Has Anyone fired Precision One HP/XTP or FMJ ammo in a Thunder .380?

Tony1990 said:

Critterdoc, that you tube video was very impressive and looks like a real BG stopper. I have never fired any of the Precision One ammo line however my BT380 and BT380cc has been able to fire every type of ammo i fed them without any problems. ( except missing the target due to my aiming. ) You should not have any problems if you use them in your new BT 380 combat model. I don't remember seeing the Precision One ammo in any of the local stores here in Texas but maybe I will try a box if I find some.
Let us know if you use it. Thanks.

Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to test driving the Bersa .380 at the range with an array of ammo. Personal Bersa experience to date is limited to a Crimson Trace BT-22 which is incredibly easy to manage and surprisingly accurate - however she cycles irregularly when being fed anything except CCI 22LR Mini-Mag 40gr CPRN (0300). However, mice fear me when she is kept on the right diet. Reviewing the BT .380 on the web left me little doubt that a trial was warranted at it's sub $300 price point. The main question I have concerns whether to not any of the available .380 HPs will consistently and reliably expand but Ammo Quest's results suggest that it might currently be at or near the top of the energy delivery curve at this point in time.

I ordered Precision ONe in both 100 gr FMJ & 90 gr HP/XTP from Bangit.com: 100 gr FMJ's for $0.36 each and 90 gr HP/XTP's for $0.59, and will probably also have a go at Black Hills 90 Gr. JHP/XTP at $0.80 each for SD if the BT.380 works out if only because Black Hills has been so impressive in my AR's.

...got family w/grands in a community in Keller-Ft. Worth.

jimkubitza said:

I have a new Bersa Thunder Plus on order and just finished doing my YouTube Anthology to find the best self-defense ammo for it. The Precision One XTP ammo came out at the top of the heap for penetration and expansion. You can order it here. https://www.precisiononeammunition....oducts_id=63&zenid=14grhudlccaeb8joufurl5u2e6

Click to expand...

Yesterday I drove the 25 minute drive to the PrecisionOne store in Charleston. I purchased a couple boxes of their “New”, .380 90 gr., HP/XTP and a couple boxes of their REMAN (re-manufactured) .380 FMJ ammo. I was informed that the REMAN used once fired brass. BTW, I noticed that PrecisionOne is now stamping the muzzle velocity on their box labels. The remanufactured, I bought, is rated at 910 fps and the HP/XTP is rated at 925 fps. (Also, I could not believe the many varieties of ammo they have in stock, from small pistol to large caliber rifle ammo. Wow!)

While there, I got into a couple of conversations with the owner and the sales lady. We discussed the Ammo Quest results as published on Youtube. They did not know that the Lehigh Xtreme Perpetrator bullet, as packaged by Underwood Defense, had replaced the PrecisionOne HP/XTP cartridge as the number one personal defense round in the Ammo Quest results. (See “.380 Ammo Quest, The Sequel” on Youtube.)

I mentioned that I couldn’t go by the Ammo Quest results because the results were from shooting the .380 round through a 2.8 inch pistol barrel. I recently purchased a Bersa Thunder .380 Plus and it has a 3.5 inch barrel. So my results are probably different than the Ammo Quest results. The owner told me PrecisionOne had tested their .380 ammo through a personally owned Bersa Thunder .380, single stack.

I have also purchased extra magazines. So far I’ve fired slightly over 200 FMJ rounds through the Bersa, just to “break it in”. I then tried to fire 16 rounds of the Underwood .380 Xtreme Defense ammo. NOT good. I had four FTFs out of 16 rounds fired. Once the magazine was empty I picked up the four FTF rounds from the shooting table, loaded them back into the magazine and fired them with no problems. So actually I had four FTFs in 20 rounds fired. In a “self defense” situation those FTFs are unacceptable. This is going to be my EDC weapon and it has to be 99.999%. So on to plan “B”…

Plan B is to work backwards through different manufacturer’s ammo until I find something that is reliable. I am starting with the PrecisionOne HP/XTP ammo. I will use the "ball" ammo for practice only. It seems that .380 "ball" ammo makes a pencil diameter hole all the way through 36 inches of ballistic gel and then some. That's way too much penetration for self defense.

critterdoc said:

New Member here down in south Lousiana...

I just hooked up with another BT - this time a .380 Combat from Budsgunshops and am hoping that some of you folks here in Bersa Country can share some first hand experience with Precision ONe's 95 gr HP/XTP & 100 gr FMJ. The highly impressive performance report that S.T.B. at AmmoQuest posted for Precision ONe HP/XTP on Youtube was one of the reasons I decided to give the BT .380 a test drive.


Doc

Click to expand...

So, I took my Bersa Thunder 380 Plus to the range today and test fired a lot of ammo.
The following is not in order fired.

I fired 50 rounds of Precision One’s “REMAN” (re-manufactured) FMJ (ball) ammo,3 and 1/3 magazines. Not one hiccup.
I fired 50 rounds of Precision One’s HP/XTP JHP, again 3 1/3 magazines. Again, not even a hint of a hiccup.
I also fired 50 rounds of Federal PTD FMJ "ball" with no hiccups.
And yes I waited until the barrel cooled down between bouts.
BTW, all the holes in the targets were within the 9 ring at about 10 yards (I didn’t measure). That's close enough for me.

Now for the interesting part. In order to test fire all those rounds, I decided to empty the Underwood Xtreme Defender (XD) rounds that were already in the magazines, by shooting them. So I walked up to the firing line, fired 40 rounds of the Underwood ammo — Not one damn hiccup. No jams, no FTFs, no FTEs. So what the heck is going on here?

Well, as I thought about it, the first time I tried the Underwood XD ammo, I had four FTF in 20 rounds. That was using onlyf one of the magazines I have for the pistol. Today I used four different magazines. I now believe that one of the five magazines I have, caused the original FTFs. So now I’m going to label, inspect and measure the lips on all the magazines. I’ve ordered more of the Underwood Xtreme Defender ammo and in a week or so, when it gets here, I plan to reload and test all the magazines with that ammo again. This is getting to be an expensive endeavour, but I would like to have three magazines loaded with the Underwood XD and two with the Precision One HP/XTP.
So...on with the testing.