380ACP, Whats a good SD load?

Laz I thought the something, considering all things the Gold Dot looks like a good pick.

Im planing on placing a order for some but I gotta figure what else I can put on the order to take advantage of shipping.

I was just getting ready to buy some blazer brass .380 when the place I was ordering from sold out of it.

Targetsport has aguila 1k for 200 free shipping which is a good deal for .380 but Im wondering how long is it gonna take me to shoot 1k rounds out of a little .380 pocket gun.. probably last me 2 years lol.
 
maybe we just expect to much out of .380
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Maybe....personally, I view the .380 acp as a sort of .38 special "light".

But ME and velocity are indications of what penetration might be expected,
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Nope - only in a roundabout way doe they matter.
Where penetration is concerned, sectional density is - and will always be - king of the hill.

An arrow weighing 400 to 500 grains with a sectional density of ~ .698psi shot at 300 fps will out-penetrate a 180 grain .30/06 bullet @ over 2500 fps.

Don't believe it?

Shoot a sack of grain w/a .30/06 & the bullet stops in it.
Superglue a similar bullet to the shaft of an arrow and shot that sack & the bullet comes out the other side.


Velocity will deliver a higher ME & a flatter trajectory.

The drawback to higher velocity is - - it can and often will, cause the bullet to expand. When a nominal bullet, such as a 95 grain, .355" bullet with a dismal SD of .108psi expands, it causes the SD figure & thus penetration, to go down.
That in itself is neither good or bad.
Controlled expansion is a good thing expansion just for the sake of expansionis a bad thing.

Didn't you read my post that we only got 774 fps with the Hornady FTX?
It was even worse than the Federal Hydroshocks!
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And your point here is what?
774 fps is a fair velocity - considering that you really only need between 300 and 500 to be considered lethal.
774 is also quite a bit quicker than the .44 russian and/or the .44 sp (246 gr), the .38 S&W, .455 Webley - and quite a few other traditional service type rounds - that have fair to good reputations for getting the job done.

The whole topic is - - convoluted at best & complicated more by the companies that lure people in with misleading (but 100% true) ME and velocity figures.

Targetsport has aguila 1k for 200 free shipping which is a good deal for .380 but Im wondering how long is it gonna take me to shoot 1k rounds out of a little .380 pocket gun.. probably last me 2 years lol.
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Where are you in Ohio? I just recently got my Ruger LCP & it looks like it's going to be my go-to carry gun. I quit shooting .380 years ago (when the small "pocket 9's" first came about). I might be interested in going halves with you on some.
 
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Shoot a sack of grain w/a .30/06 & the bullet stops in it.
Superglue a similar bullet to the shaft of an arrow and shot that sack & the bullet comes out the other side.
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Shoot a sack of grain with a blunt headed arrow of the same weight and density and see how far it penetrates, and then shoot a .38 special wadcutter into the same sack and see if it bounces off. Speed and velocity do make a difference!;)
 
Speed and velocity do make a difference!
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I never said velocity didn't make a difference. Velocity isn't anywhere near as critical as it's pumped up to be is all.

People tout velocity too much when what they really are trying to convey is - momentum.
The .38 wadcutter will probably go into the sack further than the arrow because it has greater momentum - which it gets by having a slightly better velocity.

Then again - - who knows?

A 148 grain wadcutter isn't really a fireball @ 700 something fps.
It might not even penetrate the fabric.

Any volunteers to give it a try?
I'd do it, but, I really don't care if it bounces or not.
 
I picked up some of the golddots at Outdoors Limited.
Reason I bought from them instead of SGammo is cause they had some other stuff I wanted.

Hopefully they feed ok, I like to run a few 100 rounds of ball first before testing defense loads.

Probably take me a couple range trips before it's ready to eat JHP's.
 
JoeSixPack wrote:
I've been looking at some gel tests and there are some really fine expanding JHP's in .380..
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Gel tests create a consistent baseline for comparison of one bullet to another.

But it would be a mistake to take the behavior of a bullet in ballistic gel as a sure-fire proxy for how the bullet will perform when fired into a human being. This is because people are not blobs of ballistic gel; they are flesh, bone, sinew, organs and even empty spaces.

A gel test tells you nothing about how a bullet will perform (and what kind of injury the target will suffer) in the case of a bullet that, say, goes a half-inch through flesh and then hits a bone at an oblique angle.

If you want to really have an idea how a bullet you're considering will perform then spend the money to go to the butcher and get about a 35 pound slab of bone-in pork, take that out to a gravel pit (because I don't think very many ranges would allow it) and put a few rounds in it. When we were teenagers, a friend and I took the leftover bits that a deer hunter didn't want and used it for target practice.

