When You Carry, What Kind Of Rounds Do You Use?

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I use polycase inceptor for my cw380. This guy on YouTube tested a lot of different .380 rounds and the polycase did well, relatively speaking. For a .380 the concept makes sense to me plus I have not had any feeding issues.

[video=youtube_share;J7_C6kNfjiA]http://youtu.be/J7_C6kNfjiA[/video]
 
My problem is I carry the .380, and I have a hard time with my aim. I have it for about a year. It always hits left. At the range, I aim to the right and then hit center. But in a real situation, I know my adrenaline will be pumping and my aim is gonna suck. What do you suggest I get to carry in that gun? I love it because it's so comfortable to carry. I don't wanna sell it. My Springfield 9mm...that sucker I can shoot the balls off a rabbit at 25 yards, but it feels bulky.
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practice, practice, practice.

99.9 of us here (sans the police officers) will never encounter a real world situation where we have to actually shoot someone.
 
JJR56 said:
My problem is I carry the .380, and I have a hard time with my aim. I have it for about a year. It always hits left. At the range, I aim to the right and then hit center. But in a real situation, I know my adrenaline will be pumping and my aim is gonna suck. What do you suggest I get to carry in that gun? I love it because it's so comfortable to carry. I don't wanna sell it. My Springfield 9mm...that sucker I can shoot the balls off a rabbit at 25 yards, but it feels bulky.
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If it does not hit where you are aiming, drifting the rear sight to the right will change your point of impact to the right. (move rear sight in the direction you want the round to hit, move front sight in direction of where rounds are hitting)

Get more practice with your carry gun and make sure it is hitting where you are aiming. Don't rely on Kentucky windage. Maybe start getting into some matches. That will introduce a stress factor.
 
This is quite literally a question of life and death; be smart about it. Technology is never a replacement for fundamental skill.

Step one - Practice more. If you're off target, learn to correct it. Training will help, but mostly it's a question of deliberate practice.

Step two - Research what it is about getting shot that ends conflict. Humans are both incredibly fragile and terrifyingly hard to stop at the same time. So called "common sense" is wrong about too many things. In so doing, you'll learn about gimmick ammo and decide if it's right for you.

Step three - Seriously, training and practice. Get those shots on target; you're responsible for all of them.

Step four - While I respect Mr. Ayoob, I personally disagree with his views on trigger mods. Similarly, while I personally have no need for gimmick ammo, if it were all I had available, I'd have no legal qualms carrying it. It should be just as easy to get a professional witness that will explain why technological improvements are wise investments by responsible gun owners as they improve the safe use and reliability of their firearms.
Folks love car analogies - if you had the choice to trade up to disc brakes from drums, would you refuse because "they're designed for racing" and "nobody needs to stop that fast"? If the mod actually improves your responsible use of the device, make it.

Step five - There is no better modification you can make than practice. Ensure you're on target reliably, then make sure you're practicing with your carry ammo.

Step six - If after all this training and practice, you still can't get reliable hits with this gun - try something else. Though unlikely, it's possible this firearm just doesn't fit you, and never will. Everyone has different ergonomics, and you might find you're a better shot with a Bodyguard, LCP, or other mousegun.

But first PRACTICE.

ETA - you replied while I was typing, and mentioned being on target with other guns. I will second the comment that you may want to check that your sights are correctly aligned.
 
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I carry either a shield 9 or G19. Shield is loaded with 124g+p pdx1. Heard some pretty good stuff about it so that's what I chose. Are my test sample without issue too. The Glock has 150g federal hst in it. It's made for "micros" but I feel ok about using it in my medium size pistol too.
 
Rip is a very poorly regarded defensive round. Shoot it at some targets and replace with quality hollow points.
 
JJR56 said:
I figured that if I ever do have to shoot somebody, I know my aim is gonna be ever worse. So what I would do is unload the whole clip, (I'm so used to calling a magazine a clip), and at least ONE round should hit em'. I think the rounds I'm carrying in my .380 would probably take the suckers arm off! "Oof Faa"!
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You would really benefit from taking a class from a reputable instructor.
 
Are you consistently hitting left? With all ammo? Try different ammo - "normal" ammo, not for the courtroom, but you can buy a lot more plain jane JHPs for what you spend on super dooper criminal pooper stuff. See if you get a different point of impact with a different round, or bullet weight.

As for the ammo - what you think happens when you look at that ammo, doesn't really happen when it's moving at speed and actually hits a target.

Finally - get rid of the Glock, if the size is too small for you. I pocket carry a Ruger LC9s every day without issue or anyone noticing. At my last job, it was literally against the law to carry (not just fired, jail offense) and no one ever noticed. You'll be fine. You could even upgrade to the single stack 9mm from Glock if you really like it.
 
My G43 has HST 124gr, but I'm debating on switching to 147gr as I heard they perform better in short barrels. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong with Federal HST, Speer Gold Dot or Hornady Critical Defense.
 
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Yikes...


JJR56 said:
I carry a very small Glock .380. At the range, my shots always hit to the left.
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Get some instruction because clearly your fundamentals are weak.


JJR56 said:
I carry the .380 because it's hidden so easy.
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Why even bother carrying a gun if you can't hit what you're aiming at? Also, they make 9mm gun the size of your .380



JJR56 said:
My question is, since that handgun is hard to aim straight (for me) cause of it's small barrel...
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It's not because of the small barrel. It's because you're a poor shot.


JJR56 said:
Even if you hit a dirtbag in the arm with one of these, I think that should stop him.
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A handgun round to the arm isn't going to stop anyone. You're hoping for a psychological stop at that point, not a physical one.


