Recommendations for .380 SD Ammunition

[Moped]

I picked up a new Tisas B380 (licensed copy of the Beretta 84) from Bill’s Outpost ( great people and a great experience) yesterday and now I’m on the hunt for some SD ammunition. Tell me what you all like! 

[Danger Rane]

I like the Remington Golden Sabre.

[bersaguy]

I think I have tried most every SD round out there for 380 Caliber and I finally settled on Hornady 90 gr. FTX Critical Defense and that is what is in all my 380's and the back up mags with them.

[Grayfox54]

Here's you some data to check out. Lucky Gunner .380 tests

I like the Federal 90gr Hydra-shok. 

[nightrunner]

Federal HST

[Trekbike]

I seem to recall hearing/reading the merits of using FMJ's for .380 caliber SD in order to get enough penetration to offset over garments.    Your mileage may vary.   

[1fast4by]

I  carry Underwood Ammo's loading of the Lehigh Defense extreme penetrator

More specifically the .380 +P version

 

I have had zero issue in my LCP 1, its definitely hot, but with a 13lb recoil spring in it, it is perfectly manageable, Ive put a few hundred down range and had zero hiccups.

[billyblazes]

3 hours ago, Trekbike said:

I seem to recall hearing/reading the merits of using FMJ's for .380 caliber SD in order to get enough penetration to offset over garments.    Your mileage may vary.   

From an officer I personally know, while he was working undercover he deployed his .380 with hollow points to shoot at a perp through a windshield.  I do not remember the flavor of the ammunition.  The rounds lodged in the windshield without fully penetrating.  We later got a cracked windshield from Safelite Auto Glass to run our own tests.  Although various hollow points had variable results with penetration, some going through the windshield from roughly 3-7 yards and others not penetrating, even in some cases rounds from the same box of ammo, ALL of the ball ammo penetrated the laminated glass and burst the plastic jug of water placed behind the glass.

We also had some fun that day testing various rounds of ammunition on ballistic drywall we had gotten a scrap piece of from the construction of the local VA hospital.  That ballistic drywall is amazing stuff.  I'm not sure what it says though for the amount of money spent to do the entire lobby of the VA center with that drywall, yet I digress...

 

[A.J. Holst]

Based on ShootingtheBull's research, I bought Precision One.

Functions flawlessly in my Kimber Micro.

[bersaguy]

I had concerns about penetration when I was looking for SD ammo so I decided to do some testing. Nothing High Tech but just kind of sampling. I made a dummy body from styro - foam, dressed in what I would consider some really heavy clothing including beginning with thermo undershirt and a sweat shirt,Flannel Shirt and a goose down extra heavy winter coat I bought back many years ago when we still had real winters up north and finally topped it off with an insulated rain coat. I placed the dummy up against a piece of 3/4 inch plywood. I back up about 25 feet and sent 15 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense rounds into the dummy from my Bersa model 85. All but 2 rounds passed through all of the clothing and foam with 4 passing through the plywood and the rest where stopped by the plywood. I know it was not a scientific test but it told me what I wanted to know. I know ball  FMJ ammo will penetrate more and that is my concern about rounds passing through a perp and striking innocent bystanders. Especially even center mass if the Perp is not 250 + pounds. It concerns me that 4 of the CD Hornady's passed through the plywood.

[Moped]

7 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

Here's you some data to check out. Lucky Gunner .380 tests

I like the Federal 90gr Hydra-shok. 

Thanks! Lots of good info here! 

[brazos]

I also recommend the ShootingtheBull410 video series on YouTube.  I believe he found that many .380 SD rounds did not expand when fired out of a short barrel, and the ones that did generally used the Hornady XTP bullet.

[WFM]

I also use Precision One.