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.380 for Concealed Carry

8K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  Volsung 
#1 ·
Greetings, all. I'm looking for a concealed carry gun for my daughter. I carry a S&W M&P Shield 40 for my daily carry, but the .40 is more than she's comfortable with. We tried out a friend's M&P Bodyguard .380 but the incredibly long trigger pull made shooting it less than ideal for both of us, even with the Crimson Trace laser. I'd like to find something in the same size range but with a better trigger (like my Shield). Is there such a handgun?

Thanks!
 
#5 ·
Most little 380s are not super fun to shoot and practice with. If I was you I'd seriously look at 9mm in a little bigger package. even small 9mm feels better to shoot that this little .380s like the body guard. Have her try a shield in 9mm, XDs 9mm, or Glock 43 and even have try out a Glock 19 or other similar sized double stack variants. Even if she wants something smaller a small 9mm will be more comfortable to practice with. I your set on .380 then the Glock 42 would be good but again the Glock 43 is not much different size fora 9mm. Even a .45 is usually less snappy that a .40 so you could look at those as well.
 
#6 ·
D-FIN said:
Most little 380s are not super fun to shoot and practice with. If I was you I'd seriously look at 9mm in a little bigger package. even small 9mm feels better to shoot that this little .380s like the body guard. Have her try a shield in 9mm, XDs 9mm, or Glock 43 and even have try out a Glock 19 or other similar sized double stack variants. Even if she wants something smaller a small 9mm will be more comfortable to practice with. I your set on .380 then the Glock 42 would be good but again the Glock 43 is not much different size fora 9mm. Even a .45 is usually less snappy that a .40 so you could look at those as well.
I've found the Glock 43 feels almost like shooting a .40 if you shoot 115 grain ammo. Shooting 147's it's quite pleasant.

Sent from my iSnurd
 
#7 ·
Snurd said:
I've found the Glock 43 feels almost like shooting a .40 if you shoot 115 grain ammo. Shooting 147's it's quite pleasant.
Sent from my iSnurd
That's interesting. Usually, as bullets tend toward heavier-for-caliber, felt recoil goes up. I wonder if this is because 147 gr is actually too heavy for the 9mm's powder capacity? I.e., it's stifling energy by reducing case capacity so much? Personally, I've felt that 130 gr was about max for 9mm, but that 38 Super/357 Sig could handle 147 gr better. Maybe there's some truth to that...although ballistics tests suggest 147's out penetrate 115's and 124's. Maybe it's the cat's meow, because it combines milder recoil with superior penetration? :dunno:

On topic, I tend to agree that trying out a 9mm is a good idea. You have so many choices with 9mm pistols, and if you want you can buy "wimpy" self-defense loads to make the recoil even more manageable. I think it's a much more versatile cartridge than the 380 Auto, but I admit I'm biased as a reloader.
 
#8 ·
Luv10mm said:
Snurd said:
I've found the Glock 43 feels almost like shooting a .40 if you shoot 115 grain ammo. Shooting 147's it's quite pleasant.
Sent from my iSnurd
That's interesting. Usually, as bullets tend toward heavier-for-caliber, felt recoil goes up. I wonder if this is because 147 gr is actually too heavy for the 9mm's powder capacity? I.e., it's stifling energy by reducing case capacity so much? Personally, I've felt that 130 gr was about max for 9mm, but that 38 Super/357 Sig could handle 147 gr better. Maybe there's some truth to that...although ballistics tests suggest 147's out penetrate 115's and 124's. Maybe it's the cat's meow, because it combines milder recoil with superior penetration? :dunno:

On topic, I tend to agree that trying out a 9mm is a good idea. You have so many choices with 9mm pistols, and if you want you can buy "wimpy" self-defense loads to make the recoil even more manageable. I think it's a much more versatile cartridge than the 380 Auto, but I admit I'm biased as a reloader.
The recoil with 115 grain ammo was stiff and tended to slap my palm. 147's was basically like having more of a pushing type recoil instead of slapping. It was much better.

Sent from my iSnurd
 
#9 ·
Recoil is the opposite of the energy imparted into moving the projectile so, assuming the same gun (same static weight to resist the rearward reaction) then your left with bullet weight and velocity as the significant components. Although the bullet weight is a factor, it is the square of the velocity that is the other part of the equation so a change in velocity has a greater effect than a change of bullet weight (mass). The simplistic example usually used is that if you double the weight (and the velocity remains the same) then you'll double the energy (recoil) but if you double the velocity (keeping the weight the same) then you'll get four time the energy.

So, although one might suppose that going from a 115 to a 147 might automatically mean more recoil, in fact, if the velocity is lower then it wouldn't have to be by that much to negate the increase in weight or even supersede it and result in less recoil.

Back to the OP...
I hated every small pistol I shot until I got a Sig P238 HD. It's a very easy action to cycle and the HD version has a little extra weight making it extremely soft shooting. I have a Glock 34 9mm, which is a fairly hefty (for polymer) pistol and pretty easy going, recoil wise, but the little P238 is much softer. I've never shot a non-HD version so I don't know how much difference that extra 5 ounces makes.

Same offer as Snurd... If you want to have your daughter (or yourself ;-)) try it out. In fact it would be fun to get the two together (G42 & p238) and compare, if we can get our schedules to sync :) (I'm in Sandy--easy reach of The Armory, TNT, Doug's, The Gun Vault)

Cheers,
Geoff.
 
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