Any Reviews on the LC380?

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mohavesam

Hawkeye
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Messages
5,847
Location
Rugerville, AZ
Not the LCP
:lol: I'm curious about how the LC380 is faring with members who have one.
Magazines? Steady round count? carry much? etc.

:?: :?: :?:
 

gc70

Bearcat
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
92
Location
Charlotte, NC, USA
My wife and I have been very satisfied with our two LC380s. She bought hers 6 years ago and I got mine about a year ago.

My wife had extensive hand surgery in 2012 and had to give up her preferred 357 magnum revolvers. She chose the LC380 as her defensive pistol after finding my then-new Shield's recoil to be excessively painful. While she regularly shoots a .22 pistol, even .380 recoil is often painful and her practice with the LC380 has been limited.

I quickly found my wife's LC380 was extremely easy to shoot well.

My neighbor, who is a burly retired federal agent, bought an LC9s for deep concealment; he normally carries .40S&W subcompacts. When he saw my wife's LC380 at the range, he made fun of the caliber because he thinks even 9mm is marginal. After some big talk on his part, I shamed him into trying the LC380. He was stunned at how much more accurately he could shoot it than his 9mm. He was also surprised that the LC380, with its "miles-long" DA trigger that he had trash-talked, could be shot faster with accuracy than his LC9s with its short striker-fired trigger.

Last year I found a NIB LC380 for a really low price and bought it to carry when my wife and I are together. After initial reliability testing, I have mostly shot it with steel-cased ammo. The steel-cased ammo has shown no difference in reliability and the gun has shown no difference in wear compared to other ammo.

Somewhere between 750 and 1,000 practice and self-defense rounds have been through my wife's LC380 without any problems. My LC380 has fired 200 brass-cased and 600 steel-cased rounds without any problems. None of our six magazines have had any sort of difficulty.
 

rob-c

Single-Sixer
Joined
Aug 2, 2012
Messages
240
My wife has several hundred rounds through hers and she likes it a lot. Only malfunctions we had was with reloads of unique, she had a bunch of failure to feed , eject , stove pipes etc. Switched to power pistol and the gun has run flawless. Funny thing is the unique loads were close to max and the power pistol load is a middle of the road load , go figure..
 

frontstuffers

Single-Sixer
Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
249
Location
Fort Worth, TX
I have one of these. Nice little pistol, lite weight and easy to carry concealed. I don't get to shoot as often as I would like but enjoy taking it to the range. At "minute of bad guy" distance ( 3 to 8 yards) it is very accurate. Recoil is not drastic so easy to manage. One of the things that took a little time to get used to was the trigger pull, so it takes about a mag to get settled in for me. When I looked at these I noted that Ruger basically used the LC9, tweaked it some, and turned out the 380. The main difference in the two (caliber notwithstanding) is the spacer in the 380 mag. To me Ruger had their act together on this by not reinventing a mag and about everything else, just to shoot the 380. Me being me, noting these differences I started looking for parts for a LC9. Specifically the mag and slide with barrel. I got lucky and found one and made my own conversion kit. I noticed that Ruger sells these kits for a pretty good sum and I didn't feel like paying that much. Got a good deal on the parts, put them in, it functioned, went to the range and she ran like a champ. No functioning issues and great accuracy. So now I have a choice of 380 or 9 just by swapping parts. Or, I could take one of my LC9s's with me instead. I can use the same holster for both pistols, they weigh about the same, life is good. :) I personally don't have a problem with the 380 caliber. And this little pistol has had no failures so far and eats anything I feed her. Definitely a keeper.
 

mohavesam

Hawkeye
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Messages
5,847
Location
Rugerville, AZ
exavid said:
What's the difference between the LC380 and the LCPII?

- pretty well evident in the first few posts. :?

It was produced in the first runs, ceased production awhile, Ruger received loud requests, and its being made again. Excellent carrygun for those with a weakened grip or others. I've found mine ( only one) deadly accurate, reliable and has a hammer.
 
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