380 Auto vs. cars

[Velo Dog]

Thought I would share some testing I found online. Hope others can add links to the thread.

Winchester RA380T penetrated 9.3 inches after steel and 4.5 inches after auto glass
http://winchesterle.com/SiteCollecti...20Protocol.pdf

Barnes TAC-XP @ 870 fps penetrated 6.55 inches after car door sheet metal
https://www.ar15.com/ammo/project/Ba...0gr_TAC-XP.pdf

Hornady 90gr XTP @ 950 fps penetrated 10.6 inches after car door
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...ar%20Door.html
Hornady 90gr XTP @ 1042 fps went 11.8"
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...ar%20Door.html

Hornady 90gr XTP @1044 fps penetrated 5.4 inches of 10% ballistic gelatin after car windshield
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...indshield.html

Black Hills 60 Gr. HoneyBadger/Xtreme Defense from 3.82" barrel Beretta Pistol penetrated approximately 10 inches of synthetic ballistic gelatin after automotive glass
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...tion-380-auto/
Hornady XTP went approximately 8.5 inches

Federal Premium 99-Grain HST = 10.550" after steel
https://gundigest.com/handguns/conce...p-self-defense

An 85 grain version of Lehigh Defense Xtreme Penetrator @ 800 fps penetrated over 7 inches of 10% ballistic gel after automotive windshield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tujq9nMCR0

Winchester Silvertip from 3" Walther PPK had an overall 20% "Success Rate" achieving 12" penetration in the complete 40-round, 8 event FBI test
https://assets.americanrifleman.org/...x&height=697px

[xcop]

The test data might be fine but there is no way in hell a coroner does a little over 8 autopsies in a day. Take the narratives with a huge grain of salt. That means the opinions that go with them. Re the gundigest link.

[the Schwartz]

The work done by John Ervin of Brassfetcher is pretty good stuff, he is a mechanical engineer employed in the industry (I'll not say by whom since I don't know if he would agree to that being released) and has had a hand in the design of some recent JHP designs so I'd take his research as being reasonably valid.

The others, I know little of, except for American Rifleman and depending upon who authored the article, it can be 'hit' or 'miss'.

[Dr_Thanatos]

The “report” referenced here is a series of posts written over a decade ago on smith-wessonforum.com by a gentleman who goes/went by the name of Deadmeat2.

As the owner of an internet discussion forum, I can attest to the fact that everything written (anonymously) by people with goofy usernames (and high post counts) on an internet discussion forum is in fact irrefutable truth. If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone with lots of posts (and a goofy username) on an internet discussion forum — they’ll tell you I’m right.

Looking briefly at an archive of that post, the author claims to "work" in a morgue. If employed as an autopsy technician, that author may legitimately "see" 8 or so autopsies in a day. I have worked at high volume places where 12-16 cases per day are relatively normal, and there are many operations which do substantially more than that in a day.

However, "seeing" any number of autopsies does not allow you to have an opinion about what the physician is observing while performing one. I've "seen" a traffic stop, I don't know anything about conducting one.

Autopsy data has a tremendous bias, it only shows lethal wounds. ER and surgery data is missing someone who actually knows something about wound identification, the forensic pathologist. (ER physicians misidentify a gunshot wound as an entrance or exit if there is more than one wound about 50% of the time. Not their fault, neither trained for it, nor have time to do it.) Putting all of that data together requires time, effort and much more than "seeing" an autopsy.

But what do I know, I'm just a guy with a funny username on a internet discussion forum about guns.

Sent from my SM-P905V using Tapatalk

[Bucky]

Thought I would share some testing I found online. Hope others can add links to the thread.

Winchester RA380T penetrated 9.3 inches after steel and 4.5 inches after auto glass
http://winchesterle.com/SiteCollecti...20Protocol.pdf

Barnes TAC-XP @ 870 fps penetrated 6.55 inches after car door sheet metal
https://www.ar15.com/ammo/project/Ba...0gr_TAC-XP.pdf

Hornady 90gr XTP @ 950 fps penetrated 10.6 inches after car door
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...ar%20Door.html
Hornady 90gr XTP @ 1042 fps went 11.8"
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...ar%20Door.html

Hornady 90gr XTP @1044 fps penetrated 5.4 inches of 10% ballistic gelatin after car windshield
http://www.brassfetcher.com/Ballisti...indshield.html

Black Hills 60 Gr. HoneyBadger/Xtreme Defense from 3.82" barrel Beretta Pistol penetrated approximately 10 inches of synthetic ballistic gelatin after automotive glass
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...tion-380-auto/
Hornady XTP went approximately 8.5 inches

Federal Premium 99-Grain HST = 10.550" after steel
https://gundigest.com/handguns/conce...p-self-defense

An 85 grain version of Lehigh Defense Xtreme Penetrator @ 800 fps penetrated over 7 inches of 10% ballistic gel after automotive windshield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tujq9nMCR0

Winchester Silvertip from 3" Walther PPK had an overall 20% "Success Rate" achieving 12" penetration in the complete 40-round, 8 event FBI test
https://assets.americanrifleman.org/...x&height=697px

So in the end, what did you ascertain after all this reading?

To be clear, I’m not being snarky, I’m being lazy.

[DocGKR]

"So in the end, what did you ascertain after all this reading?"

That .380 Auto is a marginal defensive caliber that has difficulty meeting minimum terminal performance criteria easily obtained by typical service calibers such as 9 mm, .40 S&W, and .45 Auto....