Diamondback 380 ?

[scarboni]

Are the diamondback 380's any better now,i know there were some issues when they first came out........

 

[dhw9am]

No

Save your hard earned cash.
If money is tight, I would go with a like Kel-Tec.
If your don't mind something larger, go with a Bersa.

 

[MrsGungho]

I had one of the first that came out, piece of crap and I was done with it. They sent me a new one and I have had NO issues with it all it.
YMMV

 

[backfire]

They're alright, but need a bit of "Fluffing-n-Buffing" to make them good, reliable guns from my experience. I just reworked one for my step-father, where it was a total POS for him beforehand with FTE, FTF, stove-piping, etc. Give it a little TLC and it's a nice little mouse gun. https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...irearms_db380_pocket_gun_any_experiences.html

The innards are very "Glockish", in the good way they have their slide release, trigger group mechanism, striker firing system and even in the "blocky" way they look in similarities with a Glock. It's almost looks like a baby-Glock... Alas though.....the trigger feels like a S&W Sigma in stock form, but with some polishing, it comes around decent.

Hope that helps.

 

[scarboni]

Thanks everyone.............

 

[travisf]

I have had nothing but problems with mine. I sent mine back in Dec and it came back with a new trigger assembly and it still has problems. Kel Tec is the direction I'd take

 

[NiceGuy]

Geeez. "Go with a KelTec." Really? Biggest pieces of junk on the market IMHO. DB isn't much better. Baby Glock 26 is my pick.

 

[cornfused]

I just bought one from Mrs.G and for the first trip I'm pretty happy with it. Here's the post I made on the DB forum.


OK so not too bad for the first trip. I started out shooting this PPU ammo which worked fine a year ago in the wife's Kahr P380. Today this ammo was terrible! causing many Failure to fires that looked like light primer srtikes which would sometimes fire on the second or third strike. When any of the PPU would fire it felt very weak and not fully cycling causing a failure to extract or failure to feed. I could only manage about 30 rounds out of two different boxes before I moved on to the WWB as I was unsure at this point weather or not this was the gun or the ammo causing this. The first round of WWB felt like a 9mm compared to the PPU but then it failed to pick up the second round from the mag. Tap rack and fire through the rest of the mag with no more issues, this happened on the first, second and fourth mag of WWB and then it ran perfect through the following 50 rounds with a total of 75 or so fired.

Now I know the PPU is listed as a bad ammo for this 380 and I DO NOT contribute any of it's malfunctions to the weapon itself, it's just what I had laying around. I'm not real sure why the WWB had the three failures to strip the next round as I feel the ammo was hot enough to fully cycle the slide (but maybe it wasn't) and I cannot see a brand new mag spring being too weak to lift the round in time to be stripped soooo I don't know!? But all in all I think it was a successful initial trip being ran pretty dry with cheap target ammo, So off to the fluff and buff and cleaning and lubing I go!

Stay FAR away from this PPU ammo!

 

[223 Gunner]

I have one too, Mr. & Mrs. G sent mine back to DB, they sent me a brand new pistol, it has been perfect with 3 different brands of ammo.
I have been told you need to get one with a serial number that starts ZC and after. And avoid the ones with a silver mag release button.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I really like mine a lot, but I started with a ZAxxxx pistol and had trigger reset problems early on. DB sent me a prepaid shipping label and they replaced it with a ZCxxxx and other than some types of ammo not working in it (TulAmmo for one), it's been solid ever since. I think the bugs are mostly worked out of the 380. Their DB9 is still having some teething pains, but it's coming around as well. Love the guns or hate them, but their customer service is second to none in my experience. There are 3 people from the company that maintain a presence on the Diamondbacktalk.com forum that cornfused mentioned above and they're very receptive to complaints, and seem to be sincere in addressing the problems that have come up in an effort to improve their product. Just my .02.

 

[223 Gunner]

Mine has been great, I never run steel cased ammo in anything except an AK, they're built for it. That is probably why you had the issue with TulAmmo, that stuff is junk. Not trying to be offensive and the DB aside, when will you guys start running quality ammo thru your expensive guns (This is directed at the AR guys running steel cased ammo thru 1000$ rifles.) Running steel cased ammo, is hard on guns and that stuff is usually dirty, which results in more failures and a longer cleaning session.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Mine has been great, I never run steel cased ammo in anything except an AK, they're built for it. That is probably why you had the issue with TulAmmo, that stuff is junk. Not trying to be offensive and the DB aside, when will you guys start running quality ammo thru your expensive guns (This is directed at the AR guys running steel cased ammo thru 1000$ rifles.) Running steel cased ammo, is hard on guns and that stuff is usually dirty, which results in more failures and a longer cleaning session.

I normally don't run steel case through anything but my AK either, but the DB had been so reliable with several different types of ammo, I guess I got a little cocky and decided to try the cheap stuff. Lesson learned! On the bright side, I made 50 rounds of ammo last through about 125 trigger pulls!

 

[philo]

love mine!

I got one about a year ago from Bradis. It was way more comfortable in my hand than the other pocket sized guns.

Be patient and break it in. It was a little touchy in the first 50 rounds or so - failure to feed about once per mag. Then a good thorough cleaning and a couple dabs of bearing grease. Now it functions flawlessly. Way more accurate that I had any right to expect in such a small gun.

It breaks down like a Glock, and I like to clean it about every 2 weeks, because it tends to accumulate dust around the sear from riding in my pocket. It's never been an issue for function, but better safe than sorry.