Best .380 Pistols [2023 Guide] | Gun Made I have read conflicting reports about it. He then raised his voice and advised her that you don't shoot 9mm in a 40 S&W and sent her off the line to go change out her ammo. In a real world gun fight capacity rules over caliber. The best gun for any emergency is the one I have with me. Shoots great with a CrimsonTrace laser. Learn the 3 most popular shooting stances & more. Its internal mechanism has nothing like the Walther, not at all, other than its external appearance and that the spout is fixed. Moreover, those who founded and started the Bersa models in Argentina were Italian investors and gunsmiths, and were familiar with and highly influenced by the Beretta models. It was made by browning and I traded it for a 222 rifle. Decent groups, although early on, I was working out my shooting kinks. It also fits my hand perfectly and I can shoot it better. I did get a .380 3 or so years ago. Add Pearce grip extenders and a Pachmayer grip for a perfect .380 great trigger (practice makes perfect) gooot sights and shoots like a dream for me. Their main appeal is their often sub-$100 price tags. My personal opinion, the Walther is vastly superior to the Smith Bodyguard. I don't know why it keeps appearing in these 380 pocket lists, must be advertising? Do they consider the .38 Sp "puny"? 6 I get the guys who work at the range to clear the gun, took a FULL five minutes, he fires two rounds and I tell him to take the gun back, I won't fire it again. Same thing with big hands. I found a Desantis pocket carry for it to ride in. In the order acquired, they are a PPK/S, S&W Bodyguard with CT laser, Ruger LCP-II, and Ruger LCP Max. Joshua, do you pull any weight at Ruger? This gun has less felt recoil, is about the same size, super easy to conceal, but with 9mm firepower. Hornady Critical Defense and Sig V-Crown is what I carry - there is a ton of info and recommendations in our Best 9mm Ammo article! All of these features together, the improved trigger, the enhanced serrations, the stippling on the grip, and the slightly wider grip size all combine to make the LCP II a better handgun to shoot than the original LCP. We have a few of the guns in this article, and I have shot them all quite a bit. Wouldn't trust a striker gun in my pocket, even with a pocket holster. They run like sewing machines. But, all it took was a disassembly and careful stoning job. I ran into a good deal on .45 ACP JHP ammo, but it would not feed in either of my 1911's. I had to go with the .380 for health reasons. It was very ammo sensitive . See ya at the range. Ruger LCP as #1? Carry sig in ankle holster . I mostly like the Bersa Thunder .380, but, reliability can be a concern. I carry a Springfield XDS in45acp. I have a Kimber RCP (lg) that I picked up a while back. I carry the 42/43 since both are he same platform and only caliber difference so with either on I don't need to "think" which gun do I have today, Great review! I tell new CCW people to carry the most potent weapon they actually can conceal and get comfortable with, not the smallest and lightest available. I prefer lcp 2. (The Glock and Sig feel bulky and have lousy sights; the Ruger's "sights" are a joke; the Smith's aren't much better.) I've been using Hornady Critical Defense in it. Very happy with my purchase . The new LCP II has a light very crisp awesome trigger for a small .380. Too bad Taurus discontinued them in favor of the Spectrum. I like my Ruger LCP II - light weight, I can handle the recoil. This is one very inexpensive pistol that works very well. The RM-380 is the easiest to rack of those I own and the Kahr CW-380 the hardest. I didn't see any mention of this pistol here. Thats why the Kahr is the winner here. I own 2 of your top 5; the Sig P238 and the S&W 380 EZ, plus, my 85 year old father owns the Ruger LCP and my friend the Bersa Thunder and both love them !! I appreciate your thorough discussion, BUT the Ruger you are comparing is the LCP while the #1 gun in the article is the LCP II. In contrast to this, the original LCP did not lock back on the final round. COMPATIBLE WITH MOST 380 AUTO PISTOLS - Compatible with Glock 42, Ruger LCP, S&W Bodyguard, Sig Sauer P238, Taurus 738, and Many More. Hey Glenn, thanks for writing in! The, much lauded, FBI study is not highly relevant to CCW, purely defensive, needs. This time he is either getting his $ back, or a replacement. Walther PPK 9. They're chambered for 25 ACP, 22 LR, 22 WMR, and 380 