[Guest]

I carry a Sig 232 (.380) for concealed carry. I know, I can hear it now, if you wanted a 9mm why didn't you by one. I have carried other pistols but the Sig is the one that weighs the least, (16 oz. empty) has a flat profile and with Hogue grips fills my hand nicely, and is accurate. My question is this: Buffalo Bore advertises a couple of loads that look promising. One is a 100 gr. lead flat nose at 1150 fps and a 90 gr. HP at 1175 fps., have any members put these loads on a chronograph, or shot them into some kind of medium to test their effectiveness. Thanks in advance, dgang

 

[Guest]

Didn't know that. I've bought .454 Casull rounds from BB but I wonder how these .380s would work in my Kel Tec P3AT.............. It supposedly prefers the stouter loads.

 

[andersongw]

I have no problems with full size .380s and like the SIG 232 myself.

I don't know about BB 's .380 loads though. I would guess that regular fmj penatrates about like their 100 gr cast bullet and they might be pushing a .380 GD HP too fast.( may be a bit over driven?) You could contact SPEER on that one.

Corbon DPX might be the best of both worlds, penatration and exspansion. MAGTECH is loading a 77gr SCHP for half that price.

As you say, it would be interesting to test that BB GD .380 LOAD)

 

[oldgranpa]

I don't know about BuffaloBore ammo, never tried any. But from dgang's description it sounds a lot like a similar load from Double Tap (having a Gold Dot bullet) which I did test in the Bersa pistol which is just a tad shorter barrel than the P232. Velocity was up close to the 1100 advertised but I didn't find them much better than plain Speer Gold Dot ammo. My first choice for 380 is still Remington GoldenSabre.
You can check the results of my test at the USRange site at this link.....
http://usrange.org/smf/index.php?topic=1707.0
You can now read the Ballistics section at USR without having to log in.
Just my opinion,
og

 

[andersongw]

oldgrandpa
read your test thanks

My assumption is that the mfg (speer in this case) engineers its bullets to operate at the design velocity of their ammunition and pushing that bullet faster doesn't mean better.

and pushing a solid completety through a target is pretty much the same result no matter how fast that solid is going. (a .35 cal hole)

I loaded speer hp .44 magnum pistol bullets in a .444 Remington rifle and pushed them at rifle velocities. I contacted a speer engineer about that, he thought I was right at the edge of that bullets design velocity. he was right. that bullet expanded to the point of exploding but it was more a deer wounder than a killer. no real penatration.

 

[oldgranpa]

hi, andersongw, thanks for the great info. You may wish to check the Reloading forum at the USRange site. We could use some of your expertise over there too. This site, H&A, and USR are 2 of the best sites on the web.
og......but I'm biased anyway