Recommended Factory Ammo for Kahr 380

[TheLastDaze]

Okay now after 700rds through my cw380 (mostly reloads) I'll finally ask the question:p

What factory ammo would you recommend that has been proven reliable in the 380 series kahrs?

I'm not talking SD ammo just plain jane plinking rounds....

fwiw, my cw380 is running WAY better after a few tweaks but its just shy of 100%...

thanks,
Rob

[muggsy]

I had very good luck with PMC ball ammo.

[BEARDOG]

+1 for PMC Bronze.

I recently got two CW380's from PSA. One for my Dad, and one for me. I picked up 200 rds of PMC for him to break in his and it's working just fine.

My CW380 is only being fed my reloads, which it seems to like very much, as its been 100%... What an awesome little gun! ;)

[SlowBurn]

The only problem factory rounds for me are flatnose. For range ammo FMJ, zero issues with Magtech, Aguila, Winchester, Remington.

[TheLastDaze]

+1 for PMC Bronze.

I recently got two CW380's from PSA. One for my Dad, and one for me. I picked up 200 rds of PMC for him to break in his and it's working just fine.

My CW380 is only being fed my reloads, which it seems to like very much, as its been 100%... What an awesome little gun! ;)

lucky you!!! I've decided to sort my brass headstamp for my cw380 I'm currently culling out all the PERFECTA trash that would not cycle at all, feeds through my LCP just fine so I'm marking the base of the casings and keeping them separated from the bulk which my cw doesn't seem to have problems with, and I'm shooting FP Xtreme 100gn handloads.....

I want to buy 100rds of factory ammo and see if my cw will crank them out, if so I'll call it 100% and wrap it up....

[BEARDOG]

I culled out all my Fiocchi brass before I even fired a shot out of my CW380... Thank's to Greg's post/pic about how they are cut different at the rim. Just to test, I did try to hand cycle some, no go. I'll just use it for my LCP.

The bullets I've been handloading are 95gr LRN from Missouri Bullet. And just got some new ones in of the same bullet, but from Bayou Bullets. The coated bullets are really slick and reload and cycle through the gun very nicely. Really nice bullets, glad I tried them. I'll be ordering more.

[ReManG]

Not the Fiocchi 95 Grain either JHP or Ball for my CW380, however the WWB Flat nose FMJ worked 100% for a 100 round box, no feed or cycle issues.....Go Figure, as this is supposedly the fault prone ammo due to the bullet profile... Try a box if you can find some, the 50 round boxes of the flat nose are supposed to have some more oompf behind them compared to the 100 round bulk packs... Have you done the slingshot follower mod to your magazines? That mod helped a P380 I worked on, but so far my CW380 and the newer magazines have been fine stock. The P380 had the shiny stainless mags, my CW mags are the tumbled finish ones....

Try the WWB flat nose if you can...

[TheLastDaze]

I culled out all my Fiocchi brass before I even fired a shot out of my CW380...
Did your brass have Fiocchi stamped on it?? I fired some Fiocchi Extrema XTP through my CW380 with zero issues, I checked and the brass is made by Starline which btw are US made....but that is their high end SD round so it may very from other Fiocchi stuff out there...


Have you done the slingshot follower mod to your magazines? That mod helped a P380 I worked on, but so far my CW380 and the newer magazines have been fine stock. The P380 had the shiny stainless mags, my CW mags are the tumbled finish ones....
Try the WWB flat nose if you can...

I have not modified the mags but it racks just fine, and yes the mags are tumbled finish iirc.... I will try pmc and get some wwb or actually whatever else is mentioned above and in future posts...

I also went through some of my brass and pulled out some PMC for testing, for the record I'm going to check the dimensions compared to 'Perfecta' which are way out of spec fwiw... the lip is thicker than any other brass I've compared it with thus the reason my cw won't cycle them, and I mean none of them... the lcp tolerances are forgiving so it will eat them for lunch...

[TheLastDaze]

I also think its a good idea that I sort my loads per head stamp and see what works and what doesn't so I can stay consistent with my findings when it comes to my handloads and the cw... like I posted before after a few tweaks it ate my handloads and the only time it failed to go into battery I pulled the round and sure enough it was perfecta casing... since then though I've had a few bumps in the road that were not perfecta casing related but still very few and far in between....