ACP, which are all small cartridges with relatively lightweight bullets and propellant charges. If it hits the other shooter's forehead, it the gun, maybe gun/ammunition combination. I have two Walther PPK/s , and find them to be excellent! Ive used many .380s but the best is the bersa thunder 380 cc . I have the Springfield 911 and that gun is amazing compact good grouping lightweight are amazing. Never carry in a pocket (or elsewhere for that matter) without a proper holster Get Our Top Shooting Drills and Zeroing Targets ($47 value - but FREE for a limited time). All the .380s are snappy & regardless of how I adjust my grip, they all give me varying degrees of "trigger bite", leaving my trigger finger sore after shooting. When you see a list of the Best .380s and the Beretta Cheetah is not on it there is something disingenuous going on. Great review. The Pearce grip extensions help with control. It recently was retired to my safe in favor of the Glock 42. At the very least you should be able to place all of your rounds at center mass. I own both lcp pistols. Im not a fan of carrying cocked and locked so my personal pocket gun is the Bersa Thunder 380CC. I used to carry a Colt .380 Government Model. I wrote a review on the Bersa .380 Firestorm, I like it. I've not needed to use deadly force in my 1st 60yr, and I hope to make the peashooter suffice during my second. While the LCP II is still a small pocket pistol, Ruger made a number of improvements to it. I'll be reviewing one soon, so keep an eye out! Looking into the warranty impressed me, as did many of the online reviews. I think the Pico would, on the other hand, please me the way my older S&W revolvers do, when I just handle them -they seem to ask for, and certainly get, appreciation as something more than a tool. The downsides are, well, it's easier just to bullet point this: Unreliable Poor fit and finish The final answer: Sig P238 with Precision One Hollow Point or Underwood Load Lehigh Defense Extreme Penetrator or Extreme Defender. As the article notes: Practice, Practice, Practice! And the two metals combine to make this small handgun tip the scales at 15.2 ounces, with a barrel length of 2.7 inches long. Later issued Glock 19 9mm for duty and carried a Sig P230 .380 as back up. One "embarrassing" point is, my wife Does use a 9mm. Made in America!! "When I put two in your chest an one in your forehead, you'll never know the difference.". . Both run flawlessly. Not funny. withering fire is a bitch especially if you have it..carrying 500 rounds of anything else is 2X a normal combat loading and damn heavy after 10 miles of hiking.now make it 20..and you still need food, clothing, perhaps a tarp and/or tent, water..adding 20lbs of ammo doesn't make much sense when you are evading society.. Shotshell equivalents are nothing new. It's a good fit for my small hands, target shooting is fun, it conceals beautifully and I have confidence with my ability to hit the target with a tight group of rounds. Hey, I understand! (I'm not, due to the absence of a grip safety.) Takes about 150 rounds through the gun to train your mind for the trigger pull and, in general, to get familiar with it. By comparison, the UXP still worked fine in 9mm, but he was able to find dozens of 9mm hollow point rounds that expanded consistently and only cost a fraction of the price. If I can't wear my 9mm Shield 2.0 the Bodyguard is my next choice and I have no doubt it will perform effectively in a life and death situation. What good is stopping power if you aren't comfortable with carrying at all times or can't put bullets on target. Increiblemente yo cazo con pistolas .380, desde liebres, grandes tats, lagartos extremadamente resistentes, avestruces (algunos de ms de 80 kilos) Uso una walther pp, capaz de poner 5 tiros hornady en 1.5 " pulgadas a 25 mts, apoyado. What do you think about the Beretta Pico? The 380 is in between the 22/25 pocket pistols and the 38spc/9mm sub compacts. Good looking too. Model D, based on a Star design that goes back to the 1920's. You say the LCP2 has a long stiff trigger not true the first gen LCP did the LCP2 are one of the best triggers available on a 380 hadgun. Great in pocket holster or ankle holster. While size really isn't that much of a issue for me, as I carry my Glock 20 10mm quite often, the P238 is easy to pop into a pocket when I'm in a hurry. The stopping power, recoil management, and availability make it a more popular pistol caliber than the .380 ACP, and