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Bryco 380..... FML!

Lyle Goff

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
6
Location
A, A
Ok times are getting hard and i believe that every house hold should have a gun to protect their own with, especially with things such as NDAA in effect and Laws threatening our right to own guns, however im rather poor, not starving or homeless poor, but the kind where you just do get by. meaning i rarely have any extra money after bills, well i lucked up and found a bryco model 38 .380 i've heard many many bad things about this gun from other forums and youtube reviews, i havnt had the chance to test it for myself as i just got it today and havnt purchased any ammo for it yet, im plan to clean and lube the gun before firing it and ive been told fmj are the best bet for this gun, is there anything i can do to make it more reliable? Dont bash on me please i dont have the money for a better pistol the only other gun i have is a 60 year old 16 gauge double barrel and the stock is broken and in need of repair, it was passed down to me. I got the bryco for $40. and i understand that it is a horrible gun to have but i would rather have a gun that might not shoot then no gun at all
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
1 - Welcome to OCDO.

2 - Please be sure to spell my name correctly when listing me as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. (You can buy one for a quarter down at the bus station.)

3 - Disregard the clauses in the life insurance policy regarding suicide. Using a Bryco is not committing suicide; it is either effective self defense via making the BG fall down and laugh so hard he dies from lack of oxygen or blowing your hand/head off to prevent the BG from hurting himself by using force against your think skull.

4 - You do realize that by creating this account you have violated TOS and will be hunted down by both the moderators and the administrators, don't you? You might as well use that Bryco now and get it over with.

stay safe.
 

Cavalryman

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
296
Location
Anchorage, Alaska
Okay, so you got what you could afford. I don't fault you for that. Before you decide it's "a horrible gun to have," take it to the range and shoot it. You may have one that's perfectly reliable. I don't know anything about Brycos except what I've read, but I doubt that all of them will blow up when shot. If it isn't reliable, then you've learned a lesson. Sell it and save up your money for a good used milsurp like a CZ82. But shoot it before you make any decision.
 

MAC702

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
6,331
Location
Nevada
Well, my $950 S&W AirLite .357 exploded on me this week with a standard pressure Hornady .38 load. How bad can a Bryco be?
 

Lyle Goff

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
6
Location
A, A
1 - Welcome to OCDO.

2 - Please be sure to spell my name correctly when listing me as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. (You can buy one for a quarter down at the bus station.)

3 - Disregard the clauses in the life insurance policy regarding suicide. Using a Bryco is not committing suicide; it is either effective self defense via making the BG fall down and laugh so hard he dies from lack of oxygen or blowing your hand/head off to prevent the BG from hurting himself by using force against your think skull.

4 - You do realize that by creating this account you have violated TOS and will be hunted down by both the moderators and the administrators, don't you? You might as well use that Bryco now and get it over with.

stay safe.

Lol ill keep that in mind, im headed to walmart tmrw to buy some ammunition, idk if ill get around to firing it tmrw or not but when i do i plan to out around 200 rounds through it to test it out, if im alive and well after shooting it ill come back and let you guys know if i still exist, but as i originally posted, are there any modifications i can make to the gun to make it safer?
 

j4l

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,835
Location
fl
How did i break terms of service?

All nonsense brand-bashing aside, how often do you think you will actually shoot it, really?
Will it likely last 100 yrs, to be passed on to great-grandkids after thousands of rounds? No, of course not.
But for it's near-term purposes, it should be just fine, even if it lacks some bells and whistles that the brand-snobs crave.

Some simple tips for those Brycos and Ravens: 90% of the "reliability" issues with those are self-inflicted operator error. When loading the magazines on these, just make sure the round is seated all the way to the rear of the mag. (rim should be as far back as it can go), and that the lips at the top of the mag arent in any way bent, or too tight. Otherwise- FMJ/Hardball should feed and work just fine.

