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New .380 and Ammo

TEUFELHUNDETEUFELHUNDE Member Posts: 130 ✭✭✭
edited March 2011 in Ask the Experts
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

Comments

  • duckhunterduckhunter Member Posts: 7,686 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
  • ruger41ruger41 Member Posts: 14,646 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The gun you bought is a good gun--as to the ammo it likes best that is something you will have to find out by buying a few different boxes and seeing. I've found Hornady Critical Defense feeds 100% in my .380 as does most fmj ammo. The dirty part generally comes from ammo-not the gun itself. If you are just plinking it's hard to beat plain old white box Winchester, Blazer or Federal American Eagle. I've used Federal, Remington, Hornady, Speer, Cor Bon and Buffalo Bore for defense ammo and all worked fine for my guns--you'll have to see if they work for yours. Make sure your gun is well lubed & clean and you should be fine.
  • tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    TEUFELHUNDE,

    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
  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 13,733 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My son bought a 380 last winter and has been experimenting with ammo since. For the intended purpose, he found that Federal HydraShock was clearly 1st choice with Hornady Critical Defense a very close second. I actually liked the CD more due to the slightly lower recoil but he thinks the HS opens up better. Your pistol may have different preferences than his Taurus TCP but we never had a failure to feed or fire with either of these.
  • beantownshootahbeantownshootah Member Posts: 12,776 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by TEUFELHUNDE
    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.
  • dcs shootersdcs shooters Member Posts: 10,969
    edited November -1
    You got a very good pistol. I've had one for about 18yrs.
    I carry either WW Silver-tip or Fiocchi JHP in mine.
    For practice, I load my own ball ammo.
  • 62fuelie62fuelie Member Posts: 1,069 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A fine pistol. Made under contract by Beretta for Browning. You'll find a "PB" stamp on the frame for Pietro Beretta. I had one for several years. I used Federal Hydra-Shok for social purposes and "white box" generic ball for practice. Never had a problem with it.
  • mcasomcaso Member Posts: 1,120 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good gun. With a .380 one needs penetration for self defense with means FMJ not hp. Most hollow points will not penetrate far enough. Don't know about corbon or Buffalo brand but the rest will be a wast of your money. theboxotruth.com is a good place to check out.
  • TEUFELHUNDETEUFELHUNDE Member Posts: 130 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks for all the response. I carry a Colt .45 Mark iv Officers ACP or an M9 Beretta. My wife took her CC and tried the S&W Bodyguard and the M9 and felt they were too heavy and kicked to much. After looking at the ballistic info for .22/.25 I bought her a Beretta 21 in .22. She likes shooting it but I found this very sweet deal on the Browning BDA .380. She likes it and it is so balanced and easy to shoot so I am going to try and find ammo that will give her the best she can get with it, she just isn't going to shoot/carry anything bigger. We put several different types of ammo through it today. All worked great through the pistol, some just very dirty and it really shows up on the nickel finish. For carry I am thinking to use the critical defense and alternate white box ammo for practice.
    Thanks again
    Semper Fi
  • sandwarriorsandwarrior Member Posts: 5,453 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    TEUFELHUNDE

    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.
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