rightfully so. The cartridge holds a bullet the same diameter as the 9mm (.355") but in a smaller case with diminished capacity (roughly speaking, 15% less than the 9mm in grains of H2O). Carry it anyway you like, in a situation It's about 30% heavier as a result, but it shoots awesome. Any list discussing pocket-carry guns that does not at least mention the best on the market, the Seecamp, is incomplete. As a back-up weapon to a larger pistol, the LCP II would also be a great choice as it has a very similar manual of arms to larger pistols such as Glocks while also being small enough to easily conceal carry as we have just seen. Both are very easy to conceal and I never doubted the reliability should I ever need to use either. I wouldnt trust the preservation of my life to anything less than a CQB pistol caliber of either 9 x 19mm or 45 ACP; and I use the term caliber very loosely OK. I guess I'm just as a 1911 fan . It needs to be the first discussing in class along with liabilities in responsibility. Dear Mr. Joshua, enjoy your article and share many of the concepts that you use. The 238 is very easy to conceal. The sights on the LCP II are built into the top of the slide like its predecessor. I recently purchased the Kahr after reading this article, and many others. Small, light, and I only paid $232.99 for it? Ive shot 3 on the list. Hi Charles, are the pictures not showing up on your end? Today I have a Glock 43. S and W bodyguard is great if you can get used to the long , heavy trigger pull. Note: DOES NOT FIT Glock 43, Ruger LC380, and other larger frame 380's. While there are other, more powerful rounds out there, this is likely the smallest one youd ever want to trust your life to. We had one jam with my initial reload recipe, since corrected. I really like it because it's all metal and so dampens the recoil. He said the safety was hard to disengage. WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES OF THE .380 POCKET PISTOL? I have just started working with some SIG Sauer V-Crown but dont have a good data set yet. But, if you can't find a reliable handgun, what's the point? The problem is that my LCP II ejects the spent shells into my forehead. I LOVED it for its size and wanted it to come in #1! I love mine. Teaching CCW to point and shoot in this situation rather than retreat is like advising suicide. It should come as no surprise to me since I own other ruger's and they have all been Flawless operators. You have to get it from Palmetto State Armory. Can a .380 pistol save your life? Well done and VERY informative! Since I don't know where or when I may have to draw and fire my weapon this is an important consideration for me (we are reminded that we are responsible for EVERYTHING that bullet may hit and/or damage). Jams other 380 hollowpoint. kind of scary. I even saw lint and crap in there when I went to the range. How about all that for $459.00 in a plastic box? Another vote for the Rem. Brand : Winchester Easy slide to manuever, feels great to shoot. It's light. Let's make a fairer comparison. +1 pierce extension & 1 in the chamber gives you 8 rounds. I was actually shooting .410 loads in a handgun in the 1970s, and the Contender could boast a choke and a significantly longer barrel (as I recall, about 9" in mine). With the added magazine flair, my hand (including pinky finger) fits great. Different primers some Full Metal Jacket some hollow points. I also have a PPK in .380 that I carry when I want something smaller. Surprisingly enough the XTP bullet actually expanded with a .25 caliber bullet in several tests! I finally found it a few years back, in the Kahr CM9. Beretta Pico: Worst .380 In the World?! just kidding - YouTube Typically carry colt ofcr .45, but sometimes just can't. - It's shorter, lighter, cheaper and has much more capacity than the Bersa Thunder Primers are continuously and thoroughly checked for consistency and sensitivity in extreme temperatures and conditions beyond normal use. We'll only use the information provided according to our privacy policy. Center mass has never been a problem from the get go. And they are ultra reliable. View as Grid View List View. Well, at least the one I have. I believe its foolish and only going to get your ass shot by LE. In line with your sock drawer comment, if there is even the remotest possibility that I will have a malfunction, I don't have any use for that pistol. I carry a Springfield Armory V-10. Finally, while the Bodyguards do come with a