Why buy a 380?

Pocket carry is the only reason for a 380. You just cant make a 9mm small, light enough for comfort.

size and weight. I carry a Ruger LCP, Keltek P3AT before that. Small enough they do not print in pocket carry. Handy belt clip keep it secure and just a t-shirt over it is enough. Light enough I can put in scrubs, PJ or swim short pockets and it doesn't pull them down.

Yes, I dislike shooting it. My Beretta 92 or 1911 are what I take to the range. I will shoot a mag out of LCP every time I go to the range to keep profictient and as an excuse to clean the lint out and keep fresh oil in it. But it truly is a tool for me. Carry every day, all day, from wake, to sleep. Perfect design for that.

I find even the micro 9mm's to be just enough too large and too heavy to carry everyplace and with the same clothes (shorts and t-shirt when it is 100 degrees out) as this LCP.

JDGray said:

Pocket carry is the only reason for a 380. You just cant make a 9mm small, light enough for comfort.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree. Of all the pocket 9's I've ever held and tried out, they are all still pretty big for a true "pocket" gun.

Guns like the Ruger LCP and Taurus TCP, now those are pocket guns. .380 exists for these tiny weapons. Put it in anything else larger, and it's a waste of time IMHO.

My 9x17/.380 P3AT rig fits perfectly in the back pocket of my 501s (cut-offs in Summer). It is even relatively comfortable to sit on in that location.

I carried one as a back-up. I think they are great as a choice for back-up or for carry when wearing sweats, or really light weight clothes in summer. I've carried the Sig .380 in my bathing suit pocket on the beach! Just be aware that it should not be your first line of defense for normal times. For everyday SD, I would not go smaller than .38/9 MM. But, that said, a double tap to the center of mass with a .380 will certainly get someone's attention...at least long enough for you to get to the truck for the 1911.

Stop worrying about caliber and start worrying about shot placement.

.380 (and .22) kill an inordinate number of people; if you believe the bigger is better crowd.

As a consumer I hate the idea of paying more for 9x17 than 9x19, but maybe someday the price of it will drop closer to the 9mm Luger prices.

380 seems to have fallen to mouse gun status, which to me is a shame as there are some very nice larger 380 pistols out there.. Beretta 84/85 being a couple.

I agree with Jack19, shot placement is king. It is just that, under stress or under fire, most everyday SD carriers are not trained for that degree of accuracy. Most will just have to aim for center mass and fire until the threat is neutralized. Any caliber will do for that, but I am of the "bigger is better" school.

Why buy a 380?

Click to expand...

For those times when you absolutely positively have to carry the smallest possible gun. If at all practical I carry a G26 or larger gun. I recently bought a G43 and it is pretty small. But there are times when it is the Kel-Tec 380 or nothing.

I currently have a Beretta "Cheetah" .380. It is a really fine pistol. High cap mag and all that. I take it plinking up in the woods like I would a .22. It is a really accurate pistol. It is big as .380's go but, after toting a 1911 or BHP for years, it seems small and light. Beretta makes some really good guns.

The 380 fits in where your 38 is, another thread could be "why buy a 38?"

It's the same arguement, except the 380's are generally smaller and have higher capacity than the typical pocketable 38. Which makes it a better option to most people.

People use and carry pistols in .380 because there are some great world class firearms made in that caliber. It's that simple.

Pocket carry is the only reason for a 380. You just cant make a 9mm small, light enough for comfort.

Click to expand...

They can and they did, it was the Rohrbaugh R9.

Here is a great thread started by Nom de Forum titled "Pistol weight in ounces: When does it get heavy?"

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=749907&highlight=change

Its good reading.

Why buy a 380?
I feel like I'm missing (out) on something.

Click to expand...

Try to go to the Range and shoot either a Sig 230 if you like steel or a Glock 42 if you like polymer and you won't be missing out afterwards! You will buy one or the other after firing them. Glock 42 softest recoil in a .380 that I have fired & my personal choice in .380.

I should also add affordable

CNobbe said:

As a consumer I hate the idea of paying more for 9x17 than 9x19, but maybe someday the price of it will drop closer to the 9mm Luger prices.