And yes, FMJ from these are what you want anyway, Unless you go high-end, and/or use Gold Dots, most of the .380 rounds leaving that short of a barrel arent expanding anyway, so save the money, and just get the penetration of FMJ. CCI brass, or their Lawman rounds are great for FMJ- they fire a bit more "clean" and dont foul things up as much.

One other item though, get some Snap Caps- they're cheap, and will enable you to practice drawing, and getting -off that 1st shot, as well as for testing feeding/cycling issues with the magazines in a more safe manner than with live rounds.

As for that shotgun with the broken stock- how bad are you talking about? A pic, perhaps? With the measurements, etc. I can probably make a new stock for it for you.
 
Last edited:

j4l

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
1,835
Location
fl
Lol ill keep that in mind, im headed to walmart tmrw to buy some ammunition, idk if ill get around to firing it tmrw or not but when i do i plan to out around 200 rounds through it to test it out, if im alive and well after shooting it ill come back and let you guys know if i still exist, but as i originally posted, are there any modifications i can make to the gun to make it safer?

It.s just a .380, not a high-pressure round, and not likely to blow the gun up or any of the other myths on the net about these.
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
How did i break terms of service?

You mean that you really:

1) are not already a member who is creating a troll account in order to have some fun?

2) actually bought a Bryco with the intention of shooting it?

Every so often I forget that there really and truely can be folks out there who will do stuff in spite of decades of warnings about how bad/dangerous/knuckle-headed it is either because they just never heard about it before (possible but hard to understand how) or because they are convinced they know better (all too often referred to with the introductory phrase "Hold my beer ....")

You wrote
I got the bryco for $40. and i understand that it is a horrible gun to have but i would rather have a gun that might not shoot then no gun at all

That suggests you knew the reputation of Brycos but decided to go ahead anyway. And that you are a really bad gambler - I'd rather take the odds on winning the lottery than bet my life on a Bryco.

I do not know how long it took you to save up the $40, but for the reason you bought a gun you might have rolled the dice fairly safely in waiting till you could afford something like a used High-Point (ugly to the point of being made fun of but reported as highly reliable and straight-shooting) which seems to be the flagship of "inexpensive" (as opposed to cheap).

Sorry if I falsely accused you. I'm such and Oulde Phart that I occassionally forget that there are folks who come to the owning-a-handgun game with so little knowledge. I sometimes actually believe that with these whiz-bang computers and search engines folks do a lot of homework before jumping in - which I do know is a false assumption and a dangerous one. I just sometimes forget and wish it were not the way things actually are.

stay safe.
 

Lyle Goff

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
6
Location
A, A
All nonsense brand-bashing aside, how often do you think you will actually shoot it, really?
Will it likely last 100 yrs, to be passed on to great-grandkids after thousands of rounds? No, of course not.
But for it's near-term purposes, it should be just fine, even if it lacks some bells and whistles that the brand-snobs crave.

Some simple tips for those Brycos and Ravens: 90% of the "reliability" issues with those are self-inflicted operator error. When loading the magazines on these, just make sure the round is seated all the way to the rear of the mag. (rim should be as far back as it can go), and that the lips at the top of the mag arent in any way bent, or too tight. Otherwise- FMJ/Hardball should feed and work just fine.

And yes, FMJ from these are what you want anyway, Unless you go high-end, and/or use Gold Dots, most of the .380 rounds leaving that short of a barrel arent expanding anyway, so save the money, and just get the penetration of FMJ. CCI brass, or their Lawman rounds are great for FMJ- they fire a bit more "clean" and dont foul things up as much.

One other item though, get some Snap Caps- they're cheap, and will enable you to practice drawing, and getting -off that 1st shot, as well as for testing feeding/cycling issues with the magazines in a more safe manner than with live rounds.

As for that shotgun with the broken stock- how bad are you talking about? A pic, perhaps? With the measurements, etc. I can probably make a new stock for it for you.

