YZ said:
Man you should see the hollowpoint wound channel. The HP rounds are also loaded to higher pressures. That makes them less than fun to practice with. But they are the ones to make your pocket pistol much more effective. For trusted sources, Massad Ayoob (who is a member here) is highly recommended.
You may be right about hollowpoint wound channels in the larger (.40, .45) calibers, and I've found some interesting analyses of .38 special and .45 hollowpoint performance on other forums. None of that addresses .380 round performance, however. (And are you saying that Mas Ayoob addressed .380 HP performance?)
Comparative data on .380 performance is not easily found on the internet -- and I've looked. You will find a lot of folks praising their choice of loads, explaining their rationale for their choices, and offering citations from the ammo makers about round performance -- but little in the way of test results or post-mortem analysis.
The issue is made worse by the fact that most of the .380s being purchased nowadays for SD use have
very short barrels, which reduces the performance potential of the round.
If I remember correctly, the guns used by the FBI (S&W .38 special revolvers and 9mm S&W semi-autos) in the infamous 1986 Miami shootout against used Silvertips (in 115 gr rounds?). Those guns had longer barrels and fired more potent rounds, with heavier bullets than the .380 -- and there were some real issues with round performance. Those issues led to the FBI using 10mm semi-autos and, after that experiment didn't work for them, to the development of the .40 S&W round for FBI use. While rounds have IMPROVED since 1986, I would be suprrized if the .380s being offered today outperform the Silvertips used in the Miami shootout.
If you (or anyone else reading, here) have access to good data about FMJ and HP .380 performance, please share it with us, perhaps via some links...