Will a .380 penetration question

[defensive007]

Just wondering because i hear people say that a .380 will kill someone if you head shot them. Will a .380 penetrate a persons skull being the skull is extremely hard?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[adric22]

Yes.

[IAm_Not_Lost]

Doubt it, it would probably just bounce off. Might give them a headache though, but nothing Tylenol and a Band-aid wouldn't fix.

[defensive007]

Doubt it, it would probably just bounce off. Might give them a headache though, but nothing Tylenol and a Band-aid wouldn't fix.

What makes you doubt it, other discussions i read about on Google state Hogs are mainly killed with 22lr and their skulls are thicker than ours..

[JD]

There's been cases where a .44 mag to the forehead didn't do the job, actually circled around the head and exited the at the rear. Can a .380 penetrate the skull? Possibly, but it's also possible for it not to.

[defensive007]

OK .....TIME OUT--------lets clarify the question here..........CAN A .380 PENETRATE A PERSONS SKULL WITH A STRAIGHT CENTER FOREHEAD SHOT (NOT ANGLED)?

[Guantes]

What makes you doubt it, other discussions i read about on Google state Hogs are mainly killed with 22lr and their skulls are thicker than ours..

When I lived in the country and had the processor come out to do my hogs, he used a .22. He said it just knocked them out. He wanted the heart still beating when he hung them and cut them so they would bleed out good.

[Mike1956]

Turns out the recent Indiana shooting victims were all killed by a .380, with four out of five being head shots. $5M bond set for suspect in Indiana shootings | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com

[RugerRon]

Most likely, yes.

Even without penetration the recipient of said shot will not be in any shape to cause you harm.

[RugerRon]

When I lived in the country and had the processor come out to do my hogs, he used a .22. He said it just knocked them out. He wanted the heart still beating when he hung them and cut them so they would bleed out good.

My dad is an avid hog hunter. He uses two catahoula curs and a pitbull catch dog and brings them out hand-cuffed (two pairs of course). He then fattens them up and come execution time he uses a .22 Ruger revolver behind the ear. It kills them deader than dirt. Seen it done multiple times.

[QKShooter]

The B.B. ammo offerings are no B.S.
Really though it's just common sense. The inescapable fact is that the .380 cartridge case volume is small.
So the .380 really needs a specialty formulated powder in order to achieve max. punch and penetration.
Bottom line if you're going to SD Carry the .380 then stoke your handgun with the hardest hitting ammo available if you & your firearm can handle it. Nuff said.
Buffalo Bore Ammunition | Strictly Big Bore - Strictly Business


All credit for the following to BuffaloBore.
"The 380 auto inhabits a valuable and useful place in our society, mostly because of the easily concealable, tiny pistols chambered for it. HOWEVER, because of the very limited size of the cartridge, it is plagued with limited power and therefore most of the existing ammo in 380 auto suffers from not being reliable as a man-stopper. We've studied and played with nearly all of the existing available 380 ammo and find it wanting as a reliable means of self defense, especially against a large, insane, drugged up/pain free, determined attacker.

Here's the problem. The current 380 auto frangible ammo delivers a large amount of surface trauma, but lacks serious penetration.
For example, if you shot me or another sane man in the face with modern frangible 380 ammo, it would blow off a big portion of my cheek and send a few teeth down my throat, I would undoubtedly fall to the ground in shock and pain, but I would be very much alive and functional if I could get past the shock and pain as that frangible bullet would have stopped some where inside my face, never making it to my brain.
However, if you shot a drugged up maniac in the face with that same frangible 380 ammo and blew half his cheek off, he would keep right on coming because he is insane and is not thinking like you or I.
Plus, he is likely pain free and fear free and wont know that half his cheek is missing and if he did know, he would not care.
So whatever 380 ammo you shoot him in the face with, had better go through his face and blow his brain stem out the back of his head, because only a CNS (central nervous system) hit with a 380 is going to stop him.
Likewise, a torso hit to the sternum needs to penetrate deep enough to blow all the way through his spine in order to shut him down spontaneously. If you fail to shut him down instantly, you and your loved ones are going to have to find a way to survive while you wait for him to bleed out and pass out.
The best chance of survival for you and your family is to shut down the attacker instantly.
So, we've designed a few 380 auto +P loads to keep you and your loved ones alive under the worst of scenarios."

[Guantes]

My dad is an avid hog hunter. He uses two catahoula curs and a pitbull catch dog and brings them out hand-cuffed (two pairs of course). He then fattens them up and come execution time he uses a .22 Ruger revolver behind the ear. It kills them deader than dirt. Seen it done multiple times.

I'm sure behind the ear it would. The processor shot them in the forehead. he may have even used "shorts", don't recall.

[RKM]

Chances are yes, it would. But I wouldn't really put much thought into it. Head shots aren't very practical in self defense, and certainly not easy to pull off under stress.

[adric22]

OK, this conversation is ridiculous.

• Can a .380 penetrate a human skull - The answer is 100%, without any doubt, yes.. It has been done over and over and over. There are tons of reported cases of .22LR penetrating human skulls, which has much less power than a .380.
• Will a .380 penetrate a human skull - Well that is asking to predict the future. Who knows. It would depend greatly on the distance, angle, type of round (hollow point, FMJ, etc) and many other factors. So the best we can do is give a statistical probability. I'd say a typical head-shot with a .380 has a 95% chance of skull penetration.

I get really irritated when people start quoting stories of lower calibers that bounced off of somebody's skull. For some reason that makes people forget that there are plenty of documented cases of higher calibers also bouncing off of skulls. So there is no guarantee with much of anything unless it is a rocket launcher.. and even then there is really not a guarantee.

[gunthorp]

I wanted a bleeding heart on a 250# pig so, per my brother in law's advice, I put a 22 between her eyes. She dropped like a ton of bricks. Ten seconds later she jumped up four feet in the air squealing and twisting. On the second hop in mid air I had the 45 out and put a HP into her brain stem. That stopped the heart, but the meat was spotty. While a 380 would be better than a 22, I think a 40 or 45 would be even better. With variables like shot placement and BG state of mind, nothing is certain. If a 380 mousy was all I had, backed by H2H, I would feel well protected. But I care enough to send the very best.