backchannel: .380acp +P

I hope you took your high blood pressure meds

[A, some dude] Has anyone had any experience with Underwood Extreme Defender .380 68 grain +P? Is it safe in the Firestorm / Thunder 380?

[C, an actual subject matter expert] there is no such thing as actual +P ammunition in .380acp. It is a marketing scam and should be avoided. The operating pressures of ammunition in the Western Hemisphere are maintained by the S.A.A.M.I. and they do not have a rating for .380acp in a +P format. To answer your question, Bersa does not recommend the use of this ammunition in their .380acp caliber pistols. As a Master Gunsmith with over 40 years experience, I would not recommend anything that does not fit the industry standards as set forth by S.A.A.M.I. to be used.

[A] But there it is printed on the box. So it probably has an extra powder charge behind it. It also shows it rated at 1400fps instead of the 1300fps their regular stuff has. It being “unofficial” doesn’t change that. I just wanted to know if anyone has tried it.

As Dennis Miller once remarked, you can’t help some people. The best you can do is be far away when they finally blow themselves up.

my 2 cents for A

Pressure is a function of several factors including the powder mix and, yes, the weight of the powder throw. No one is saying they didn’t print 1400fps and +P on the box. No one is saying it won’t chrono faster than their standard (non-“+P”) load.

They’re saying there is no SAAMI spec for .380acp +P. It’s not a thing, no matter what they put on the box. They could print .380acp +PDQ++++OMG+LOL+++ on the box and it wouldn’t be real either.

TL;DR

Would I shoot a cartridge of a made-up spec in a blowback pistol? From a company that doesn’t publish important info like what barrel lengths their FPS numbers are based on? No, I would not.

It may be worth noting that A’s last post on that forum was in that thread: “I’m pretty confident it’ll be fine.” Hopefully he still all his fingers and most of his face.

FWIW

I load that Lehigh 68gr over Win 231 out of .380acp in a Ruger LCP and it runs just fine. At book max charge it’s averaging 1,181fps¹ on the Athlon. That’s my carry load for the little Ruger.

1. 68gr @ 1,181fps = 186fpe. ↩