Standard Pressure Short Barrels: 9mm VS .38 SPL VS .380 ACP Speer Gold Dot

all right short barrel 9-millimeter versus 38 special versus 380 acp in the gold I am unison I have so many requests to test more standard pressure 38 special versus the other standard pressures so I'm gonna do that today and I think I picked ammunition it's gonna be pretty fair I'm pretty comparable the 380 is a 90 green gold hollow-point the 38 special is a 125 green gold hollow-point and the 9 millimeter is a 124 green gold hollow-point all have the short barrel spirit gold a bullet all standard pressure interesting thing about 38 specials often times when it's standard pressure is a little bit closer in energy to the 380 but when we go to plus P it's a little bit closer to the nine-millimeter now what makes this kind of fair and in other respects is the amount of barrel travel that these bullets will have while going from the nose of the bullet out to the muzzle and I measured the distance the the front-facing part of the bullet the flat part of the nose travels to the muzzle and what we have with the db9 nine-millimeter is one point eight eight five inches travel the 342 PD 38 special 2.0 eight five inch travel a little bit more but we also have a cylinder gap to contend with and the LCP one point eight five five overall length so pretty good comparable distance those bullets will travel within those guns so we're gonna go through the chronograph see what kind of velocity and accuracy we're gonna get the same time and as always we're gonna go through the juggernaut box which contains a one and three-quarter inch pack of baloney covered by four layers of denim followed by 1/4 inch medium density fiberboard and into water jugs to catch that projectile what we typically see for comparison to ballistics gel it's if we hit the back of the first jug after going through the baloney pack that's about 9 inches comparable to ballistics gel back in the second jug about 12 inches the third Chuck about 15 inches and so on so the back of the third jug is really pretty much perfect as far as getting close to an FBI protocol for for a for penetration but we also want to get 1.5 x expansion if we can so between 380 38 special nine-millimeter and short barreled standard pressure and well how will they compare let's get started with the test all right first up is the 90 green 380 acp we'll see how this does with the gold standard pressure 88 94 72 that's about what I expected and not too bad or overall now let's see how the 38 special compares for velocity to this all right 38 special we'll see what we get for velocity now it is 35 greens heavier than the 380 so even if we get less velocity we still might have more energy so let's see what we get 837 828 829 8:36 so about what we would expect to see with the round like that so not too bad let's see how the nine-millimeter compares alright nine-millimeter gold ah see if we get this pistol three inch barrel 1078 1066 10:47 hold that shot this triggers a little bit different than what I'm used to so 1048 and that's 5 so we have a lot more velocity than the other two however we are dealing with a lot more recoil and you saw you know with this particular pistol will happen is the reset is not something I'm used to so when I started to pull it again I didn't even feel any tension whatsoever but it was ready to go again so that's why I pulled one pretty high so pretty substantial recoil 38 special was pretty substantial as well and the 380 felt like almost no recoil so that's something to keep in mind so let's see what happens when we hit the baloney and the fiber board and see what kind of damage you to get comparing all three all right first up is the 380 this is really the softest recoil in the most predictable accuracy so I give it that even though it has less energy than the others let's see it kind of damage it does kind of penetration we get alright here's the back of the baloney pack nice centered hit here not a lot of damage compared to what we typically do see and the exit out the fiber board and it's a little bit small it's better than a full metal jacket but not by a whole lot let's see what we got in water jugs first Chuck actually took out a lot more damage than what I would have expect there's a lot of fiber board in here it's split it out completely of an impact and jug - and it looks like we at the bottom of jug - and I've seen an impact in jug 3 and I can see the bullet back there we actually exit it off the back of jug hit the inside of the box and we actually have what I consider pretty decent expansion doesn't quite look like the one and a half times expansion it might be but we had adequate penetration as well because exiting out the back of the third jug even though I hit the side of the box that's still going to represent about 15 inches of penetration with some expansion so it's really not bad now let's see how the 38 special compares to the 380 all right 38 special gold dot we'll see if it compares to the 380 all right on our first inspection it does look very similar to the 380 about the exact same damage to the baloney same size all through the particle board alright first jog looks about the same as the 3a a little bit splitting on the jug talk to fiberboard and jug to impact on jug three we went through to MUC three impact on four bullet isn't junk for there's no mark out the back of junk for so that's gonna really indicate anywhere between 16 and 17 inches of penetration here we have a lot less expansion with the 38 special standard pressure we did have some and it was enough to slow it down so better than a full metal jacket but not by much now let's see how the nine-millimeter compares alright 9-millimeter with the gold dot we'll see what we get here's the exit out the baloney pack looks like I made a shot a little bit to the left but where it did impact has a lot more damage than the other two fiberboard about the same alright the first drug is split wide open that's a lot of damage for a short barreled cartridge looks like I hit very low and jug to the bullet is exiting out the bottom of jug to impact on a jug three we have advanced off the back of jug treats and that is in that perfect 15 inches of penetration of and what we have is really good expansion it's not perfectly symmetrical all the way around but it is really good expansion and we did stop it where we wanted to stop that that round had about 15 inches of my shop placement it's probably a little bit low so possibly hit the bottom of the box but that does say something about the cartridge even though it has the most energy had the best performance it really was the hardest to shoot correctly when you go down the little short barrels like that sometimes they just that's a lot of power for a short barrel small pistol so sometimes it has a lot of recoil kind of hard to control my 342 PD revolvers pretty easy to control it had similar recoil but because I can change the grips on that it doesn't hurt my hand as much and I feel a little bit more confident with it now the LCP 380 that shot really really well shot accurately and almost no recoil if we compare those two pistols the db9 to the LCP they have almost the exact same height with the 1 plus round extended magazine with the LCP they're exactly the same height so the LCP 380 is gonna hold seven rounds of the mag db9 6 and it's easier to shoot so that might be something thinking the consideration five-shot revolver is always gonna have less rounds but with the standard pressure i'd say it doesn't really perform perfectly it'd be a good choice for an older revolver but if you have a newer revolver I would definitely say go to a plus be the winner with short barrels for ballistics for hitting the water jugs terminal ballistics is going to be the nine-millimeter for sure but honestly out of all these three cartridges the one that I feel the most confident with would be the 380 it seemed to shoot well for me not too much recoil so that's what you get today between the Diamondback and the 342 PD and the LCP with 380 versus 9-millimeter versus 30 specials so it has always comment share and like and thanks for watching [Music] [Music]

Channel: Gun Sam _Revolver Aficionado_

Views: 49,093

Keywords: speer gold dot, .380 acp, 9mm, .38 special, uscca, ruger lcp, s&w 342 pd, diamondback db9, ballistic test, short barrel

Id: hYIqFZPWOeY

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 24 2019