Would You Trust Your Life With A .380?

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First rule of gunfight:
1. Have a gun!
2. Never take just a knife to a gunfight. But a knife too, is good! You might run out of ammo. A knife is always loaded.
3. Best gun in a gunfight is the one you brought! BTDT.


I alternate between a KelTec K32, a BodyGuard .380, a S&W Shield (2-.40 & 9mm) and others. Depends on season and activity.
 
.380 not really. But since .22 LR has been in a real shortage on the shelf, 9mm is the new .22.
 
If I went out the door one morning, knowing I'd need a gun to defend myself that day, I'd be carrying a shotgun and a .45. But rather than go about unarmed, I often carry a Sig P230.
 
I've read here how a .380 can reach vital organs...that is not relevant.

While I would rather have a .380 than to be unarmed, I would prefer a small (MP S&W or XDs) .45, as the goal isn't to have your attacker bleed to death after they stab you to death, the goal is to stop them.

A .45 ACP FMJ round in the hip will drop an attacker. I don't care how whacked out your attacker is on meth, if his hip breaks, he mechanically cannot mobilize.

So while a .380 is better than nothing, why not carry a slightly larger pistol that can immobilize rather than hope you can score a CNS hit while totally stoked on adrenaline?
 
Blue1 said:
I've read here how a .380 can reach vital organs...that is not relevant.

While I would rather have a .380 than to be unarmed, I would prefer a small (MP S&W or XDs) .45, as the goal isn't to have your attacker bleed to death after they stab you to death, the goal is to stop them.

A .45 ACP FMJ round in the hip will drop an attacker. I don't care how whacked out your attacker is on meth, if his hip breaks, he mechanically cannot mobilize.

So while a .380 is better than nothing, why not carry a slightly larger pistol that can immobilize rather than hope you can score a CNS hit while totally stoked on adrenaline?
Click to expand...

I understand where you are coming from, and I agree. However, it can be a slippery slope of handgun escalation. Why carry a .380 when a Shield is just a bit bigger? Why carry a Shield when a Glock 19 is just a little thicker? Why carry a Glock 19 when a 1911 hits harder? etc.

For me, I suppose I just roll the dice and hope I don't get into a situation that my .380 can't solve. In the warmer months, I simply cannot carry anything larger. Today I am wearing a tucked in polo work shirt and jeans. Anything more than my LCP would be impossible to pocket carry. Even that prints a little bit if you look at my leg when I sit down. About the only invisible gun I could carry would be an NAA micro revolver.

Given my druthers, I would pick my Beretta 92 over any handgun to carry day to day if I could. Smooth as butter, reliable as all get out, and accurate enough to shoot a ragged rapid fire hole at combat ranges. However, my Rosa (that's her name) has a tad bit of junk in the trunk (in a good way;)) She's not my summertime carry since my work attire doesn't allow me to comfortably dress around my gun.

The .380 isn't a BB gun. It's not something I would want to take to a gun fight. Then again, if I were going into a known gun fight, I'd pack an Ar and may one of those handy little Mossberg Shockwaves stumpy 12 gauges:D

I won't pretend that the .380 is remotely equal to even the 9mm, but sometimes we can only pack what we can pack.
 
Crazy Coot said:
Simple question: Would you trust your life with a .380?

I'm not interested in: if you can carry a bigger gun, then carry one. I just want to know if you, personally, would feel safe carrying a .380 only.
Click to expand...


There are four ways in which shooting an assailant stops them:

1) damaging the central nervous system.

2) damaging the respiratory and or circulatory system.

3) psychological - the assailant desists due to pain or fear

4) breaking major skeletal support structures

I don't feel safe with a firearm or a cartridge that is not capable of penetrating to vital organs. If I have a round that will reach vital organs, I do feel "safe" or at least I feel that the round is going to be adequate for self-protection.

I've never felt the need to literally have bone-crushing power in a firearm. A 12-gauge shotgun is an awesome self-defense tool, a 12-gauge slug definitely has bone-shattering power, as do a number of large and high-powered handgun cartridges, but I do trust my life to a .380 since I carry one, in my pocket, quite often. I have a Remington RM380 and a Rohrbaugh R9. The thing I like about the RM380 is that I can make much fast follow-up shots, the gun is so much easier to keep on target.
 
Armored farmer said:
I just emptied my pockets, this is what fell out.
Click to expand...

index.php


I really love those little Gerbers, mine has proven to be really handy and it doesn't take up hardly any space in a pocket.
 
Blue1 said:
I've read here how a .380 can reach vital organs...that is not relevant.

While I would rather have a .380 than to be unarmed, I would prefer a small (MP S&W or XDs) .45, as the goal isn't to have your attacker bleed to death after they stab you to death, the goal is to stop them.

A .45 ACP FMJ round in the hip will drop an attacker. I don't care how whacked out your attacker is on meth, if his hip breaks, he mechanically cannot mobilize.

So while a .380 is better than nothing, why not carry a slightly larger pistol that can immobilize rather than hope you can score a CNS hit while totally stoked on adrenaline?
Click to expand...
So if you fire a 380 you can only hope it will hit something vital, but if you fire a 45 it will automatically go directly to a hip! Very interesting.

By the way a 380 will also shatter a hip.
 
Certainly, as many others have stated, the .380 ACP is on the low end of the power curve. To mitigate this fact, you need to use "high end" ammo and practice/train more.
The biggest issue with the .380ACP is that practice ammo is more expensive and for some that means fewer practice sessions/rounds.
I therefore, always encourage 9mm for new self-defense users.
I personally carry 9mm and .45ACP just because I like the individual firearms that I own in these calibers.
 
Carry what you feel comfortable with. Mind set is what wins gun fights not caliber. Do I agree that the large calibers do a better job, of course. Do I think smaller calibers can save your life, absolutely. I have no qualms about carrying my Beretta Tomcat 32 and I can tell you being shot with a 32 is not going to be a fun day. Being shot with a 22LR is not going to be a fun day. The purpose of a handgun is to get you out of trouble and out of a possible kill zone. Too many think your going to get into a rolling gun battle. If I was going to get into a rolling gun fight I would bring a rifle not a handgun. LE officers head to gun fire and carry rifles. Civilians carrying a handgun are heading out of the trouble and not into a dangerous situation. You need to get away from trouble with you and your family. Mind Set Wins troubled situations and confrontations.
 
For a number of years I kept a 380 as my 'house gun' stocked with hydrashocks--a devastating bullet in my opinion. I'd even killed a a largish animal with it (long story told many times). I shot that pistol fairly regularly. But the day on I needed to go get my gun (thought someone was going to break down my back door) my PP sized .380 felt like a pea shooter.

I knew it COULD do the job on paper, and from real world results I had seen in person. I was confident I could hit my target, even a moving one and had before. My analytical mind was overpowered by my lizard brain in those seconds.. there was no way a lowly 7 shot .380 was enough. Heck, a couple marines with Garands pointed at that door might have been the only thing to give me some sense of comfort or bravado in that moment.

When the chips were down, I didn't feel it was enough gun. It did NOT give me confidence.

What you put in your pocket to remain discreetly armed about town is not what you can have at hand in the nightstand or behind the dresser. I switched to a full sized 9mm as the minimum for my home defense choice--a pistol I shoot more often with more power and twice the capacity.
 
"Especially when your first target is the one with the shoulder-mounted shotgun, and he's still a good 6 to 8 yards away..."

If someone is already pointing a loaded 12-guage at you right up close, it probably doesn't matter what kind of handgun you have stuck in your pocket or belt.
 
Dr Rob carry whats in your mind as enough gun. This is what gives you that mind set you need. Some may feel the 9mm isn't enough and want to move up. Its whatever gives you that controlling mind set. I know a 32 to the face is not going to be plesant. Remember at home we can have a shotgun at the ready. When your out is the full size nine going to be cumbersome carrying, so the 380 is with you. At home is a different ball game then out alone or out with your family. The key element is have a gun on you regardless of what it is. I would carry a 22 or 25 rather than no gun. No one want to be shot by anything especially by someone with an aggressive mind set behind those pistols.
 
The following quote is something I came across once while researching something else entirely and I've always found it interesting:

"The only loaded handgun in Uziel Gal’s (inventor of the Uzi SMG) home at the time of his (natural) death was reported to be a SIG-Sauer P230 loaded with FMJ ammunition.)"
 
I don't know of any JHP .380 ammunition that I trust to feed reliably or expand much. If I have to carry a .380, though, I haveFMJs in the mag and a Hydra-Shok in the chamber.
 
Crazy Coot said:
Simple question: Would you trust your life with a .380?

I'm not interested in: if you can carry a bigger gun, then carry one. I just want to know if you, personally, would feel safe carrying a .380 only.
Click to expand...

Some thoughts:

1. A .380 pistol will probably solve most private citizens' close-range defensive problems.

2. A .380 is enough, until it isn't, but the same could be said be said of any cartridge.

3. A .380 pistol, of known reliability, is better than a service-cartridge pistol of unknown reliability, and certainly better than a service-type pistol known to choke.

4. .380 ACP happens to be the minimum cartridge I allowed to tote for defensive purposes, per PD policy.

5. I know that a .380 bullet can actually catastrophically fracture a femur, based upon a real incident in my patrol area. Anything that can cause that much damage is a serious cartridge, even if that one incident is not typical.

So the answer to the original question is a qualified "yes." If/When my PPK/s has successfully completed its break-in/function-testing, I will probably carry it some of the time. I will, also, probably add a G42, at some point in time.

My usual minimum concealed-carry defensive pistol. at this point in time, is a G19, but as I am about to retire from LEO-ing, deeper concealment will become more desirable. The Walther PPS M2 has my attention, but I just may decide .380 is enough, in a PPK/s, when a wide-body G19 seems a bit too thick to dress-around, and/or a 1911 seems too heavy. (It is the outer rear corner of the blocky Glock slide that prints the most, at least on my mostly-skinny self; I find it easier to dress around a full-sized 1911 than a G19.)
 
To follow-up on my above post, which favored .380 ACP, I will add that there are times I see my PPK/s + .380 ACP as inadequate. At longer range, I can hit more reliably, over distance, with a full-sized 1911, subject to the limitations of the trajectory of .45 ACP. Past that distance, I would want something like .357 Magnum, fired from one of my 4" or 6" GP100 revolvers. On rural road trips, or while on rural family land, I want more than a small pistol, and more than .380 ACP. (I have left rifles out of this discussion; a rifle is obviously a better longer-range weapon.) I can envision having to defend my wife, or other relatives, at longer distances in such environments.

I will also consider anything smaller than a PPK/s or G42 to be inadequate for my defensive purposes, for a reason independent of the .380 cartridge. I want a defensive handgun to be large enough to have decently dynamic handling qualities, in my hands. A PPK, example, is just a bit shorter in the grip than my PPK/s, but crosses a line into inadequate handling, for my purposes. The same is true of the Keltec P3AT. I sold both of my PPK pistols, and my P3AT.
 
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.380 ees running-dog capitalist, Dzon Brovning, ideea of dzoke. He laff, "ha! ha!", maybe .380 keel small pussy-cat, mebe nut. Probly nut. For reel man's gon, see nayn by eteen Makarov.
 
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