what is your preferred 380 JHP?

[God's Country]

You do realize that you'll likely get zero expansion with a 115gr.JHP moving at 800fps. You'd be better off using 95gr.FMJ ammo.

Tmygun:-)

Agreed.
Expansion is either poor to non existent, or the penetration suffers.

I don't carry a .380 often, but when I do it's fmj for me.

[max384]

Agreed.
Expansion is either poor to non existent, or the penetration suffers.

I don't carry a .380 often, but when I do it's fmj for me.

I'm just curious, because I hear this quite often, but why carry FMJ over JHP? Even if it JHP doesn't expand, it does the same thing as FMJ at that point. If it does expand, then great. Is it reliability issues? Cost?

[*Klutch*]

I'm just curious, because I hear this quite often, but why carry FMJ over JHP? Even if it JHP doesn't expand, it does the same thing as FMJ at that point. If it does expand, then great. Is it reliability issues? Cost?

It's for more penetration.Some people carry a few HP's for the first few shots and then FMJ or hard cast for the last few in the mag.

[God's Country]

I'm just curious, because I hear this quite often, but why carry FMJ over JHP? Even if it JHP doesn't expand, it does the same thing as FMJ at that point. If it does expand, then great. Is it reliability issues? Cost?

I would just rather not take the chance that improper expansion may cause poor penetration. Or in the case of the critical defense loads (from what I've seen) expand quite nicely and reliably, but with the understanding that it will penetrate poorly, by Hornady’s own tests.

I know we can go round and round with this and with other calibers as well, but since most .380 seems to be borderline in the penetration category to start I see no reason to hedge my bet any further. I do like the .380, and this is JMO.

[max384]

It's for more penetration.Some people carry a few HP's for the first few shots and then FMJ or hard cast for the last few in the mag.

I would just rather not take the chance that improper expansion may cause poor penetration. Or in the case of the critical defense loads (from what I've seen) expand quite nicely and reliably, but with the understanding that it will penetrate poorly, by Hornady’s own tests.

I know we can go round and round with this and with other calibers as well, but since most .380 seems to be borderline in the penetration category to start I see no reason to hedge my bet any further. I do like the .380, and this is JMO.

Ahhhh, I see. Do you guys know of any websites that have data where they tested penetration between hollow points that don't expand and FMJs? I never really gave too much thought too the difference in penetration. I just kind of assumed they were the same/similar. I mean, I know expansion decreases penetration, but I figured if it didn't expand, it wouldn't have much effect on the penetration... and partially expanded bullets would be better than no expansion (by my, possibly flawed, thoughts).

[God's Country]

Ahhhh, I see. Do you guys know of any websites that have data where they tested penetration between hollow points that don't expand and FMJs? I never really gave too much thought too the difference in penetration. I just kind of assumed they were the same/similar. I mean, I know expansion decreases penetration, but I figured if it didn't expand, it wouldn't have much effect on the penetration... and partially expanded bullets would be better than no expansion (by my, possibly flawed, thoughts).

It's been a few years since I've bothered much with ballistics.

Try here:http://www.brassfetcher.com/

The .380 critical defene is all over youtube.


Regardless of what Hornady claims I still go by the 12-13 inch min. penetration standard. Their whole gimmick seems to be expansion over penetration, which is bass ackwards to the way I grew up. Perhaps in time their model will prove correct, but until I see real world examples of dead BG's
I'll stick to the FBI standards.

Certainly over penetration is a concern, but it needs to be balanced with effective stopping ability, which in my world is still vital organ and tissue trauma.

Again JMO.