[gordon11]

The gun was great!  Love my P3AT!  But I don't love this ammo in .380.
1st off I didn't buy them for jhp or as a carry round but was already at Academy and they were there for about the same price as I usually pay for .380 fmj.  Also I'd used and had good luck with Monarch Brass in 9mm and .38 spl many many times.
As I said I bought these for range fodder, but for someone looking for a possible carry round thats inexpensive enough to practice with... this ISN'T THE ANSWER.
I'm not sure of the round count on my P3AT because I lost count after 600 but would guess I'm around 800+ now.  Except for 1st 2 mags at initial break-in I've only had 1 malfunction thus far (and extraction failure caused by a defective cartridge).
Today I only fired 50 rounds because the purpose of the range visit was to finish the break-in of my PF-9.  As always, my P3AT fed and extracted without issue, and every round was struck with authority, center of primer.  However, 3 rounds out of the box of 50 failed to ignite.  I examined the rounds carefully and the dent in the primers would have caused any other round to fire.  Definitely the ammo.  All in all, great day at the range!  What a dependable pocket rocket!  BTW, for those that don't like the recoil of the P3AT, fire 50-100 rounds from the PF-9 1st and the P3AT will feel like a BB gun.

Have to add... the Monarch was extremely accurate.  Fired 1 round to test for accuracy before practicing point and shoot with the rest of the box.  Without using a rest, it shot to the point of aim perfectly.

 

[gordon11]

Didn't know this until today but there's also a video on youtube showing they don't expand when fired into open water. I thought every round that doesn't shed its jacket will expand in water. I thought wrong.

 

[rebootit]

The HP in that round looks very very shallow and not very big in diameter. If it doesn't expand out of a bersa with the longer barrel no way it will expand out of the p3at. If it feeds well and is accurate then at least it is decent range fodder.

 

[oldgranpa]

Try checking my WWW thing at page bottom for test results on many brands of .380.
Last tests showed Speer GoldDot best for "penetration" and never sheds it's jacket.
og

 

[JAB]

I actually bought a box of the Monarch .380 a few months back.  I didn't even realize it was JHP at the time.  The Academy I occasionally visit, which is a little over an hour drive from our house, keeps handgun ammo behind the counter so I didn't notice the smaller print declaring it to be JHP.  I bought it because the box (in larger letters) declared the cases to be brass and the price was in line with (actually, a couple of bucks better than) the price of UMC or WWB at Walmart.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized it was JHP and thought, "Hmmm...bonus!"

I haven't gotten around to trying it out, yet as I have been mostly carrying my S&W 642 when I need a small primary. I had hopes for the .380 JHP, though, as the Monarch 9mm Makarov stuff I have used for range fodder has been very accurate and reliable.  I guess I need to make sure to shoot this box and see how things go and if I want to buy any more before the next visit to Academy.