The .380acp does a decent job of what it was designed to do.........fire a .355" round nosed bullet at moderate velocities to penetrate through the torso of a human being using a cheaply made pistol.
However, it was designed with so many limitations on versatility that it is a dead end cartridge today. The bullet itself is too short, resulting in low sectional density, and low momentum. When you try to convert it to a JHP, that low sectional density and momentum becomes blindingly obvious as the .380 in JHP has very shallow penetration......especially through barriers. Due to the case and charge limitations, you can't stick a longer bullet on there..........and if you were able to, the velocity would be so low that it would drastically diminish its performance. The best .380acp load I've found is the Remington 102gr GS JHP. It has enough rounding on the nose to help it feed reliably in direct blowback pistols with a partitioned feed ramp, and the bullet is seated deep enough to allow for a larger crimping area and reduced chance of a setback. However, even it shows mediocre performance with only 7-8" of penetration in bare gel.
A better mouse/pocket gun caliber would be something that can mimick the versatily of the 9mm/.40/.45acp, only in a smaller caliber. In order to be as short as the .380acp and have that versatility, it would probably need to be about a .30-.32 caliber with a bullet sectional density on par with the 9mm 147gr.
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