Lehigh defense 380 reliable for my pistol?

[DavidR]

Now if you pick up a box of the Xtreme Penetrators, you'll have every size phillips bit covered.

I have their Penetrator rounds also and interestingly enough, the bullet shape has also changed on those.

The original ones are on top in the picture below and newer ones on the bottom. The original cycles fine through my LCP and RM380 but will not chamber in my CT380. The newer ones run fine in all three.

[DavidR]

I ordered a few boxes of the Black Hills Xtreme Defense from Brownells (good price and a 15% coupon). Even though it uses the Lehigh Xtreme Defense bullet, the bullet is different that what I received when I recently ordered some of the Lehigh cartridges direct from Lehigh. Picture is below (Black Hills at top, Lehigh at bottom). The Lehigh cartridge runs fine in my CT380 and I'm able to hand cycle the Black Hills cartridge. I hope to range test it soon.

I ran 20 rounds of the Black Hills through my CT380 with one failure to feed. The round hung up on the feed ramp and jammed the gun.

Since the Lehigh version has been perfect for me I’m going to stick with that for now.

[DavidR]

Some additional information on non-expanding rounds in a CW or CT 380:

From left to right below: Inceptor ARX, Lehigh Xtreme Defense, Black Hills Honey Badger (bullet made by Lehigh).

It's noticeable that both the Inceptor and Black Hills rounds (on either end) are longer than the Lehigh (in the middle). The Lehigh has cycled perfectly in my CT380. With the Black Hills I had one round out of 20 hang up on the feed ramp, which I attribute to the length of the cartridge. I have yet to shoot the Inceptor. While the Inceptor is the same length as the Black Hills, it is far more rounded/tapered at the nose so we'll see if it chambers. I hope to test it this week.

Although not pictured, Lehigh’s Xtreme Penetrator is the same length as their Xtreme Defense.

EDIT: 25 rounds of the ARX cycled fine today although one of five “last round” didn’t lock the slide back. Definitely low recoil. This design of the ARX in 380 looks a little different than the ones I’ve seen in ballistic testing (smaller flutes and flatter nose) so I’m not sure how it performs in gel.