a hypothetic gun question?

staind460

first off, are there any +P .380 rounds out there on the market?

now the hypothetical part. . . . glock made the .45 GAP round, which is shorter .45 ACP, which performs similar to the full size round?

someone (Corbon) should take the same concept and apply it to the 9mm/380acp. there are lots of great guns that are chambered in the rather anemic .380 round. what if there was a 380 that through the use of modern powders was closer in performance to the 9mm luger?

the world wonders

scottm21166

Or....you could just buy this one....

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?item=55218236

gunnut505

Ya know, it's been done.
9X17=.380acp
9X18= Makarov
9X19= 9mm
9X21= 9mmSuper
9X23= 9mm Dillon
etc.
If you're confident enough to tote a mouse gun for protection; why soup it up at all?

The problem with making a .380+p is all those older, less robust platforms out there which would cease to remain intact or injure their users.

surbat6

True. Most of the .380 pistols in circulation have straight blowback actions that won't take much of a boost in pressure.

hughbetcha

First of all, nobody wants a 9mm, but if you have to have a 9mm, what you want is a 9mm that is the size and weight of a .380

select-fire

Does GAP stand for Get Another Pistol since it is a .45?

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by staind460
first off, are there any +P .380 rounds out there on the market?


Yes. Both Triton and Magtech make some:

http://www.ammobank.com/cgi-bin/cshop/store/gaugeshow.tam?pagenumber.ptx=1&cartridge_gauge.ctx=.380 AUTO +P

quote:
now the hypothetical part. . . . glock made the .45 GAP round, which is shorter .45 ACP, which performs similar to the full size round?

Yes, BUT its not 100% of the way there, and its loaded to higher pressures.

quote:
someone (Corbon) should take the same concept and apply it to the 9mm/380acp. there are lots of great guns that are chambered in the rather anemic .380 round. what if there was a 380 that through the use of modern powders was closer in performance to the 9mm luger?

There are several problems with that.

One has been mentioned above, which is that the .380 itself was designed to be the maximum round that would work in a simple blowback design pistol. Increase the pressure and inevitably the stronger round will find itself in guns it shouldn't be shot out of, damaging or blowing them up. As comparison, SAAMI pressure spec for 380 is 21500 CUP. For 9mm Luger its 35000 (and the luger takes a heavier bullet too).

9mm is just a LOT more powerful than .380. . .trying to load the latter to match the former is just going to cause problems. ere is an article on a taste of the difference:

http://hunting.about.com/od/guns/l/aast9mmv380a.htm

Second "problem" is why bother?

There are already several good modern 9mms that are similar in size to classic .380s, including the KelTec, Kahr, and the (super expensive) Rohrbaugh. If you want 9mm luger ballistics in a .380 sized gun, there are guns like that around now.

Edit
See here:

http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=212789

staind460

thanks for the responses gents . . .was just a hypothetical that i came up with during the last battle with my live in girlfriend