.380 hollow points \\ kel tec p3at

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moooose102

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what bullet / powder recipie (self defense) has worked best in your kel tec p3at? i noticed that there are 2 different mag tech .380 95 grain bullets, one has a larger hole than the other. has anyone had any experience with these? is there one powder that produces less flash than the others and still have good velocities?
 
I have had very good luck with Hornady 90 grain XTP bullets over 3.3 grains Red-Dot or Green-Dot, or .3.8 grains Unique over 100 grain Berry for practice loads.

The XTP loads seem to give equal or better expansion then Federal HydraShock factory loads.

rcmodel
 
One of these days I'm gonna try some of the 115gr XTP loads from the Lyman book. It claims 950fps, thats about 240ft-lbs.

Jon
 
Sounds a little overly ambitious for a P3AT!

This is the poster-child for unsupported chambers!

rcmodel
 
I've used 115gr. winchester h.p.'s with 3.6 gr. ww231 in my Bersa. ( I don't know about about your kel-tec, we can't have'em in the " P.R.C." ) Peoples Republic of California !
 
The same load I posted in #2 for 100 grain Berry should work equally well with 102 Remingtons.

It is well under a max load for jacketed bullets, but gives good performance.

rcmodel
 
For targets, yes, for personal defense NO!
So you think that a .380 acp JHP will provide adequate penetration through a P3AT, You are a wishful thinker. JHP performance is unpredictable, it may or may not expand, which means it will give inadequate penetration or marginally adequate penetration. I choose the FMJ in this application as it has more penetration and is more predictable. Just my 2 cents :)
 
at this point, it really does not matter, as i have 500 hollow points on the way! but, i still have to buy primers and powder. and, if a hollow point does not open, it should penetrate nearly as well as a fmj anyway, i think. but in any case, i PERSONALLY believe, that unless you are trying to shoot through something prior to hitting your target, you use hollow ponts on flesh (unless it is a bear or dangerous game, which if all i have is a 380 i am sol anyway). fmj's for targets, and shooting through something solid. i am not saying i am right, but it is what i believe. i didnt start this thread to argue about it, i wanted good info on loads for hp's. so lets try to get back on track. thank you very much.
 
Whatever you do don't use Cor-Bon DPX ammo in your .380 because even though it will expand the penetration will average only ~9 inches. That's not very good IMO.

Federal Hydra-Shok 90gr .380 ammo will penetrate an average of 12+ inches and expand to an average of .475" when fired from a short barrel.

The argument for using ball ammo in a .32 Auto and .380 Auto was a valid one years ago before all the advancements in bullet design. Now you can use a good quality JHP bullet in both the .32 Auto and .380 Auto and achiever more than satisfactory results.

If you're looking for a good recipe for those 95gr JHP bullets give Power Pistol a try. A charge of 4.7gr will get you close to 1,000 fps from a P-3AT.
 
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Federal Hydra-Shok 90gr .380 ammo will penetrate an average of 12+ inches and expand to an average of 4.75" when fired from a short barrel.

Holy crap, that's about the size of my fist! :what:


:neener:
 
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