.380 ACP defensive loads?

[spreezeye]

I got some Liberty civil defense that shoots right on the laser dot @ 25ft in my bodyguard.
accurate, fast, haven't put it to any meat or bone yet, but looks promising.
9mm usually my minimum (glock 26), 40/357sig both in my custom 27 are great.

 

[Westcoastmountainman]

Personally, I love the 99 gr hst's. It's a hot little round. Hits hard. There is a review of it on either midway USA or luckygunner.com. a guy attested to basically shooting himself on accident. He described what it did and all that nitty gritty stuff. My bersa loves it. I got .56" expansion.

 

[Westcoastmountainman]

This is a federal premium 99gr micro hst mentioned. It was shot out of my bersa thunder from 15 yards. It passed through two water jugs (1 gal each) found in the third. When I got my 40 smith and Wesson sd40ve. I gave my wife the 380. She love this gun/load combo so much that she doesn't even have a care in the world about my forty.

 

[Vantucken]

This is a federal premium 99gr micro hst mentioned. It was shot out of my bersa thunder from 15 yards. It passed through two water jugs (1 gal each) found in the third. When I got my 40 smith and Wesson sd40ve. I gave my wife the 380. She love this gun/load combo so much that she doesn't even have a care in the world about my forty.

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Beware of hollow points in the .380. Often times it plugs on denim and doesn't expand as expected. That's the reason I use Underwood in mine.

 

[KKG]

I have Fired a number of the Liberty Civil Defense Ammunition, including their .380ACP. It certainly performed in the designed manner. It pretty much Exploded when fired into nothing but Water!

 

[spreezeye]

firearms news had an article on novx. quite revolutionary too, so they say.

 

[Nate2535]

I just got my LCP II. I Love the little pocket rocket. Small enough to fit in summer clothes or my work clothes. After a lot of research, I settled on the .380 +p extreme Defender from underwood I also have the +p Xtreme Penetrator as well. The ballistics tests with this ammo are devistating.

 

[Vantucken]

I just got my LCP II. I Love the little pocket rocket. Small enough to fit in summer clothes or my work clothes. After a lot of research, I settled on the .380 +p extreme Defender from underwood I also have the +p Xtreme Penetrator as well. The ballistics tests with this ammo are devistating.

I love my LCP too, but be careful, it's not rated for +P

 

[Nate2535]

I love my LCP too, but be careful, it's not rated for +P

That's what I heard. I'm keeping an eye on it. 50 rounds of both through the gun so far no barrel deformation the rifling still looks factory. I don't plan to run any more through it unless i have to defend myself at this point. I use ball rounds to practice Just wanted to make sure it would feed them. 50 of each round no failures 300 total rounds only one failure to load and that was early on with some crap steel cased ball rounds.

 

[trikerdon]

I emailed Underwood and asked them if the .380 65 gr. Xtreme Defender (1300 fps) was safe to use in my S&W Shield .380 EZ (not rated for +P ammo) They told me it was safe to use as the pressure produced by the round wasn't the same as +P.

 

[Nate2535]

I emailed Underwood and asked them if the .380 65 gr. Xtreme Defender (1300 fps) was safe to use in my S&W Shield .380 EZ (not rated for +P ammo) They told me it was safe to use as the pressure produced by the round wasn't the same as +P.

My friend is the one who turned me onto them. He exclusively uses the +p extreme defenders in all his handguns. Most of them aren't rated for +p either. Not saying it's a good idea but I've seen the guns and they show no signs of stress or failures. Though he doesn't practice shooting with them so who knows what they would do long term.

 

[SterlingArcher]

I have had excellent results with a few different self defense options for short barreled .380s. Many of the offerings on the market perform poorly, even though in some cases their 9mm equivilants are solid. The ones I use are:

Speer Gold Dot
Sig V Crown
Winchester PDX1