safety, they are hard to disengage. It looks like a Walther PPK, which is neat, but other guns beat it. Great performance and a 15+1 magazine. There was a recall on it, but the trigger still sucked, a "3 stage", the first pull, then some weird twilight zone, and then the pull to release. It's cheaper than any of the guns in your list. Which surprises me due to how hard the slide is to pull back. I was worried seeing a lot of internet Kimber slamming between the time I bought the pistol and the time I had a chance to run it. I have fired a wide variety of 9mm rounds out of it. The trigger pull was beyond bad. You might check on a Ruger-oriented forum, on Ruger's own website, or call Ruger customer service. Peepew tends ro regurgitate older reviews and most likely the Sig wasn't available when the review was conducted. Just like the crazies that are carrying guns illegally and using them criminally. In my considered opinion anything less than either a 9 x 19mm, or a 45 ACP pistol is for people who dont know any better to drool over and covet. Could you convince them to make an LCP II in .32 acp? Nonetheless, it still suffers from many of the issues that we just talked about in the previous section: the trigger pull is awful, they are difficult to shoot, it can be difficult to get a good grip on the pistol for some shooters, and the slide wont even lock back on the last round fired. Bought my wife a Walther PK380 because with her arthritis , she can still rack the slide. And the right kind of holster too. I have a Sig P238 ASE and the trigger is excellent and recoil is minimal. Not fun! They are not only built like tanks, but will shoot Plus P ammo milder than most guns shoot standard ammo. As a side note, during the interim and before I found ammo that would feed consistently I purchased a Ruger LCRx in .38spl. Taurus really dumped in their lunch bucket when they discontinued the TCP738 and replaced it with the Spectrum which is, Ive read, as you describe. No Beretta 84????? It sports a long, heavy trigger pull with double-strike capability. By contrast, the .38 Special, when shot out of a revolver with the standard 4" barrel, easily gives kinetic energy figures of 280 foot-pounds, and with +P loadings from Corbon (and others) can deliver over 300 foot-pounds of energy. Its looks great and feels great in my hands. Great review on the 380's. And like many of us, we have/or have had a bunch of weapons..some very nice..and some inexpensive. I have hundreds of rounds through both and I haven't had any malfunctions with either of them. I have a Beretta 9 mm Storm carbine, and it's quality really impresses me. I haven't had a chance to get the firestorm yet but am looking forward to getting one soon. The Sig was great w/ the Glock being my runner up. Love the sig p238 tried the lcp gave to my brother. The current street price is within the $299 range. The Glock doesn't fall into my "favorite" handgun catagory of the pistols I own or have owned but I have never had a failure to feed or failure to eject nor have I seen a FTF or FTE at the qualifications rangeno, that's not trueone time during qualifications, a new officer was having FTE's with her issued Glock. One is a KelTec P3AT, very small pocket gun, and I have a CZ83 in .380acp which is the finest .380 I have ever fired. I have and carry the G42 routinely. I'm carrying a Kel-tec p3at in a Velcro ankle holster at work. This is especially true if 147-grain 9 mm loads are compared to the higher-performance loadings in the .38 Special; it is uncanny how similar these are, especially given the differences in how barrel lengths are measured in pistols versus revolvers. In this caliber your discussing I wouldn't carry anything on this list simply because they're all too big with too many bells and whistles for me especially living in my "environment" (South FLA.). I noticed the Kimber Micro .380 didn't make the list. . I addressed the black sight visibility issue with a little white nail polish and have no issue picking up the sight picture, so long as I get my tri-focals lined up correctly. If you take aim at an attacker with your .380 pistol but miss four out of five shots, you may just end up angering the person coming at you. My first experience with what was certainly a 30 lb. It's a good balance of weight and reliability. Thirteen rounds and easy to shoot. It is now my daily carry gun and probably will be from now on.
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worst 380 pistols