I wanted to mention something about guns that wasn’t about gun control. The cherubs and seraphim tell me that a major American ammunition manufacturer is getting ready to pop, so to speak, a high performance .380 round tailored specifically for the little Ruger LCP. Well why not? With sales still grinding through the stratosphere, the little LCP has redefined “pocket pistol” and given the long dis’sed .380 a quick poke in the butt. Mine is the very definiiton of “reliable” and it’s now generally stoked with Cor-Bon DPXs.
As a very big fan of the .380 ACP, I can only say that this is awesome. A .380 round optimized for short barrels like those on the Kel-Tyke and the Ruger LCP would probably sell like freakin’ hotcakes, and I would probably buy a .380 just so I could have an excuse to run the round.
Do you think a Colt Gov’t 380 could be converted to 9x19mm ?
If so, any idea of the expense? If not, how hot a 380acp load do you think that design could take (locked breach)?
I believe the Pony was the basis for the Colt Pocket Nine, so it makes me wonder.
Timmeeee: Why not just buy a 9mm (and they make ’em in .40 too!) Springfield EMP? Its essentially just that without having to muck-up a gun that they don’t make anymore, and potentially blow it up.
As for me, I just want a Kahr PM45, why run a mouse gun on a mouse gun cartridge when they make one that eats the same food as my 1911 (well maybe not exactly…I don’t think I’ll run .45 +P though the Kahr)
That seems like it would create unpleasant recoil.
I don’t think you could convert a Gov’t .380 to 9mm Para, mostly because the operating pressure of the 9x19mm is a lot higher than the pressure that the .380 works at – you’re running the risk of making your expensive Colt into a grenade.
As far as the relative hotness of the load, if I can run Cor-Bon DPX in a blowback .380, you should be fine running them in a locked breach model. I know that Bane runs them in his Ruger LCP.
The Colt 380 I belive was the first locked-breech .380 pistol IIRC. It works off of a modified linkless browning short-recoil system.
As for the PM45 yeah I’m sure it has a decent kick. Here in Mass we can’t get many handguns….but we can get all the Smith and Wesson we want so we shoot .500 Magnums all the time.
Also I’ve read the PM45 has a relatively high bore-axis wich tame torque.
In the end, dispite Kahr Arms being in Worchester, Mass you can’t get them here, so when I get mine though a legal channel, if it kicks too hard, or isn’t reliable (reviews say likely not) I could sell it for whatever I paid because of the rarity.
To all the above: I have heard you describe a Ruger LCP in .380 as a mouse gun.
I know mouse guns. I own a mouse gun. A Ruger LCP in .380 may be a pocket pistol, but it is not a mouse gun.
Sounds like the start of this discussion
http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-1911.html
“Mouse Gun” is one of those terms where somthing comes to mind to everybody when they hear it, but its rarely the same thing. Its a small gun for sure. How small? Is calibur important? Can it be revolvers?
I’ve heard “Rat Gun” for small pistols in 9X19mm or greater power. I’ve heard people say the Walther PPK is the largest of the mouse guns so anything smaller than the PPK is a Mouse gun.
Personally, I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody does. The LCP is damn small, and damn light, and in a fairly small cartridge. It sounds like a mouse gun to me. The the PM45 I’m lusting after a mouse gun? Its bigger and heavier than the LCP…slightly larger and more powerful than my Colt 1908 .25 (Which is often discribed as a quinticential mouse gun) but its still damn small, and damn light….and smaller than the PPK….. : ]
I always defined a mousegun as (generally) anything in .380 ACP or smaller. That doesn’t include guns like the Beretta Cheetah or the Taurus M58 though.