These days, being disinclined to freeze my hands and the rest of me, when down at the ancestral farm, I've been shooting out of the window of my car into a snow-and-mud-bank 10 feet away.

(If that's illegal, I'll say I'm really just leaning against the car.)

Anyway, I try out various loads in a pair of guns I'm fond of. Lately it's been my Colt Model M .380 "Pocket Pistol," firing downloaded roundnose FMJ bulets; and a big Smith 586 "Combat Masterpiece" .357, out of which I've been shooting .38 Specials that I downloaded to just barely above the lower limit.

Here's the oddity: When I fire the Smith, it produces a moderately sized hole . A very few bits and pieces of snow and mud chunks come sailing back at me. But when I fire the .380, a bigger hole appears in the bank, and more and bigger chunks come flying back.

Huh? What gives?

Accoriding to my calculations. the 158-grain .38 Special hollowpoint bullets, moving at roughly 780 fps, produce a power factor (if I'm using the right term) of abouit 123,240. The .380s are 95-grain RNJ and moving (at a guess) at about 950. That's a power factor of 90,250.

That makes the .380 's power only about 73 percent of the bigger bullet.

And yet it seems more powerful -- although maybe that's somewhat subjective on my part because the Model M recoils a lot more than the big, heavy Smith.

Or am I missing something here?

I would assume that the heavier bullet 38 goes into the snow and ice. The 380 is a lighter bullet that ricochet more so more stuff to come flying!

That’s what makes since to me based on my engineering background.

I believe it is illegal to fire from a car. I can't find the statute right now, but I'm pretty sure I've read it. If anyone has it, I'd love to read it again.

As far as the 380, maybe current testing methods don't show the real power of firearms?

Dave you need to divide your calculations by a 1000 to get the right Power Factor number; Grains x FPS / 1000.

I'd wager that the velocity is the likely explanation. Both bullets have similar kinetic energy.

Okay.

I'll say I wasn't shooting from the car, then.

And I'll also say that the good old Model M is much better than a mousegun. Based on the amount of dirt, ice, snow and unidentified chunks of stuff blowing back at me, I'd say I sure would hate to be on the receiving end of one. And that's just from a round-nose FMJ, too.

Also, this is a pretty durn unscientific test, just noting how much junk comes blowing back at you.

I know for a fact that is illegal to HUNT from a motor vehicle unless one has a permit for disabled hunters. I suppose that target shooting could easily be construed as "hunting" by an errant DNR Officer. Looking at what I can find from the Revisor site, it appears that as long as one possesses a Permit to Carry, they might be ok to target shoot from a motor vehicle, on private property, of course. Looks like a grey area to me, being the average every day person I am and NOT being a lawyer.

Get some 1 gallon plastic water jugs and see what it does to them. If possible, line a few up back-back and see if you can recover a slug.

Even better yet, invite several of your friends down and shoot a variety of ammo at the jugs to get a more scientific sort of a feel for it. But wait for me to get my .44 magnum back from S&W first.