BTW, the wife settled on the Glock 42. She has only shot it once so far for 20 rounds. Gotta get her back in the range but she did pretty good cutting paper for her 1st pass.

deadeyedick wrote:

Has she shot both target and self defense loads?

ZRX1200 wrote:

Not really sure. We are using up an old box thats something like 40 years old Federal 120 grain. Prolly target? I guess it was left when I sold off some guns a few months ago. The 380 auto was an Italian made that looked like a Beretta. Never found out much about it and I think the company went under or was bought out.

Anyway I assume self defense would be higher grain than these? Wife was not real happy with the kick but was getting used to it.

deadeyedick wrote:

^ both G42 and 43 only use a double spring…..

Rick grains only mean the weight of the projectile, target and self defense loads can come in most any grains that target loads are available in. The grain weight will effect recoil, terminal ballistic wise I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference in a .380.

I’d look at YouTube videos of gel tests to find a bullet design that works well then see if you can find a couple different weights of that and see what’s she’s most comfortable with.

Hornaday critical defense is always good, Speer Lawman is a decent non hollow point (if your state is weird about that. If they aren’t Underwood’s Xtreme Defender (68 grain in .380) has some nasty hydrostatic displacement properties and is cover neutral (will go through a 2x4 and NOT fragment).

ZRX1200 wrote:

^ both G42 and 43 only use a double spring…..

Rick grains only mean the weight of the projectile, target and self defense loads can come in most any grains that target loads are available in. The grain weight will effect recoil, terminal ballistic wise I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference in a .380.

I’d look at YouTube videos of gel tests to find a bullet design that works well then see if you can find a couple different weights of that and see what’s she’s most comfortable with.

Hornaday critical defense is always good, Speer Lawman is a decent non hollow point (if your state is weird about that. If they aren’t Underwood’s Xtreme Defender (68 grain in .380) has some nasty hydrostatic displacement properties and is cover neutral (will go through a 2x4 and NOT fragment).

ZRX1200 wrote:

Why would DED’s wife use steel cased ammo for a self defense pocket gun?

Asking for a friend.

Ram, you better watch it, Captain Sniffy’s DOJ and AFT has a stiffy that lasted more than 4 hours and they haven’t contacted a physician yet or a pocket constitution.

ZRX1200 wrote:

Why would DED’s wife use steel cased ammo for a self defense pocket gun?

ZRX1200 wrote:

DED isn’t a know it all he’s a smart [FOG]

Nevermind, you missed my point.


He’s not 98.2% azzhat like you n me.

Speak for yourself. I put myself much closer to 100%

You can run steel out of a Glock pretty reliably if you take the 💩 MIM extractor out and replace it with a quality one like Rook.

I guess. Just hate having to compensate for crap. Especially ammo when your life may depend on it. Besides I’d rather ammo that transfers much more energy to its target than the Wolf 💩.

I know at some point my daughters PCC is gonna need a refreshment on the BCG even though the manufacturer encourages steel cased ammo (oddly enough aluminum cased ammo voids the warranty!)

ZRX1200 wrote: