Of the four 380 micro-pocket pistols I own, the RM380, S&W M&P Bodyguard 380, Beretta Pico and Ruger LCP, the Remington is the only one with a metal rather than polymer frame. It's the heaviest of the group but just slightly; it's still really small and light compared to the just slightly larger Sig P230. Like the BG380 and Pico, it is a true DA with double strike capability. It too has fed, fired and flung every style of ammo I've offered it. The handgun came with two magazines, one with a flat base the other a thumb rest. Of the magazines for the four handguns, these seem to have the stiffest initial springs, even stiffer than those that came with the Pico.

A common theme in most if not all the reviews of the Remington I found was about how hard it was to take down and field strip the gun. Maybe I'm just lucky or Remington has been making subtle changes over time but with this one I have found it actually does just what they claim, allow a tool less take down. I simply hold the frame left side down, slowly, very slowly pull the slide back until I see the end of the retaining pin, a slight shake and the pin does fall out. But I'll admit that initially I was thoroughly frustrated. Now that I seem to have learned how to hold my tongue it has become a piece of cake. The Beretta Pico is as easy to take down and the Smith & Wesson M&P Bodyguard 380 very close and I will admit both are slightly easier to reassemble.




All four handguns have been reliable although each did have one or two issues during the first 50 rounds. Since then there have been no failures to load, fire or eject with any of the ammo I’ve tried. The general practice routine with all my small handguns, snubbies and the little 380s includes one hand strong and weak side, two hand, point shooting working from waist height up to eye level and from at my body to arms extended as well as moving forwards and backwards and side to side. In those drills all four have been adequate but the trigger on the LCP with its double reset has led to several instances of my pulling the trigger after hearing or feeling that first reset only to have nothing happen. The fact that the Pico and the RM380 have the ambidextrous magazine releases as standard has helped when practicing the weak hand drills. The BG380 and LCP can be managed but it requires different muscle memory and a slight hesitation during the mental transition.

jar wrote:The handgun came with two magazines, one with a flat base the other a thumb rest.

Pinky rest? Seems awkward for a thumb rest. Of the four models cited, which do you feel has the best ease of sight alignment?

Scorpion8 wrote:

jar wrote:The handgun came with two magazines, one with a flat base the other a thumb rest.

Pinky rest? Seems awkward for a thumb rest. Of the four models cited, which do you feel has the best ease of sight alignment?

Lessen you're all thumbs like me.

The only two of the four that actually have anything I'd call sights are the Beretta Pico and the Smith & Wesson Military & Police Bodyguard 380 (I'm always tuckered by the time I get through that name so give me a minute to recover).

The Pico though REALLY has sights, the standard is three dot sights that are user adjustable and changeable; dovetailed and held in place with a hex head set screw. The Smith has drift adjustable sights but they are plain black no dots as standard. They are dovetailed though so it would be possible to both adjust them (my front sight on the Smith was a left leaning pinko). The Ruger LCP and Remington RM380 have plain black sights milled into the slide and no possible adjustments.

The Beretta Pico standard sights (I changed them out to Trijicon Night Sights):


Smith & Wesson M&P BG380 sights:


The Ruger LCP sights:


Remington Rm380 sights:


Remember though, these are not designed to be range/target guns but rather up close and personal self defense handguns. The likely range for these will be under 5 yards and most likely closer to 5 feet. Sure, with practice they can be used out to 10, 15 even 20 yards but that is not their designed purpose. If the threat is that far away your first thought should be on cautious retreat, disengagement, shelter and shielding.

My middle son recently got a Kahr S9 that looks like it would be a really nice carry pistol.

I haven't shot it but it has been on the list of things to do once he has some free time to come up to the house.

very nice report. i have all but the Pico. the LCP stays in the safe and the other two are carried daily.

here's something to try, to give you an idea of the strength of the hammer springs. take a new wooden pencil with unused eraser. drop the pencil in the up turned barrel, eraser end first and pull the trigger. the firing pin will send the pencil flying upward. my RM380 will send the pencil 3' high. the LCP, maybe a foot. The Body Guard barely sends the pencil out of the barrel. the RM380 will probably never have light primer strike....the Body Guard has always had a reputation of light primer strikes with certain ammo. i use only Federal in my .380's, as Federal has a reputation of soft primers. would like to know how your 4 pistols perform with the pencil test.

i've never had a problem of any sorts with the RM380. the others have been 100% also.

Pistolero wrote:very nice report. i have all but the Pico. the LCP stays in the safe and the other two are carried daily.

here's something to try, to give you an idea of the strength of the hammer springs. take a new wooden pencil with unused eraser. drop the pencil in the up turned barrel, eraser end first and pull the trigger. the firing pin will send the pencil flying upward. my RM380 will send the pencil 3' high. the LCP, maybe a foot. The Body Guard barely sends the pencil out of the barrel. the RM380 will probably never have light primer strike....the Body Guard has always had a reputation of light primer strikes with certain ammo. i use only Federal in my .380's, as Federal has a reputation of soft primers. would like to know how your 4 pistols perform with the pencil test.

i've never had a problem of any sorts with the RM380. the others have been 100% also.

The pencil test has been around for as long as there have been pencils with erasers. I think I even tried it with some gun fifty or sixty years ago but I've always thought a better test is whether or not the primers fire. I do examine primer strikes every once in a while but mostly to watch for signs of damage to the firing pin. Unless you are experiencing light strikes, ones that do not cause the primer to ignite, the hammer spring is fine. They are also relatively easy to change out in most guns.

As with all guns, each of these has gone through several changes and upgrades. In this comparison all four examples were fairly recent purchases and at or near the most recent iteration. I do think there is one more change to the magazine return springs on the Smith & Wesson that may be the solution the one annoying thing with my Bodyguard. Although it locks open on an empty mag, it will drop the slide when I remove the mag unless I first push the slide lock all the way up. I've contacted S&W to see what solution they suggest.

On the Remington, I wish they would cut a second lock notch in the slide at the point shown in the image below.



They same slide lock could then also be used to lock the slide right over the hole for the take down pin making both disassembly and assembly even easier.

Great report and nice pics !

This little gun continues to amaze me. I've gotten the take down and reassembly down to a fine art and it is simply a non-issue now. I still have not found an ammo it does not like including several wide mouth hollow points that give some of my other 380s a fit.

I took it to the range with three slightly larger 380s (well two 380s and one 9mm Mak). There were two Sigs, my P230 and P290RS, my East German Makarov and the Remington RM380. The Remington and Sig P290RS both are DA action, the same barrel lengths and I took my 6 round Sig mags. The Sig P230 and Makarov are DA/SA, 7+1 and 8+1 magazines. The Sig P290RS does have adjustable three dot sights and the Sig P230 has drift adjustable rear and fixed front sights; white dot in front, white square in rear. The Mak like the Sig P230 has a drift adjustable rear sight.

All four were boringly reliable and accurate and easy to shoot.

The Sig P230, P290RS and Makarov have longer barrels and longer sight lines and so at further distances they were slightly ahead in accuracy and target acquisition, but the Remington RM380 was still accurate enough at all the distances. Differences between sets was greater than the differences between the guns.

The targets were standard NRA fifty foot 8" rapid fire bullseye. At 3, 5 and 7 yards all four placed all shots inside the 9 ring. At 15 yards things started to widen but still all rounds from all four were inside the 7 ring.

Where the Remington pulled ahead though was on weak hand sets. There it performed just like it did strong and double hand with the others all dropped slightly in both speed and accuracy.





shown with the extended 8 round magazine:

Great report and great pictures.

Whenever anyone asks me for an EDC suggestion, the RM380 is the answer I give most often. It is as reliable as any gun I have ever owned, isn't ammo sensitive, and is a joy to shoot. You could shoot the Remington all day without undue fatigue, and the true double-action trigger gets better and better over time.

Other than the SAO choices (a format I won't carry), I've owned a big chunk of the .380s choices available on the market today. Without fail, almost every one had one fatal flaw or another, not the least of which is that many are simply unreliable. As a result, almost all of those have been sold off, and the remaining pistols are endangered species.

But the RM380 is here to stay, and the only thing I can imagine that would replace it is the Executive model, which sure is purty.

I have had my all RM380 for about 18 months. I have put at least 1,000 rounds through it using FMJ, JHP, and Lehigh Extreme Penetrator (No, it does not over penetrate.) It has never failed with any ammo in any way. Dropped 9mm a couple months ago due to arthritis impeding racking the slides and the recoil. The RM380 makes those things a non issue. The gun is now my EDC. I am quite comfortable relying on it.

Can you describe or show what type of wear if any your RM380 has after those 1,000 rounds. A photo of the inner slide would be great. Thanks.