Glock 42 380 ammo recommendations

I find that the Glock 42 works great with all factory ammo that I have tried, including Remington UMC, Winchester White Box, Federal Hydra Shoks and HST, Hornady Critical Defense, Custom and American Gunner, Winchester PDX1, Speer Gold Dot, and Buffalo Bore standard pressure hard cast flat point. It also worked fine with Lehigh Xtreme Penetrator handloads using Lehigh load data. With the exception of the two low-end ball rounds, all chronographed within the 915-963 fps range, with energy ratings (based on those velocities) of 167-190 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy for all but Buffalo Bore (BB is an outlier at 203 ft. lbs.). I ruled out the Hornady Custom and American Gunner because I was getting too much cartridge setback with a minimal number of rechamberings in my 42. (Coincidentally, they also had the lowest velocity and energy ratings in the gun.) Right now, I am using the Gold Dots because they rechamber well.

Winchester white box is really moving slow, so I can see how it might not work too well in some guns.

Check out Lehigh 65 Extreme Defender in 380. The 65ED's have run without any problems for me. ARS is a newer ammo made by ? that I have not tried yet. In 380 it has a 56 grain mix copper/plastic bullet(3flutes unlike 4 with Lehigh).

Only failure of ammo I have had is midwest ammunition new 90 grain hp their 100 gr Their remanufactured stuff works great. I shoot fiocchi mostly. I will give midwest this much they had a rep at shootpointblank range he gave me another box to try . It had a fail to feed too. He took the lot number . He called me saying that they tried that lot in their test guns and 2 rentals with no problems. I am setting up to reload 380 for practice and woods bumming ammo

Double Tap 95gr Controlled Expansion in my G42. From the testing I've seen around the web, good velocities, mild expansion, good penetration.

My SIL uses Hornady Critical Defense FTX in his G42. Never a ftf, fte, with excellent accuracy.
BTW I use it in my LCP with the same results.

[QUOTE="lonniemike, post: 11074627, member: ARS is a newer ammo made by ? that I have not tried yet. In 380 it has a 56 grain mix copper/plastic bullet(3flutes unlike 4 with Lehigh).[/QUOTE]

If you are referring to Inceptor ARX, I've been using it in my Kahr CW380 for a year or so now. It uses a 56gr poly copper fluted bullet advertised at 1260fps. Tested 100 to begin with. It was working well until a month ago when I bought some new ones and a case got hung up on the extractor. I noticed they had a different head stamp than the lot I initially tested. CW380s can be finicky about case rim thickness; mine certainly is.

I'm considering Underwood or some other solid because I'm not impressed with the terminal performance of the expanding bullets I've seen tested on YooToob.

Prior to the ARX having the extractor malf, my only gripe was bullet setback from repeated chambering, but maybe that's the nature of these little guns. They also have mild recoil.

My G42 prefers heavy bullets. Basically nothing below 85 grain works. But it does not seem to care if the loading is hot or not, nor the shape of the bullet seems to matter. There is no issue with WWB (blunt nosed bullet), or Hornady FTX (conical bullet).

Hornady Critical Defense

Aguila FMJ
Hornady American Gunner XTP JHP

Those are my go to rounds for a .380.
Aguila FMJ - Just works period.

Hornady American Gunner XTP JHP - 12-14" if it expands (80%) and 14-17" and tumbles if it doesn't. It's more consistent over multiple test in multiple guns by multiple entities than any other .380 Ammo. Nickel Plated to improve feeding and extraction. It has worked 100% in my LCP and my Sister's G42.

In tests I performed the Hornady factory loaded .380 XTP bullet expands and fragments in both bare gelatin and gelatin covered with four layers of heavy denim cloth. After the expanded petals shear off the shank of the bullet it reliably penetrates about 11 inches. I load my G42 with the Hornady American Gunner load.

My G42 does not like light loads. I had built some light 380 reloads a couple years ago. They worked fine in all my 380s except the G42.

All factory rounds I have used in my G42 have worked well.

Since my first post on the topic, I have done some more testing, including with Lehigh's factory loading of the .380 Xtreme Penetrator. Although the name "Xtreme Penetrator" sounds bad, it turns out that penetration is not extreme in .380. (Even Lehigh's website only claims 17 inches in this load.) I got the same basic penetration in gel after passing through clothing, flesh and bone that I did with clothing only. All rounds penetrated adequately, and none showed extreme penetration. I have confidence in this round.

One thing to check is the magazines. They did 2 different updates to the mags I believe. 02 designation stamped on the latest update. I load underwood 102gr brass hp, same bullet as the rem golden saber. They work well.
(380's can be a pain sometimes)

Several years ago, ShootingTheBull410 published a series of .380 ACP tests on YouTube. This video is the summary:


He liked anything that uses Hornady XTP bullets with Federal Hydra-Shok as a second choice.

Ridg1963 said:

Does anyone have their favorite ammo for a G42?

Click to expand...

When it comes to loading for the .380, I just go with a 95-grain FMJ since it is hard to find a decent JHP that expands substantially (1.5x caliber or more) and produces at least 12 inches of penetration.