NEW PRODUCTS I WOULD BUY FROM CCI

I've long been a consumer of Speer and CCI products. Throughout my lifetime, their ammo has been flawless and very well performing. I've been a big user of their shotshell products as well as their magnum and rimfire ammo. Both their magnum and rimfire, the Maxi-Mag and Mini-Mag I believe, work the best of all ammo I've used in the various .22 LR and Magnum autoloaders I've been shooting lately.

While some .22 semi-autos have a Glock-like diet and will digest anything fed into it, others do not. Others, like a certain black cat I know all too well, are far more picky with what they are fed. Almost all of them will feed and fire the higher end CCI .22 ammo without problems.

CCI, what I'me again writing about is the need for a .380 shotshell. I have several .380 guns that I'd like to take to the lake or the creek as my snake gun when I go fishing, but I have no shotshells for a .380.  And all the parts of Texas where I regularly go fishing are snake infested.

But I can't take a .380 because your company does not make a shotshell in .380.

I'm no ballistic engineer or even a reloader, but it seems a .380 would be fairly easy to adapt from the shotshell you already product in 9mm. A .380 is, afterall, also known as the 9mm Kurtz, or 9mm Short.

Just a thought, CCI, because that's another product I'd buy from you. I've read on other forums from ultralight backpackers and other gun and shooting forums from folks desiring to take a mini-semiauto .380 on the trail with the for protection from two and four legged varmits as well as those that slither. They talk about taking .380's like the Kel-Tec P3AT, a Seecamp, a Walther PPK(S), the recent Ruger and Taurus .380's or a Sig P232.

I think there is a market there for a .380 auto shotshell. Lots of folks choose .380 for their defense or concealed carry weapon, or back up weapon, and the uses for shotshells around the home for snakes or a rapid wild animal like a skunk  are legion. 

I myself sometimes carry a .380 during the hot summer months. I'd love to load up the Kel-Tec P3AT with some CCI snakeshot, a ,380 sized version of the 9mm shot CCI currently makes. I could carry whatever other pistol and/or rifle I desired and not have to have the pistol shooting snake shot.


As mentioned below, one great feature of a lightweight .380 like the Kel-Tec P3AT is that you can carry an additional larger gun because the Kel-Tec weighs so little, less than some loaded magazines for larger guns.

In addition to a snake shot loaded Kel-Tex P3AT, I could be carrying anything from a 9mm to a .44 Magnum, with most other calibers in between as well, for any two or four legged predators, or at least larger feral predators.

In Texas, that could include large alligators, various types of wildcats such as bobcats and cougars, rabid crazy critters like squirrels and skunks, the occasional mountain lion and a myriad of types of wild hogs and javalina, depending on where in the state that you are. Wild feral dogs are a problem in some areas, although I've never encountered any, but feral hogs are a different story.

There has been a marked increase in Texas and other states over the past few years in sighting of both black bears and cougar/mountain lions, as well as a few mountain lion attacks on humans in the Big Bend National Park. The mountain lions have been being seen all over the state, with some being described as larger creatures, but the bears have mostly been in far west Texas.

Coyotes and various hogs and javalina and the like are prolific and problematic in many locations all over Texas, from desert to swampy river bottomland. Gators are native and quite populous as well in many parts of the state, and don't always mind their manners, even if you're trying to leave them alone.

Trust me on this. You do not want to be in a jonboat or worse, a canoe when a gator decides to whip his tail into and likely through your craft. Then you're in the water with Mr. Gator.

I've seen herds of scores of black javalina in far west Texas, herds that numbered in the thousands and thousands. Like a sea of black rolling javalina. For miles, pacing alongside my SUV on the road, they were on a large ranch running the same direction as I, on occasion hidden by waist high grasses.

Lots of folks, though, are just going to be carrying a .380 for a trail or fishing or backup hunting weapon and no other or larger gun. Again, the selling point is the light weight of some of the .380 weapons on today's market.

A .380 is a pitiful choice against a trapped or cornered wild hog or javalina, or the plural thereof. And truth be known, I'd be more comfortable with a larger caliber shotshell for most of the larger snakes I've encountered both recently and in the past in various locales. But a .380 with a few shotshells followed by some hi-po ammo is a lot better than nothing, and a lot better perhaps than a .22 in most cases.

The Kel-Tecs and Rugers weigh roughly half of what the PPK. PPK/S and Sig P232 weigh, and are smaller and more concealable to boot. Either the Kel-Tec or the Ruger can ride in a Galco Pocket Holster and be carried even in the top pocket of a fishing shirt as well as in the pant's pocket (in the holster, of course. All guns need to be carried in a holster of some sort that protects the trigger). Or in the pocket of a fishing vest or a life vest, perhaps carried in a fabric Cordura holster with a retention strap  velcro'd to the inside pocket of the fishing vest or life vest pocket.

The diminuative size of the Kel-Tec and Ruger .380's make them an ideal companion for the life vest of a Texas fisherman or in a fishing vest as one wades the creeks and rivers of Texas and elsewhere.

These small guns, by virtue of their small size and light weight, are more likely to be carried at the campsight in the pocket or in a lightweight Fobus holster under a t-shirt due to, well, their light weight and small size. Yeah, there are a lot of potential "kit" guns or field guns that you could choose, some even under 20 ounces, but few are as lightweight as the Kel-Tec or as concealable. Only the .357 Scandium S&W's come to mind as coming close to the weight and size of the Kel-Tec.

My regular fishing attire is some sort of cargo shorts with a belt, a large long sleeve vented fishing shirt and water shoes. The Kel-Tec  P3AT goes well into the cargo pants pocket, one of the shirt pockets, or in a Fobus paddle holster that is like a much smaller scale model of their holsters for larger guns. But the Fobus paddle for the P3AT works great.

As an aside, I put a lanyard on any handgun I'm taking near the water, and attach the lanyard to the belt. Some guns, like Glocks and certain revolvers like the S&W 317 and the 385 SC Mountain Lite, have lanyard receivers or holes for them.

Certain guns that have finger extensions for the magazines can have carefully drilled holes to accomodate a lanyard or even a lanyard ring.

I use Pachmayers on virtually every weapon I have that Pachmayer made/makes a model for, and the Pachmayer rubber grips will tolerate a bit of duct taping around a tied off lanyard near the bottom of the grip or in a place where it won't interfere with gun operation.

If you're dead set on carrying that 1911 or a revolver with no provision for a lanyard into some kind of watery area, find a SAFE way (i.e. not around the grip safety) to securely attach as short a lanyard as you can use to the pistol and then to your belt. 

SO to get back to the point, oh you wise sages at CCI, a .380 shotshell would be a worthy addition to the family of shotshells that you currently make.

Thanks for listening.