American Rifleman magazine looked at a group of .380 semi-automatic handguns. The results were less than impressive.
They looked at:
- Walther PK380
- Taurus 738 TCP
- Sig Sauer P238
- Rohrbaugh R380
- Ruger LCP
- North American Arms Guardian
- Magnum Research Micro Desert Eagle
- Kel-Tec P3AT
- Kakr P380
The bottom line? None are that great. The Rohrbaugh seemed to perform best, but it’s incredibly expensive and still suffers from the limitations of the platform. The rest all experienced reliability issues and malfunctions. They are unpleasant to shoot, and you cannot shoot them very well due to short sight radius (and perhaps no sights at all), long and heavy and ugly triggers, can’t get all your fingers on the gun to control it, and being so lightweight they don’t absorb much recoil (so you get to). I will caveat that in saying most self-defense shootings occur from 0 to 5 yards, and as reported these guns will provide acceptable accuracy at such distances.
What gets me the most is reliability. Most self-defense shootings are going to require more than one shot to be fired, and if the gun can’t reliably function and feed? To me, that’s unacceptable. I can accept a crappy trigger, I can accept a lack of sights, I can accept poor accuracy… all those things can be worked with and in most self-defense situations you’ll probably come out OK. But if the gun won’t work at all, sorry… that’s beyond epic fail. Yes, many people talk about break-in periods, doing fluff-and-buff’s, how their gun worked great right out of the box. But the reality is, most people buying a gun for self-defense aren’t “gun nuts” that are happy to run thousands of rounds through the gun, know what “fluff and buff” means, or would find much sense in buying a gun then having to send it off to a gunsmith to make it work. They want to buy it and expect it to work out of the box. You buy your TV, you expect it to work when you get it home. You buy a car, you expect it to work when you drive it off the lot. So if they buy a gun, they expect it to work out of the box no different than any other product they buy. While yes many of the above guns can and do work, that there’s enough report, experience, and evidence of problems to cast doubt on their reliability well…. it’s not like you hear of Glocks spoken of in this same way, do you?
The simple fact these guys are unreliable, require a lot of care in ammo selection, require a lot of break-in… and if they’re just not fun to shoot are you going to shoot them and practice with them? Just makes it hard to want to recommend one of them. Everyone’s situation is different, just be sure you have a realistic understanding of what you’re getting here.
Stuff From Hsoi 
My little LCP has never had a failure of any kind that I can recall, but I don’t shoot it that much.
I don’t carry it that much either, and wouldn’t recommend one as a primary carry or defense gun, but it does the pocket carry thing pretty well.
Still, I’ve been wanting to trade it for a PM9.
.380 ammo is just ridiculously expensive these days, if you can find it.
That’s another thing about the .380’s, the scarcity and high cost of the ammo. All because it’s chic to have .380 guns now. and so, that hurts the ability to practice with it, or even to just run the few hundred rounds through it to break it in. However in theory, this is an aspect that could eventually go away.
I have a license to carry and have my choice of five different pistols to use on a daily basis. For about the last 3 years I have carried my P3AT every day, every where it is legal. I take it to the range once a month or so and run 50 rounds thru it. I have had zero problems with mine after 1400 rounds. Would I feel better armed with one of my glocks, Sig 228, 1911 officers model or SP101, yes I would, but I can’t take them everywhere. If my pants are on, so is my P3AT. Even the little SP101 weighs about 25 ounces , try lugging that in your bathing trunks taking a long walk down the beach sometime. Trust me, it doesn’t work well.
Oh and I reload, bought a 550B in 1985 and never looked back.
Like I said, everyone’s situation is different. Myself, I enjoy a snub-nose revolver when it need something really small.
It’s great that your Kel-Tec has been reliable. Not all are. I just don’t want to see new shooters buying something and becoming disappointed and frustrated, or having off ideas about what they’re getting into. If you know what you’re buying and what it’s going to take, and you’re willing to do it, by all means. That you’re regularly practicing with it, that’s awesome (and I’d guess you might reload for it, which helps given the state of .380 ammo these days). Wish more people would do that.
Unless you’re a swimsuit model there’s no good reason to carry a pocket gun as your primary carry.
Personally, I don’t see where the 380 is that impressive of a round; seems like a 38 is just as good if not better. The 38 at least has a little heavier bullet, which can make a difference sometimes.
A few years ago I met a cop who used to work undercover and had been shot with a 380 from 6 feet away while he and a partner were taking a suspect into custody; the suspect managed to pull a pistol and get one shot off before his partner disarmed him.
It was winter, and he was wearing an old Navy peacoat. The bullet hit the center of his chest and so had to go through two layers of the heavy coat. It was a light bullet, and lodged in the skin of his chest against his sternum, and he was able to pull it out with his fingers. An x-ray showed a small hairline fracture, but that was the limit of the wound. If it had been summer, or the shooter had use a heavier bullet, he probably would have sustained a more serious injury. It goes to show that having the minimum gun (which is what a 380 is; 22 and 25 are not really serious contenders) may not always be the best idea in some situations.
Just some food for thought.
I agree. .380 Auto has shown marginal ballistics. You can get better ballistics out of a .38.
It’s one reason some people advocate using FMJ in .380 as your carry ammo… at least you’ll get some sort of penetration there. YMMV.
But in the end, some gun is better than no gun. We all have different contexts and situations and what may be right for one person and situation may not be right for another. We just have to know the parameters we’re operating within and make the best choices we can given them. There will always be a trade-off somewhere.