If you want an equal balance of expansion and penetration, middle-of-the-road performance under all conditions, that kind of ammo appears to be available. The Remington 102- grain Golden Saber and Sig Sauer 90-grain V-Crown seem to strike this sort of balance.
Adequate Penetration
When the FBI dropped the 9mm in favor of the 40 S&W in the early-1990s, there were three schools of thought on penetration distances. The FBI adopted a 12-inch minimum and 18-inch maximum standard. The Border Patrol based their ammo selec- tion on a 10-inch minimum and 14-inch maximum. At the same time, an analysis of actual shooting results com- pared to gelatin testing of the same bullets showed that 8.4 inches was the real minimum. Specifi cally, as long as the bullet reached at least 8.4 inches in bare gelatin, the stopping power on the street fell off as the bullet penetrated deeper in gelatin. Over time, these competing views of stopping power have blurred together where today most police duty loads penetrate in the 11- to 13-inch range. That is for duty loads. The 380 Auto is defi nitely an off-duty caliber. All six of these JHP bullets penetrated least 8.5 inches of bare gelatin. That is very good performance, especially for
380 AUTO WOUND BALLISTICS COMPARISON
Bare MAKE & TYPE FEDERAL PREMIUM 0.59
Personal Defense 99-grain HST JHP
HORNADY
Critical Defense 90-grain FTX JHP
REMINGTON
Ultimate Defense 102-grain Golden Saber
SIG SAUER
Elite Performance 90-grain V-Crown JHP
SPEER LE
Personal Protection 90-grain Gold Dot
WINCHESTER
Defender Bonded 95-grain PDX1 JHP
0.65 9.0 3.0 0.64 8.5 0.56 11.0 2.7 0.50 11.0 0.61 9.0 2.6 0.54 10.5 0.63 10.5 3.3 0.55 11.5 0.46 11.0 1.8 0.44 10.0 2.7 0.61
an off-duty and backup caliber. Some JHPs consistently pen- etrated between 10.5 to 12 inches. That makes any one of these six loads, bullets that penetrate from 9 to 11 inches in bare gelatin, an excellent and effective choice.
Expansion and Crush Bare Bare Heavy
Gelatin Gelatin Crush Clothes Clothes Expansion Penetration Cavity Expansion Penetration (inches) (inches) (cu. in.) (inches) (inches)
9.0
Most ammo makers have a bullet expansion goal of 150 percent. That means a 0.355-inch 380 Auto bullet should expand to at least 0.53-inch. Five of the six hollowpoints met this goal. The one that did not, the Hornady Critical Defense, was specifi cally designed more for deep penetration than large recovered diameters. Indeed, the Hornady JHP had the deepest average penetration of the test. Especially in an off-duty caliber, bullet performance after heavy clothes is important. Heavy clothes defi nitely interfere with the reliable expansion of some JHPs. In this regard, three of these JHP designs stand out as excellent. Their bullet expansion appears to- tally unaffected by heavy clothes. The Winchester PDX1, Federal HST and Hornady FTX expanded after the ‘harsh’ heavy clothes test exactly like they did in the ‘ideal’ bare gelatin test. With the rapid expansion to the largest recovered diameters, the Winchester PDX1 was the most disruptive on impact and produced the largest temporary stretch cavity. The temporary stretch cavity is the amount of tissue that is disrupted by the bullet entry. This disruption may or may not cause an actual injury. The permanent crush cavity is the size of the hole punched by the bullet, the amount of tissue actually injured by the passing bul- let. It is simply the volume of the recovered diameter and the total penetration depth. The amount of stopping power that comes from the temporary cavity has al- ways been controversial. The effect of the crush cavity has never been controversial: the more, the better as long as the bullet has adequate penetration. Arguably, all six JHPs produced enough penetration for off- duty scenarios. That makes the crush cavity results important.
Heavy 12.0
At 200 ft-lbs of energy, the 380 Auto doesn’t have enough punch to be a police duty load. It should not be judged by police duty-load wound ballistics standards. Instead, it should be judged by off-duty and backup standards of performance. With the 380 Auto, you can- not have it all. You must pick what you want, and then be sure that load cycles your pistol.
Lieutenant Ed Sanow is the co-author of three books documenting handgun stopping power in police scenarios. He is the designer of the 380 Auto- based 32 NAA pistol cartridge currently loaded by both Hornady and Cor-Bon. Sanow is the Editorial Director of LAW and ORDER and Tactical Response and may be reached at
esanow@hendonpub.com.
LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting
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