Massad Ayoob - Is .380 Enough for Self-Defense? Selecting the correct ammunition. Critical Mas EP 59

thank you hey guys welcome back to the Wilson Combat Channel my name is Masada yube and today we're talking to you from the Wilson Combat facility in Berryville Arkansas we listen to your comments here at Wilson Combat YouTube channel and one question we've been getting is do we think 380 is enough well the answer I'm afraid is it depends the 380 ACP uh isn't called nine millimeter short colloquially for nothing it's a limited power cartridge whose purpose was fitting a a very small pistol now today we're seeing a Renaissance of the 380 for two reasons first the pistol is the size of a little Kel-Tec p3at and the the Ruger LCP are basically the size of some of the 25 autos of of decades passed they allow comfortable discrete concealed carry particularly in npes non-permissive environments which I would Define as some place where it's technically legal for the individual to carry but perhaps Politically Incorrect or could be seen as embarrassing or not a good career move so it's important to have a very small very discreetly concealable handgun another element of 380 choice is people in my age demographic with the crippled up arthritic hands hands that are very sensitive to recoil a pistol like the Glock 42 for example is eminently shootable uh seven rounds of 380 or more and it's almost like shooting a 22 and much easier to manage the problem with the 380 historically has been it has enough power to drive a round nose Full Metal Jacket deeply enough or to expand a hollow point bullet but not to do both we found that generally the the reason it got originally since 1908 when it was introduced the reputation for being almost impotent as a man stopper was that that round nose profile created a puckered dimpled wound like an ice pick it would kill but tended not to immediately stop the way larger caliber bullets might the coming of the hollow points made them a little bit more dynamic but the the 380 simply doesn't have enough power in most loads to expand the bullet and drive it to the depth of 12 inches that FBI considers to be the necessary minimum what we've seen with some of the new ammo developments such as the Lehigh here this is the Lehigh XD it's a 68 Grand bullet and it's rated for 1100 feet per second from a 3.8 inch barrel what you're working with here is not bullet expansion but fluid displacement and it looks as if based on the testing it's going to combine significantly wide wound track for incapacitation with the adequate penetration of the solid projectile time will tell there's not enough of them out there now to really have a database from actual shootings in fact I haven't found any that said if I was limited to the 380 for the reasons of requiring very mild recoil due to hand injuries Etc or the very tiny very flat pistol I would certainly explore using this type of ammunition with any pistol with and any Duty ammo you want to get as much of those Duty rounds through the gun as possible to make sure that it is going to cycle for you and you want to make sure that if you have debilitated hands that it's going to work with a relaxed grip which means you've got a lot of ammo through it to make sure it's going to work 100 not all of it just like this but occasionally with the hand like this because it might be that way when you need it for real some attackers obviously are tougher than others looking through my own case files or I've been involved as an expert witness we had one where a almost 300 pound man in a state of Rage was charging the defender the defender fired one shot from an AMT Backup 380. uh Winchester ball and struck him exactly right the bullet uh struck the top of the heart with the aorta was branching and when are the thoracic spines separate the spinal cord and the man dropped like a rock and did not survive on the other end of the spectrum one of my graduates had to shoot an assailant this guy was about 180 pounds uh the guy was coming at him attempting to disarm and murder him he had to shoot him seven times with a Sig p230 380 jacketed hollow points the guy finally stopped charging at him was breathing heavily put his hands on his thighs like he was catching his breath sat down lay down and didn't get back up that officer of course was cleared in the self-defense shooting and that I think was the last time he carried a 380 as his primary gun you can see that really across the board with some of the more powerful rounds as well remember a whole lot of the stopping power element is not going to be quantifiable because it's in the body and the mind of your opponent not in the ballistics of your firing that said the less powerful the gun the less trauma it's going to cause trauma and damage to the organism that is trying to murder you is what we need to achieve to make that organism stop trying to murder you and the 380 is generally considered to be at the bottom edge of acceptable so-called stopping power it's significant that police departments in America do not issue them as you know those do not issue 380s as primary service pistols now obviously the armed citizen is not a police officer but one thing we learned from law enforcement is that they are the resident Professionals in dealing with the exact same violent criminals the citizen has armed himself or herself to protect themselves and their family from personally I'm not comfortable with any auto pistol smaller than nine millimeter is a primary gun but I get to dress like a slob if I want and I'm not in a non-provessive environment most of the time the 380 may be the best choice for you in certain situations if so use the the best and most effective ammunition you can the less powerful the cartridge the more important the choice of ammunition is there are X number of law-abiding concealed carry needs that are met by that style of pistol better than some others life is a compromise and so is 380 ACP we wish you the best of luck out there please subscribe to the Wilson Combat Channel and we're looking for your commentary it's from your commentary that episodes like this derive we'll see you down the road thanks for watching

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Keywords: Wilson Combat, EDC, X9, SFX9, AR15, Gun, WilsonCombat, Wilscon, Massad, Ayoob, Mas, Mass, MA, Massod, Mossod, Mossad, Bill Wilson, Ken Hackathorn, Hackathorn, Hack, Mike, Seeklander, 1911, Supergrade, Custom, Combat, Handgun, slide, barrell, weapon, AR-10, Ar-9, Grip, Module, LightRail, Optics, Machined, quality, service, 1977, classic, safety, serrated, model, premium, wc, retro, fudd, fudds, holster, hammer, commander, bullet, lehigh, lehigh defense, nula, armor-tuff, finish, cosmetics, pistol, revolver, shotgun, shattergun, scattergun, technology

Id: XBhyLtlPCuQ

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023