Thanks for the input it will be dearly noted! and the shotgun stuck is broke at the lip that goes over the metal to provide a spot to screw it in, this isnt the original stock as its made out of a hard composite plastic and not wood, the gun is really old and at this point im just waiting it out and hoping one day i might come across a stock that resembles the original.
 

Lyle Goff

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
6
Location
A, A
You mean that you really:

1) are not already a member who is creating a troll account in order to have some fun?

2) actually bought a Bryco with the intention of shooting it?

Every so often I forget that there really and truely can be folks out there who will do stuff in spite of decades of warnings about how bad/dangerous/knuckle-headed it is either because they just never heard about it before (possible but hard to understand how) or because they are convinced they know better (all too often referred to with the introductory phrase "Hold my beer ....")

You wrote


That suggests you knew the reputation of Brycos but decided to go ahead anyway. And that you are a really bad gambler - I'd rather take the odds on winning the lottery than bet my life on a Bryco.

I do not know how long it took you to save up the $40, but for the reason you bought a gun you might have rolled the dice fairly safely in waiting till you could afford something like a used High-Point (ugly to the point of being made fun of but reported as highly reliable and straight-shooting) which seems to be the flagship of "inexpensive" (as opposed to cheap).

Sorry if I falsely accused you. I'm such and Oulde Phart that I occassionally forget that there are folks who come to the owning-a-handgun game with so little knowledge. I sometimes actually believe that with these whiz-bang computers and search engines folks do a lot of homework before jumping in - which I do know is a false assumption and a dangerous one. I just sometimes forget and wish it were not the way things actually are.

stay safe.

no i have never been a member of this forum, you can have the admins check my ip if you want, i assure you im a first timer here, and as for the bryco, i did know the risk, and i understand im gonna continue to get bashed as long as i own this gun, and i understand it is a safety hazard, with all that aside, i shot about 150 rounds through the gun this morning i used FMJ and it only jammed 3 times, which is more then i would want, but less then what i expected, i lubed and cleaned the gun before firing it and it seemed to build alot of residue after shooting the 150 rounds, Alot more then my friends Beretta did which was also cleaned before firing. I guess im gonna end up selling this gun though as the rail seems to be loose and i dont know much about pistol repair so im gonna try to sale it for the same price i bought it, and eventually get another cheap pistol that has nothing to do with bryco.
 

rscottie

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
608
Location
Ashland, Kentucky, USA
Hang on to the Bryco so that at least you have a gun so that you can save up for a better one.

The most reliable inexpensive firearm I know of is the Hi-Point. They can be had in 9mm for about $150 or less on sale.

They are big and clunky and not all that pretty, but from what I have read, heard, and saw with my own eyes, they are built pretty tough and seem to go bang reliably.
 

DangerClose

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2011
Messages
570
Location
The mean streets of WI
Hi-Point C9 is generally under $150. Even uglier than a Glock, mediocre capacity, but works. There's various forum threads and videos of people purposely trying to break them but couldn't. I'd trust my life to a random Hi-Point before I'd trust it to a random Kimber.

Around me, I can get as many used shotguns as I'd want from pawn shops for around $125, give or take $25 depending on brand and condition. ymmv. And as of last year, (haven't looked lately), a Pardner Pump synthetic was $160 brand-new at Walmart.

.380 costs more than 9mm. Something to keep in mind if you plan on practicing a lot. If you keep a gun long enough and shoot it enough, a 9mm will literally pay for itself over a .380.

All that aside, I've read enough people say they are happy owners of that Bryco to think it's not as terrible as some other people say. Does "not as terrible" mean it's good? I don't know.
 

MAC702

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
6,331
Location
Nevada
Also, a CZ-82 is about $200. 9mm Makarov is pretty cheap ammo, especially in bulk.

And the CZ is a top-notch, outstanding little pistol, with one of the best DA/SA triggers in my arsenal.
 

Lyle Goff

New member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
6
Location
A, A
i sold my bryco and got a good deal on a chinese sks 7.62 x39, ill get a hand gun down the road i couldnt turn down a good rifle
 
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