.380 defensive rounds /which to buy ?

[linksrds]

I have recently purchased my fisrt Khar ( but not my last).

The Kahr P380 and I am very happy with the pistol...It was money well spent comapred to the other small .380's on the market.

I have just recently finished the break in session of firing lsightly over 200 rounds.

100 rounds of WW white box, with truncated cone.
50 rounds of Rem green box FMJ
50 rounds of Mag Tec FMJ

There was only two FTF and that was in the first 25 rounds after that has been a flawless operation.

My question is this. Which ammo to buy ( if I can find it ) for the Khar for personal protection.

I have check many web sites, but everything is backordered for some time.

When I was wshooting the WW truncated cone, it seemed to me that the rounds gave a bit more recoil than the Mag Tech or the Remington. I think that would indicated that the WW may be a bit hotter load.

I believe the truncated cone would provide more trauma that just a round nose FMJ.

I will probably use the WW for now until I can find something else...

I would appreciate ammo suggestions that would feed properly through the Kahr and if possible a source to obtain it.

[DKD]

I have had several .380's over the years. In mine in the old days I used only Winchester Siver Tip Hollow Points.
These are still a good choice, however Hornady has a very good Critical Defense loads which are excellent...feed really well and with the polymer tip ball in the nose they won't clogg up with clothing and give good penetration & expansion.
Also try out the Speer God Dot Hollow Points...they feed really well and all reports and magazine tests indicate good expansion. Also Power Ball by Corbon are also very good.
Any of these should do the job quite nicely. Now if money is no option you can try MagSafe specialty ammo....very pricey & sold by the (8) round pack at about $24.00 :eek: But they have hyper velocity, fragmenting, light weight bullets, just be careful that they feed reliably in your weapon.

[jocko]

I am fond of the corbon power ball due to the total feeding reliability of the pwoer ball design. I have also shot gold dots with no issues. Just find the defense round that is 100% reliable and just stick with it. They are all good rounds. U have bought IMO the finest 380 on the market also. The most accurate for sure..

[ripley16]

Here is a web site with some interesting comparisons. It's one of the more comprehensive comparisons I've seen. Hope it helps.
http://www.brassfetcher.com/380ACP%20ammunition%20performance%20in%20ballistic %20gelatin.pdf

My personal opinion is that most any of the high quality rounds suffice so long as the function in your gun. The last time I carried a .380 it had gold dot, golden sabre or winchewster silver tips. Rare metals always seem to work well. :)

If I could find them I'd also use Winchester Ranger T. I use the 9mm +P and it's a very competent round.

[snuffy]

If you can afford it :eek:, DPX is the way to go.

[hickok45]

Just picked up the P380 myself, and I am pleasantly surprised with this thing. Even with large hands, it is not that hard to grip pretty well and to shoot well. I love it.

[steve666]

My HK4 is a picky eater so I use Pow'r Ball. I've used the Hornaday XTP loads in other firearms and they worked very well.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-violent053.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)

[camper]

My P380 likes Gold Dots best.

[JoeMB]

M P380 just went back to Kahr because it wasn't feeding the self defense rounds. I tried the Corbons, DPX and Blazer rounds. They seemed to catch on the feed ramp. hopefully they can fix the problem because it is a great little gun. I was thinking about going with some +P rounds when I get it back. I have found some that hit as hard as some 9mm. Good luck with your hunt for rounds.

[Shawn Dodson]

The problem with .380 ACP is that it cannot be loaded with a heavy enough bullet to ensure it reliably achieves adequate penetration after it expands. Modern JHP loads are much better but they still fall short of the recommended 12-inch minimum penetration performance.

(Not to criticize Brass Fetcher testing, but some calibration results (e.g., Hornady 90gr XTP JHP) are over 25% deeper (4.3") than the standard (3.4"). Unless you pay close attention to calibration BB velocity and penetration depth you can easily misinterpret penetration results. I'm just sayin'.)

If I were armed with a short barrel .380 ACP handgun (the Kahr P380 bbl is 2.5") then I'd load it with Winchester USA Q4206 FMJ flat point and call it good. The flat nose will crush slightly more tissues than round nose, and there's no issues with unpredictable penetration performance caused by whatever clothing the bad guy is wearing or what barrier material you might have to shoot through.

http://media.midwayusa.com/ProductImages/Large/743821.jpg

[The Habernatho]

My P380 is loaded with Critical Defense. It feeds it reliably and I have confidence in the round and its ability to expand and penetrate (10" from what I've heard). I keep meaning to test some of the defense rounds I got on hand to see my own results (pdx1, ranger-t, gold dots, cd, and hydra-shok)

[getsome]

MY LCP shoots the Hornady Critical Defense rounds without a hickup....I have tested the Hornady, Cor-Bon Powerball and the Winchester FMJ flat point into wet phone books and the Hornady round was the winner...Picture perfect expansion and 100% weight retention and about 8-9 inchs of penetration...The Power Ball rounds also expanded violently but lost most of their weight due to fragmentation with 7-8 inchs of penetration...The Winchester FMJ flat point had no expansion and penetration of about 9-10 inchs....I didn't have any other .380 ammo due to the shortage but I feel very comfortable with the Hornady CD rounds...Another idea might be to load 4 hollow points followed up with FMJ rounds if the first 4 didn't do the trick....I know the popular thinking is that a .380 is the absolute bottom caliber for a self defense pistol but after my unscientific redneck tests I am very impressed by with the modern loads for this very old caliber and I know for sure that I wouldn't want to stand in front of any of the rounds I tested.....:86: