Good morning everyone! Todays ballistic post will be about the .380 ACP. Many of our students bring this caliber to class because theyre light, small, and easy to conceal. There is tons of misinformation all over the internet and in gun stores in regards to the .380 not being an adequate defense caliber. So, lets break this down using data gathered from the FBI and Detroit PD. Both agencies did a study of 8 different ammo types, instead of breaking that whole thing down Ill talk about the top performing two. The Federal Hi-Shok (later called hydra shok) was involved in 96 shootings, of those 96 shootings 68 were one shot stops. This gives it an OSS rating of 71% (not too shabby for the little guy). Its average penetration was also around 9.4 inches. The FBI say a JHP should have a minimum of 12 inches, but 9.4 will do the job. Runner up to this was the Speer Gold Dot with a 67% OSS and 9.2 inches of penetration. Given this data, we can assume that the .380 ACP is definitely an adequate defensive caliber, despite what gun stores and the internet will tell you. The best part of it all is the FMJ (practice ammo) actually got really good results too. 55% OSS and 10.9 inches of penetration, almost meeting the FBI standard for penetration. This makes it a really cost effective caliber. You can use hollow points, or save the money and use your practice ammo as your defense ammo without too much concern for over penetration.. This makes it a double win in my book. -Decker
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:59:52 +0000
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