Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Talk to me about the 380 ACP......

saw this the other day, looks great, and sweet trigger

This. If pocket or ankle carry is required, then the .380 makes sense. For IWB carry, might as well jump up to a service sized gun like a Glock 19. With a proper holster and gun belt, you'll hardly notice it's there.

Agreed. Have one and love it. It goes in my IWB when I have a heightened concern over printing (rare). Ordinarily, however, I carry a Glock 17.

PS Yes, I'm back with the 17 after a month long experiment carrying the CZ75 P01. Love the CZ, but shoot the 17 better.

that is total heresy...GunGeek is going to call you out on the G17 shooting better than the CZ!!!

(plus blued guns rust when you get a bunch of sweat on them daily)

I was out on the desert this morning looking for dove. I took a fully loaded glock 17 with me. Surprised at how little weight it really was after usually packing N frames.

I'm often amazed when I feel the heft of mine (or lack thereof), too. Sometimes I will drop the magazine to make sure I didn't accidentally slip an unloaded one in there.

the gen3 17 is a good gun, not sure about the 4's yet.

LOL. When I focus on the double action trigger pull, I shoot it fine. When I just draw and fire it like I would in a self defense situation, the first round almost always goes six or eight inches low in relation to the group formed by the subsequent rounds. And that's after expending several thousand rounds over several weeks just trying to get the transition down perfectly. Maybe, if I expended an additional several thousand rounds, and another month of frequent range trips, I could fix that, but since it's a nonexistent problem with the Glock, I had to ask myself why.

I carry a LCP with Gold Dots. It's reliable and accurate.

When I do carry a .380, I carry it as a bug. Carried a Ruger LCP for years and never had a FTF or problem of any kind.
Finally traded mine in for a Glock 42 earlier this year. It's much more shootable and very accurate, too. And still easily fits in my pocket.

I carry mine with the factory Speer Gold Dot JHP loading. And a spare mag of the Buffalo Boar hard cast 100 gr + P load. It penetrated 40 inches of gelatin in tests!

No, the 380 doesn't have the firepower of a 9mm or any of the .4's. However, the idea of a self defense gun is to slow down an attacker enough to give you a chance to get out of Dodge ASAP. While he's jumping up and down and yelling 'Ouch!', you can cover a lot of ground in the opposite direction.

Kahr P-380 in a Sneaky Pete is my summer carry gun. I tried the LCP, but I prefer the P-380.

That was my planned MO when I carried a .32 ACP. I figured it would make enough loud noises that I could escape in the confusion...

....and it sure would sting!

Want "small" in a 9mm? Try this:

https://www.kahr.com/Pistols/Kahr-CM9.asp

Thanks for all the great info.

I really wanted to handle a couple of the Kahr offerings, but the gun counter was a real clusterfuck.

I may just end up with another Ruger (already have 5 I think).

The LC9s Pro really has a lot to like IMO. $379 on sale now.

For a 380, again a Ruger may get the nod. That being the LCP. Which is on sale now locally for $199.

As of now, I am leaning toward one or the other....

Ken I had a Kimber solo 9mm i liked it shot good recoil wasnt bad, but I couldnt get it out of my pockets, was a tad too small! I just started looking at the Glock 42s, there the right size for my hand and a bit bigger that the Ruger and the Solo, you know I carried a Glock got 8 years, and did alot of range work with them never failed to fire or chamber a round! Dam Ugly but Thinking hard on the G42 myself, like my 45s but dont carrie them enough in the summer to town ect. just my Thoughts!

Find a load with the Hornady 90 GR JHP.


GOOD LINK FOR REVIEW


Mike

I've had the Kahr PM9, G26, J-frame, and P3AT, among others and liked each one for different reasons. And prefer a 9mm over the 380, but nothing compares to the LCP for size, weight, shoot-ability, and reliability... for me. But this stuff is very personal, and 'use' and 'user' specific so what works for one, may not for another.

I carried FMJ in my LCP until I had a chance to test some Lehigh bullets thru it (actually Underwood loads). I'm not a big fan of 380 hollow-points, based purely on speculation, however I 'think' the Lehigh will do whatever the FMJ does and probably more. Not the same as a 9mm, but I definitely like that little bastard for carrying.

I tried the LC9 at the range. I found it challenging to shoot well. The LCP and the LC380 are a lot more fun to shoot.