Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Do you carry a .380?

Years ago, my BIL sent a couple of burglars scurrying with the sound of a slide cycling. Not sayin' it's tactically sound - just that some people do react to it.

Bet you wish you had that Baby Browning back..

I had one - sold it - regret it to this day.. NIB it was $42 back then...and yah, I'm old too..

+1.

I don't see carrying a 380 when small, light offerings of better (in my opinion, one shared by quite a few after controlled research, facts/studies, etc.) SD cartridges are available these days. I find a Ruger LC9 as easy or nearly so, to conceal as any 380, and my confidence is greater in the 9mm or 38 cartridge.

I wouldn't want to catch a 380, and it is MUCH better than nothing, but to my thinking, I'd rather carry a bigger cartridge in a nearly-as-small platform. YMMV.

It's good to hear from those who have been there. That always makes a BIG DIFFERENCE in understanding. When you look out the club window at 3 AM and see two guys sitting out there in their car smoking 30 feet away from where you are parked, obviously waiting for something an hour after closing time and you have 5 to 10 grand in cash in a bank deposit bag and you have to go out there and get in your car, then things begin to get personal. Most people have never been there, so they can't relate.

Ain't it funny how when that shoe is on your foot, all of a sudden it's a good idea to be heavily armed even if you are at a beer joint?? And no. That is not the time for a .380.

a 380 or even an old 22LR Escort can be plenty if you're clever...

That's good stuff.

When Bob was relating about getting jocked-up in his modified army jacket, and the two 1911s, my mind went right to The Taxi Driver. I was envisioning the mohawk, and aviators too.....grin.

Lol. We're on the same wavelength.
No disrespect to Bob.
The modified jacket lit the bulb.

This has been a fun thread

The last movie that I saw at a movie house was one of the Dirty Harry movies about 30 years ago or maybe more. I have not had a TV since it went digital. Some of you boys can quote lines from movies that I never heard of, so unless its "make my day," I don't understand where you are coming from.

My vest is well done. It was cut, altered and sewn by a local seamtress and it is not a piece of crap. She replaced the military buttons with some neat ones that make it look entirely differnt from anything military. It's clean and pressed and looks neat because I wear it on stage and it looks like it was made to be a vest. I always wear a nice shirt under it and sometimes even a tie if we play a fancy club and most of the band does something similar. We try to play good blues and look good doing it. It's longer than most vest and that's why I wear it. I don't want anything showing under it and with my guitar hanging on the strap where it does, it could accidentally show hardware with a shorter vest. Many people have asked me where I got it because they see it and like it, but they don't know what's under it, which is the whole reason for it being there in the first place.

Thank you for the clarification.

Since I don't know how a situation will unfold, nor the ranges, (I just don't have your insight) I will just call 911 and let them handle the bad guys for me.

Bob,

Just for conversation, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and The Taxi Driver, are both 40 year-old movies. Released in 1976.

If you get a TV someday you can see them right at home.

"Cruiser ready" means a full tube and an empty chamber. Most shotguns have a floating firing pin, which is not and cannot be made drop safe. They are thus carried empty in vehicles to prevent discharging in a crash or when driving over a particularly severe bump/pothole/up on a curb. So a cop will always have to load one in the chamber when exiting the vehicle.

But for protecting a stationary premises, most trainers recommend having your weapon ready to be put into action as fast as possible well before you can see or otherwise positively ID any bad guys.

We had 14" 870s for embassy security. We always cleared them, dry-fired on an empty chamber, then loaded up the mag tube with #4 buckshot. Kept in the rack, off safe.

If needed, simply rack the slide and press the trigger.

Shane,

14" 870s are still standard issue for DSS high threat protection teams. Every team has them issued, though they rarely get fielded.

Oddly though for whatever reason, the hajis really fear shotguns.

I understand the fear of handguns, as that is often a primary tool for executions, but never bothered to ask about the shotguns.

14" 870s were the issue scattergun at my last PD. They will kinda spoil you for anything else.

I'd imagine the carbine makes more sense nowadays.

But a 12ga is a formidable weapon within it's limitations. For internal security in essentially a hardened office building, it seemed appropriate.

I left my last embassy (Zagreb, Croatia) in 1995. I'd imagine things have changed for embassy security in the last 21 years. At that time we still carried S&W M19 revolvers.


I still keep a shotgun handy. Basic 870, 18", 6-round magazine, magpul stock. Along with the Glocks and an AR carbine.

OK shotgun guy's, since this thread is already off the tracks. What's your opinion of the Mossberg 590A1 9 shot Heavy walled service model? I've always been an 870 guy but this one interests me. Unfortunately, nobody around here stocks it.

OK guys, since this thread is already off the tracks, I'll say that my long gun is a Colt 6920, and the only shotgun that isn't locked up is a display piece only. I'm more of a generalist, and the rifle is capable of solving more problems. That rationale also is why I don't carry a .380, which I guess ties it into the thread even though that question wasn't asked either.

Right turn, Clyde.

i have more than one shotgun in this area. I think the mossberg 590a1 is my favorite. Hey, it's cool, it's got a bayonet lug.
it also has a heavy barrel, big peep/rifle sights kind of like the ashley/williams ghost sight, has spring loaded spare round carriers in the buttstock, and an ambi safety. Mossberg did get something right with that one.

You can google "the desert fox" a guy that escaped from the state pen in arizona. You can also google Marston, the highway patrol officer killed in taking this low life out.
I was working in the yard when they brought marston's vehicle back in after the gunfight, full of holes and looking like a hog at been butchered in the front seat.
Long story cut short, eckert and marston were shooting at one another, bad guy gets a hold of the shotgun, and hit marston point blank range in the gut with double ought buck.
He survived long enough to get him to the hospital but they couldn't keep him alive. Bad guy did end up on the ground after wounding another deputy. A highschool classmate of mine working highway patrol did finally kill the guy.
but i will never forget that car, not will i forget that load fired into the good guy did not immediately kill him.
He was a good guy by the way, the cop not the puke that killed him.
the moral of the story is even a shotgun is not always indicative of immediately putting a guys lights out.