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New .380 and Ammo
TEUFELHUNDE
Member Posts: 130 ✭✭✭
Just bought a Browning BDA .380 stainless with walnet grips, very sweet, love how it feels and shoots.
I have two questions.
What is your opinion of the model?
What ammo works best? I shot a box of Aguila 95 grains. Very accurate no cycle problems but very, very dirty. Is this typical of the ammo or this model?
OK, 4 questions.
Semper Fi
I have two questions.
What is your opinion of the model?
What ammo works best? I shot a box of Aguila 95 grains. Very accurate no cycle problems but very, very dirty. Is this typical of the ammo or this model?
OK, 4 questions.
Semper Fi
Comments
You got yourself a great gun, but some real crappy ammo. Actually, I would have to say, that Aguila is about the dirtiest ammo I have seen, and that is in any chambering.
Best
Just bought a Browning BDA .380 stainless with walnet grips, very sweet, love how it feels and shoots.
I have two questions.
What is your opinion of the model?
What ammo works best? I shot a box of Aguila 95 grains. Very accurate no cycle problems but very, very dirty. Is this typical of the ammo or this model?
OK, 4 questions.
Semper Fi
I've shot one. As you say, its a very nice gun, in the class of what you might call the European "service" type .380s which includes the Beretta model 84 and the CZ-83, etc.
My personal take on guns like this is that they're fun to shoot, but in terms of practicality, they're probably most useful for adults who have small hands or are recoil shy.
In general, I'm not a huge fan of the .380 round, and with today's designs you can get guns in 9mm luger that are roughly the same size as the BDA .380. So personally, I wouldn't choose a gun like that for concealed carry, though I can see why some people might.
You'll have to try different types of ammo to see which one your particular gun likes best. It "should" run any standard 90-100 grain ball ammo fine. If you go to really lightweight bullets or funny shapes (flat point, hollowpoint, etc) you might see reliability issues, though actually with that particular design, I bet it will run the funny shape ammo just fine.
Dirtiness is purely a function of the ammo you're using. If you don't like it, try different ammo.
On Aguila, I can say that its .22LR rimfire ammo isn't really any dirtier than anything else. Wolf brand centerfire ammo can be fairly dirty too. I think the worst I've ever seen was some off brand ammo called "A-merc" (or something like that) that put out huge clouds of black smoke with every shot. It was also probably the LEAST accurate ammo I've ever had the misfortune of shooting.
I carry either WW Silver-tip or Fiocchi JHP in mine.
For practice, I load my own ball ammo.
Thanks again
Semper Fi
Ammo is the cause of the dirtiness.
As for the gun it is a good one. For all the things I don't like about Beretta, I do like about Browning. Including the fact they keep tight quality controls on who-ever contracts with them to build their firearms.
So, with that said, I would try to find some ammo that runs cleaner in your gun. Standard Winchester, Remington or Federal usually run pretty clean. If available that is. Edit: add Gold Dot and Hornady to that line up. Also note that PMC/UMC runs pretty dirty too.
What I did when I bought my daughters .380 is also buy the dies, bullets and brass and loaded with a powder I already had. But, I reload, I don't know if you do. I ended up sticking with 3.2 gr. of 'Clays' behind a 95 gr. bullet. That burns intensively clean. I also tried some AA #2 and that worked great as well. A tiny little bit dirtier is all. Nothing that would jam up a semi-auto pistol in less than 150 rounds. If you don't reload maybe someone near you does. See how much they charge. You will probably end up paying less and getting more ammo for your money.