JJR56 said:
I figured that if I ever do have to shoot somebody, I know my aim is gonna be ever worse. So what I would do is unload the whole clip, (I'm so used to calling a magazine a clip), and at least ONE round should hit em'. I think the rounds I'm carrying in my .380 would probably take the suckers arm off! "Oof Faa"!
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You are a liability to the rest of us. Where do you think the rest of your rounds are going to go, space? Please do us all a favor and don't carry a gun that you can't shoot accurately. Oh, and a prosecutor would have a field day with a guy that emptied the entire mag because he knew his aim was terrible.


JJR56 said:
But don't you think a round like the one I'm carrying would separate into 1/2 dozen fragments and do some real damage? I can't imagine getting hit in like the shoulder with that and not having my arm taken off. That would make you stop and think twice!
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That gimmick of a round won't do a whole lot. I'd rather carry ball ammo than that RIP crap. Besides, there are so many proven high-quality defensive rounds out there, why would you get this gimmicky stuff?


JJR56 said:
My problem is I carry the .380, and I have a hard time with my aim. I have it for about a year. It always hits left. At the range, I aim to the right and then hit center.
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Seriously, get some training. The gun isn't the issue here - you are.
 
JJR56 said:
My problem is I carry the .380, and I have a hard time with my aim. I have it for about a year. It always hits left. At the range, I aim to the right and then hit center. But in a real situation, I know my adrenaline will be pumping and my aim is gonna suck. What do you suggest I get to carry in that gun? I love it because it's so comfortable to carry. I don't wanna sell it. My Springfield 9mm...that sucker I can shoot the balls off a rabbit at 25 yards, but it feels bulky.
Click to expand...

More range time and time with a reputable instructor. It's not the gun or ammo that makes you shoot one way or another. You need to do dry fire drills and make sure your not flinching or pushing the trigger one way. And break any bad habits.

For ammo Id choose 9 over 380 if you like the size of the 42 look at a 43 similar size, but IMO better since 380 is not the best round.

I'd go with Remington HPs
 
Trigger control is easy to fix once you become aware of the problem. Spend some time dry firing. Be aware of any movement of the sights as you pull the trigger.

When I did my first pistol qualification in the Marine Corps, I sucked until qual day. During pre qual, an instructor took my pistol, fiddled with it a bit, then handed it back to me and watched me take my next shot. It turned out there was no round in the chamber. Upon dropping the hammer, the muzzle went down and left. Why? I was jerking, but I was unaware of it at the time. The instructor unloaded the gun but made me think it was loaded so he could observe my trigger control when I expected a round to go off. By becoming aware of my poor trigger control I was able to correct it and qualify as expert.
 
My preference is for the standard pressure Federal HST in any of the common calibers. Gold Dot is a proven round, along with the hard-to-find (and thus somewhat cool) Win Ranger T/Bonded and I've carried both in the past. Yet the HST is a newer design, widely adopted by law enforcement, plentiful and cheap ($25/50 in 9mm). It's also by far the best performing round in the tests I've seen.

Across the board of calibers and bullet weights (excepting .380, which is kind of a crapshoot anyway) the HST is far more consistent than even the Gold Dot and WAY ahead of the rounds marketed as "self defense" ammo. By that I mean Critical Defense/Duty, PDX, Remington Ultimate Defense, etc. which perform in a range from 'decent' to 'absolute garbage'. Decent might be the .380 Critical Defense, which is one of the better rounds in that caliber, while absolute garbage might constitute the failure to expand, under- and over-penetration and core/jacket separations seen in so many of the tests below:

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/

This experiment, while not as scientific as Dr Roberts', nonetheless has a fairly throrough and convincing methodology (lots of expensive gelatin, controlled conditions, 4LD, etc) and is well worth reading as raw material. There's not a lot of analysis but pay attention to penetration depths and expansion, both in the chart and the pictures. In this test, the HST opens up big every time and penetrates with remarkable consistency. There are some rounds that come close or exceed it in SOME loadings but by far the HST is the most reliable across the board, again that's in this test.

Would you rather carry a 124gr 9mm HST that penetrates 18.3" and expands to .61" or a Critical Defense that penetrates 13.1" and expands to .50"?

While the latter is better than the Golden Sabers that completely fail and separate (how anyone can trust their life to big green is amazing), or the exotic stuff like RIP that's completely unproven and, IMO, pointless to carry, I think it's important to trust your loading implicitly. I'll add that sticking with the most common bullet weight for a caliber (124 for 9, 180 for .40 and 230 for .45) is best, as are std. pressure loadings. You don't need 147s for winter and you don't need +p for expansion...if it makes you feel better fine but the regular stuff is gtg.

I certainly wouldn't want to be shot with any of the above rounds but Federal has spent a lot of time and money engineering the HST to perform exactly as law enforcement wants. There's still a lot of love for Speer and their position is quite established, the 'gen 2' Gold Dot was not a winner out of the gate but the original round is still good stuff and I'm sure that Winchester has a piece of the action in some departments too.

It would be interesting to know the loads that some local departments carry....anyone care to chime in on what the Staties feed their M&P 45s with?
 
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Hornaday critical duty 135 gr. And as others mentioned practice practice practice. You're jerking on the trigger as mentioned previously.
 
Who are all of you people and what have you done with the people who usually make up the NES???

These were borderline troll questions!

You guys usually go off topic and ridicule even real, honest, in depth threads.

And yet everyone has been respectful and treating the OP seriously.

Is it Aprils Fools?


Did I miss a memo?


Seriously!!

WTF?
 
bfm said:
Who are all of you people and what have you done with the people who usually make up the NES???

These were borderline troll questions!

You guys usually go off topic and ridicule even real, honest, in depth threads.

And yet everyone has been respectful and treating the OP seriously.

Is it Aprils Fools?


Did I miss a memo?


Seriously!!

WTF?
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+1
What do I carry? Live ammo.
 
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