 defense loads of past. So the Hornandy has a plug in the hollow, the Sig V-crown has a cone in there, and the Hydra-Shock needs no introduction here I don't think, it's got that post in there.

 

[sea2summit]

I’m a huge fan of Hornady Critical Duty, I’ve slowly transitioned nearly all my pistols to it. I haven’t found a gun that doesn’t function with it or that it doesn’t shoot well out of. But test your guns with ammo, someone said 100 rounds but more is better if you can. You need to test specifically for accuracy and you need to test specifically for functionality (one hand, weak hand, over oiled, dry, deliberate action/dummy rounds, etc) and that’s hard to get in, in only 100 rounds. Not to mention most micro guns aren’t fun to shoot more than ~50 times in a range session. Ohh, and you can’t test it for someone else, wife/gf/whatever has to test it themselves.

 

[shooterdon]

Gene, the Sig 365 is near the top of our list too. If my fiancé goes with the Sig, it will be in 9mm.

If recoil is an issue, I can reload 9mm down a bit for practice rounds. With the 9mm we could standardize on one self defense round for all our carry guns and that makes things simple. I use the 124 Gold Dots currently and have a bunch of factory ammo. Plus, I can buy the Gold Dot bullets and reload them.

 

[RoyJackson]

I’m a huge fan of Hornady Critical Duty, I’ve slowly transitioned nearly all my pistols to it. I haven’t found a gun that doesn’t function with it or that it doesn’t shoot well out of. But test your guns with ammo, someone said 100 rounds but more is better if you can. You need to test specifically for accuracy and you need to test specifically for functionality (one hand, weak hand, over oiled, dry, deliberate action/dummy rounds, etc) and that’s hard to get in, in only 100 rounds. Not to mention most micro guns aren’t fun to shoot more than ~50 times in a range session. Ohh, and you can’t test it for someone else, wife/gf/whatever has to test it themselves.

Same here