380 seems to have fallen to mouse gun status, which to me is a shame as there are some very nice larger 380 pistols out there.. Beretta 84/85 being a couple.

Click to expand...

When I bought my BDA in 2003 .380acp was only a buck a box more than 9mm, I'd get UMC for $9.99 on sale.

Why I own .380acp; because the LCP is what I consider one of the few legitimate pocket guns and I like the fact that I can buy a box of ammo and feed both a pocket gun and a 14 round sidearm.

People who buy a .380 are either looking for a light weight compact pistol for pocket carry or in the case of larger guns they are looking for something that recoils less. If neither reason is appealing then a .380 is not for you.

Personally, I haven't even considered a .380, and it has nothing to do with caliber. I have some 95 grain bullets I can load into 9x19 cases.

I'm not interested in the guns, they are too small. I'll sacrifice size for comfort. I can and do pocket carry small 9mm pistols, a Taurus 709 and a Kel Tec P11.

So far I just haven't found a .380 appealing enough to consider purchasing.

If I were to go smaller than 9mm, it'd be a .32acp.

I dropped gun size from SR9c to LC9s for back issues, not convenience. I've yet to encounter a circumstance where I cannot find a way to carry the LC9.

Do you want reasons not to go .380 to avoid spending money? If so...

• There are a ton of subcom firearms in .38 and 9x19 that already have a good form factor
• In the past few years, there have been a HUGE amount of 9mm subcoms that are super affordable...in years past one plus for .380 was the affordable subcoms, but this has changed
• There is more testing data available for 9mm defensive loadings
• There is greater ammo selection for 9mm, in both ball and defensive varieties
• 9mm ammo is frequently less than .380
• 9mm may have superior ballistic performance to .380 - I feel this is most relevant in regards to penetration of JHP rounds after passing through a medium like clothing, where quite a few .380 rounds I am familiar with have considerably lesser penetration than their 9mm counters (in regards to JHP rounds that successfully expand as-intended)
• There are hot +p and +p+ 9mm rounds that will give 9mm similar statistical performance to .40, but there are no .380 offerings I know of that bridge this gap between .380 and .40. **

(**I'm not sure if this even applies, but I consider these super hot 9mm offerings to make 9mm a very desirable caliber for subcoms because these rounds still obtain a very respectable velocity through shorter barrels, and this is a concern obviously because the much slower velocity seen with shorter barrels can result in a hollow point bullet not performing as designed [i.e., it may not penetrate deeply enough, and/or it may not expand as it is intended to.] With a subcompact with a shorter barrel, a hot +p+ 9mm like the RA9TA may perform better than .380 and .40 offerings.)

Why buy a 380?

Because they are easier to carry is pretty much it. The guns are light and most importantly the rounds are light. Carrying my G42 is night and day easier than carrying my G26. With a G26 I need IWB to carry well. With the G42 an OWB belt holster works just fine. The comfort level doesn't even compare.

As far as the 380 round. While it's on the low end of the power spectrum, for me it's enough.

Then there is shootability. Most of my shooting with my 380's is one handed. Both right and left. I can keep the rounds in a nice tight group if I try. I can also shoot them pretty fast and still keep them fairly tight. Much faster and tighter than a 9mm. If both hands were available it would be a wash.

The cost to shoot is less for me. I reload. If I had to buy standard practice ammo I probably wouldn't like the 380 near as much as I do.

I have tried the little pocket guns. I didn’t like them much. They were to hard to hang on to. They moved around in my hand while shooting. Once I tried a Sig 238 I was sold. I started looking for one right away. It's still my favorite carry gun. The Glock 42 is also a great little shooter. Its starting to get carried more. It does need a better set of sights.

Why buy a 380? Because in a micro sized pistol 380 is much easier to hang onto, is much easier on my 83 year old joints, in most cases is much smaller than a nine and Aiso the 9mm from a 2-1/2" barrel loses much of it's balistic superiority over a 380.

Try comparing two very similar pistols like Sig 238 in 380 and a Sig 938 in 9mm and clearly the 380 Sig is much faster on follow up shots and much easier to hang onto.