I'm pretty sure you'll never pay any attention to a gel test again.
 
Sometimes you run across someone doing tests like that, or hogs heads.
I don't have any where to test that.. I can't shoot in my back yard, no range I goto will allow you to shoot anything but paper.
And frankly Im not willing to go thru the time or expense of hand testing a dozen loads.

I have no choice but to go off gel tests, Is it perfect? no, but what is?
It's better then picking one at random off the shelf.
 
I have no choice but to go off gel tests, Is it perfect? no, but what is?
It's better then picking one at random off the shelf.
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Do you do your own gel tests, or go off what you see on youtube?

Note: As much as I really like the guy on Lucky Gunner, I keep in mind that he also is in the business of selling ammo as well, so tests results are take with a grain of salt.
 
youtube, gun blogs.. Like I said, I have no place to test gel even if I wanted to.. Unless I did it on the sly in my garage or something.

I already know what you're gonna say.. I look at several if possible.
If more then one person is getting similar results It's a good indication the results are legit.

People like TNoutdoors.. I regard his testing pretty highly.

I have no experience with gel testing personally so I wouldn't even trust my results without something to compare it to already.

HighValleyRanch said:
Note: As much as I really like the guy on Lucky Gunner, I keep in mind that he also is in the business of selling ammo as well, so tests results are take with a grain of salt.
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I can see why you would look at their tests with suspicion.
But some of the tests show failures, that's not good for business.

Besides that the FTX and Golddots which is the two loads I looked at the most both had similar results recorded on youtube, So I think they're probably legit.
 
YouTuber Paul Harrell and his "Meat Target" is an interesting way to see how various calibers perform in something other than gel.
 
Ya He's got some good videos, I had seen some gel tests with FMJ, which is actually what I was leaning towards when I started this thread.

And in the Gel tests was seeing like 25+ inch penetration, Which does not seem too bad when you're just looking at a faceless block of solidified goo.

But then I watched his .380 ammo video where he put two meat targets back to back and the .380 fmj just zipped right thru both of them I thought.. damn I need to rethink this.
 
Winchester white box 95 grain RNFP. Flat points are a good compromise between FMJ and hollow points, which may not perform very well from a .380 when shooting through heavy clothes.
 
I look at several if possible. If more then one person is getting similar results It's a good indication the results are legit.
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I do the same. And that is what impresses me about the Gold Dot. It seems to do well in many tests and tends to be very uniform from shot to shot. (According my very unscientific observation.)
 
Chasing good expansion can be an uphill battle with .380. This has given some people cause to recommend FMJ. I think we can do better. Modern technology allows for decent, machined solids that will do better. For instance, I won't be the first to recommend the Lehigh Xtreme Penetrators. Here is a good discussion and various gel tests of both the regular load and the hot Underwood load on the Military Arms Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PDQcE-1T40&t=779s

Even through barriers, these perform very well and leave very attractive wound channels.
 
A misunderstood point here, flat points do NOT necessarily crush more than a round bullet. In fact, they can be the worst for it.

Google if you wish. Lots of discussion if you research the Fiocchi 123gr 9mm truncated fmj. Scientifically, the truncated .40 FMJ would always crush more than a round 9mm FMJ when controlling velocity and weight. That isn't true.
 
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Google if you wish.
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Wild Cat, I certainly have googled these questions and I would not ask that you work to provide specific links which you likely have not kept, but if you could suggest a hint of what you searched for to come up with that information, it would be most appreciated.
 
What I've found in real data (not repeated opinion) is that difference between RN and TC in the smaller calibers is absolutely nothing.

It starts to matter in larger, but then it really only "works" if the bullet is designed correctly for that function.
 
http://www.xdtalk.com/threads/fiocch....168775/page-2
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The referred thread is about truncated, not flat point.
Truncated is different than flat nose.

A solid truncated shape that is closer to an arrow head might create a smaller channel than a round nose, but a flat point with create a large hole by virtual of it's corners of the flat point and this depends on how flat is the flat.
And a bullet that is trucated but designed to expand like the Critical defense DPX truncated bullet will expand better than a round FMJ.

A wad cutter cuts a wider hole than a round nose. Wad cutter is flat nose.
But even a "truncated" flat point like the Buffalo Bore Outdoorsmand Keith HC is designed to cut a larger channel than a FMJ or round nose.

But then mayber you were referring to the LeHigh rather than the BB flat point.
Take a look at this RIP round:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmy7Vp7aNHw
 
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