Diamondback .380 Review

Yesterday I had the chance to shoot a listener's Diamondback .380 pocket pistol. With the flurry of .380 auto's being made by all of the major manufacturers, it tells you something about the market. People seem to be gravitating towards the small pocket auto's. Personally, I think the best pocketable auto on the market is the Kahr PM9, but that's my personal bias. However, I give the Diamondback .380 a "B." I did have a few malfunctions in about 75-80 rounds, but quickly learned it was an ammo sensitive pistol. When fed ammo it likes...no problem at all. It's like a very small Glock, with real sights (of course, most people probably won't use sights on a pistol like this) and it's a very soft recoiling pistol for a lightweight polymer pocket gun. The magazines are good quaility, too. For a full review, let me invite you to listen to my podcast but I'll tell you, don't shy away because of the newness of the manufacturer. If my research is correct, they are owned by Diamondback Boats, which is a very reputable manufacturer of AirBoats used by the Coast Guard and Tour companys. Yes they are out of Florida and appear to have hired some people from Kel Tec. Seems to me like they combined features from Glock and Kel Tec. It's an affordable pistol that has it's limitations, but should serve as a decent back up gun. Definitely not a primary carry gun though.

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Originally Posted by Handgun World

Yesterday I had the chance to shoot a listener's Diamondback .380 pocket pistol. With the flurry of .380 auto's being made by all of the major manufacturers, it tells you something about the market. People seem to be gravitating towards the small pocket auto's. Personally, I think the best pocketable auto on the market is the Kahr PM9, but that's my personal bias. However, I give the Diamondback .380 a "B." I did have a few malfunctions in about 75-80 rounds, but quickly learned it was an ammo sensitive pistol. When fed ammo it likes...no problem at all. It's like a very small Glock, with real sights (of course, most people probably won't use sights on a pistol like this) and it's a very soft recoiling pistol for a lightweight polymer pocket gun. The magazines are good quaility, too. For a full review, let me invite you to listen to my podcast but I'll tell you, don't shy away because of the newness of the manufacturer. If my research is correct, they are owned by Diamondback Boats, which is a very reputable manufacturer of AirBoats used by the Coast Guard and Tour companys. Yes they are out of Florida and appear to have hired some people from Kel Tec. Seems to me like they combined features from Glock and Kel Tec. It's an affordable pistol that has it's limitations, but should serve as a decent back up gun. Definitely not a primary carry gun though.

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I am glad you posted this!! I have been very curious about the DB. They have been popping up around here more than KelTec. There is a rumor that one of the designers previously worked for Kahr.

It's going to be hot soon and I will need something smaller. The .380 is tempting, but I am with you on the PM9. I feel like I just keep waiting and waiting for a smaller 9 to come out. I may have to spend for a Kahr.

So what ammo worked best? I have a DB 380 and my casings do not eject as they should...

I just looked at one of those today. Trigger pulled felt long. This is one small pistol. How long has this brand been in existence?

There is a forum dedicated to this gun .......... www dot (the brand of the gun) then (talk) dot com.

I have never seen a forum dedicated to anything with so much negativity posted on it. They seem to be having some troubles. I was very interested in one, I held it and thought Hmmmm nice little gun. i did some reserch and now I do not own one, nor will I own one based on the feedback of the owners. There are a couple happy ones but they are the minority n their own dedicate site.

RCG

I got one of these at the PX on 2/3/2011, I was going to get the LCP but like the way this pistol felt in my hand also I like Glocks and this looks alot like one. The night I got home I did a review search on the web and thought boy did I make a mistake. Well the next day after I got home from work I went out in 25' weather w/ ice everywhere I set up a target, I only had some cheap Blazer rounds. So I put 49 rounds down range. The 1st. seven rounds were 1,2,3-did not fire 4,5,6,7 I put that 3rd. round back in the pistol and it fired. 2nd set all 7 rounds fired. 3rd. set 1,2,3-failure to feed 4,5,6,7. 4th. set all 7 fired. 5th. set all 7 fired. 6th. set all 7 fired. 7th. set all 7 fired. I've read that this pistol take about 200 rounds to brake it in so I have 150 more to put down range. So for I like it, but I'll let you'll know what happens on the next outing.

That pistol is not one that I would want to use for protection. They are made not to far from where I live and all the local folks don't care much for them. Kel-Tec is also made in the same area and sell like hotcakes. There's a big difference in their warranty work between the two companies. Buyer beware. :smt1099

Well I shot 49 more rounds.(Blazer ammo) 7 rounds 7 sets. Not much to say all 49 rounds performed perfect, not one malfunction. Two of the set I fired all 7 rounds as fast as I could, did fine. So maybe I got lucky. I love the way this pistol feels in the hand the trigger is a little long but I'll get use to it.

I know this is an old thread but I felt the need to tell about my experience with the DB380. I bought a ZA series in May of last year. It had a few problems early on. FTF, FTE and trigger reset issues. It got worse after about 200 rounds. I sent the gun back to Diamondback. They sent it back with a new trigger bar and a new extractor. The feed and ejection problems were fixed but the trigger reset problems got progressively worse. I sent the gun back and requested a new one. They did send me a new ZD series pistol. I immediately traded it for a Ruger LCP and 2 boxes of ammo. Trust had been broken. I felt that I could trade the new gun unfired in good conscience.

Talk about a bad purchase and even crappier next day service. Bought a 380. Loved the feel, loved the design. Manual says to break-in for about 50 rounds or so and clean before initial use. Followed all instructions. Thorough cleaning. Two visits to the range OVER 20 Mis-Feeds, Failure to ejects, etc., etc., etc. Tried different ammo. Even more mis-feeds. I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THIS FOR CONCEALED CARRY OR PERSONAL DEFENSE. Make matters worse, when I contacted the manufacturer, they told me it was my fault for ammo choice and I could send it in. AT MY COST. And, since they were busy, a four week wait time. Stay Away. There are many, many other better options out there. You can see from the 'Net almost everyone has these same issues. Bad gun. Bad company.