I intend to test it against factory ammo and if I have zero problems then it lies in my 3-4 times fired brass, but if I do have problems with factory ammo I'm going to put my head between my legs and call Kahr.....

[BEARDOG]

Yes, they had Fiocchi stamped on them, and a short book of other stampings too. Made them easy to pick out, they aren't here in front of me to tell you what all else they had on them.

I also have a bag of nickel .380 brass that I have not gone through yet to know if there is any Fiocchi mixed in it... Maybe I won't have to if the Fiocchi XTP's you tried worked, as I assume being premium HP's they were nickel plated correct?

[TheLastDaze]

yes nickle plated and starline brass simply looks like this *---------* that's their stamp...

I just bought 1k from a guy out here guess I'll have to go through that and sort out any fiocchi, I only had close to 600 before my purchase today, and not one fiocchi in the mix...everything else under the sun though :)

[erichard]

For target practice, the Federal Champion FMJ works 100% for me. It's ball ammo and was just under $20/box of 50 at Wally World. I do continue to use WWB to simulate hollow point and the Lehigh XP, but wouldn't use it otherwise. I figure if it's running OK with WWB, it'll probably cycle hollow point, and if it acts up, then I need to change something, if only clean and lube it. I do think the Champion FMJ will cycle in more challenging situations, but does that give you a false sense of security about your hollow points? Maybe a little (except maybe H. Critical Defense).

I imagine all ball ammo is going to work pretty darned well.

[SmokyT]

My P380 works very well with Remington/UMC ball ammo that I get from my local wally. It also likes Magtech shootin' size, better than American Eagle or CCL Blazer, which has given many light primers until I changed the striker spring.

[TheLastDaze]

Okay got out to the range today, on the way there I scrambled to 3 different places looking for factory ammo 40 mins later and pressed for time I went on without any...

However I did sort my brass, I had 50 PMC handloads, 10 Hornady CD handloads, and 10 Winchester handloads... all loaded with 100gn Flat Point...

NO PROBLEMS AT ALL !!!!!!

that is until I started digging around my mixed brass and loading randomly for the next 90rounds, two stove pipes,one light strike, and a few FTRB thrown in the mix for good measure.... Is it the guns fault?? hardly, these have probably been loaded 4-5X iirc and aren't the prettiest things to lay eyes on at this point, some with nice gauges at the rim etc........

So with that said I do have 1K once fired brass, I will pick out the headstamps that you guys recommended for factory ammo and run with that... and will probably save my multiple fired brass strickly for my LCP....

My cw380 has NO issues whatsoever feeding the Flat Point 100gn and its a good thing because I have 1,500 more bullets to load :)

btw absolutely love the way this little sucker shoots, I had 4 steel silhouettes freshly painted and was getting a silver dollar size group at 7yds....nice to see them hit fresh white paint one over the other.... now have about 850rds through her and intend to buy some factory PMC when I find some locally....

or if someone can recommend a place online where I can buy some I may go that route if it makes monetary sense with shipping and all... amazing to see 3 different stores didn't have any factory .380 and I called two other gun shops as well on my way out, guess because I handload I no longer find myself looking for ammo like I used to.... Has 380 been scarce??

[BEARDOG]

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/pmc-pistol-and-revolver-380-auto-90-grain-fmj-50-rounds?a=1595471

[smokersteve]

You should be able to shoot any ammo through it. I practice with wwb, federal, tula steel, ppu, aguila...no issues

[TheLastDaze]

You should be able to shoot any ammo through it. I practice with wwb, federal, tula steel, ppu, aguila...no issues

do me a favor and pick up a box of Perfecta and lets see how well it does :)

[BullittBoy]

The Privi Partisan FMJ is what I have used to break in the CW I have.
I have over 300 rounds and it is working 99% at this point
For HP I used the Winchester 95 gr HP Ranger load and the Golden Sabre "short barrel" and Corbon 90 grain HP
That all works-mine did not like HydraShocks