Your tests do not inspire confidence in the .380ACP. There should be absolutely no surprise at the results.
It is surprising how easily some convince themselves that .380ACP is a competent choice for a self-defense round. There are rare times when circumstances may force the carry of a .380ACP handgun, but it is unwise to regularly rely on one as a carry weapon.
The G42 (and 25 and 28) are Glock's most unsuitable "weapons" for serious purposes due to the round they fire, just as you have shown here.
TANSTAAFL!
I disagree, this is a comment from another internet story on the Glock 42:
"Below I will explain my choice for carrying the 42 as well as a long rant about how I hate when people talk about stopping power.
I shot both, and the 9mm was too snappy. In simulated self defense scenarios, the Glock 42 in .380 proved to be more effective in my hands. If you are considering the 42 or 43, please try shooting both. Besides being more effective, the Glock 42 was much more fun and comfortable to shoot compared to the 43 and other small .380's.
For example, I have a Ruger LCP and I really don't like shooting that gun, its just not comfortable and I have a hard time hitting targets farther than the 7 yards self defense standard. With the Glock 42, I'm shooting the same targets that I shoot at with my Glock 19 and Ruger Mark II and its not snappy or annoying to shoot.
As far as "stopping power" goes, understand that stopping power in handguns is always lacking unless you are talking about rounds are the .45ACP range and larger. Much of the stopping power argument is based on people like me and you arguing at ranges and on the internet. Massad Ayoob did a comparative study which found small but statistically significant differences with some larger calibers, but without controlling for who was shooting and who was being shot, those numbers are hard to apply to real world situations (i.e. maybe 9mm is more likely to stop an attacker than .22lr because trained police officers are the ones shooting the 9mm and its grandpa with cataracts shooting at robbers with his 10/22).
Most attackers will run when they see you are armed. Out of those that don't run, most will run or surrender after being shot. Of the 0.001% of attackers who continue to fight after being shot and must be physically incapacitated to be stopped, you need to hit the heart, brain, spinal cord, or femur to stop them. This requires luck or good shot placement. In those cases, a larger caliber only gives you a small advantage and that advantage is going to be eliminated in most shooters anyway because unless you are an extensively trained and experienced shooter (i.e. military designated Marksman), you are going to shoot slower and less accurately with more recoil. In those cases, most people (including myself) are better off with a more manageable firearm that they can deliver multiple shots quickly and accurately with, that is what is going to help you hit one of those vital areas, not a bigger bullet.
Basically my argument against being concerned about stopping power is that when you take the odds of being attacked and multiply them by the odds of failing to stop an attacker where you would have been able to stop him with a more powerful round, you will find that you are far more likely to accidentally shoot and kill yourself than be killed as a result of not having enough firepower.
The most important things to consider for self defense carry are that you have a 99.999999999...% reliable combination of gun and ammo and that you can consistently draw your weapon and fire rounds quickly and accurately into your attacker. The round you use to do this doesn't matter, and the advantages of a larger round will in 99% of cases be mitigated by the downsides (more recoil causing decreased rate of fire and accuracy, greater chance of over travel and harming an innocent bystander, greater chance of the fleeing criminal you shot dying (make your legal troubles much worse), more hearing damage (yes I know that is a small consideration in terms of self defense), larger/heavier/harder to conceal gun that also has a greater chance of snagging on something, greater change of death if the attackers gets your gun and uses it against you...the list goes on).
The point of my rant is to hopefully convince at least one person that which caliber to carry should be a choice based on the gun in which you are most confidently able to conceal, draw, and fire quickly and accurately with quick and accurate follow up shots, and that you carry a reliable gun/ammo combination. The Glock 42 was perfect for me for this purpose, it was small enough to conceal easily but large enough to get a good grip, has the legendary Glock reliability, was affordable (blue label pricing at least), and compared to the Glock 19 I usually carry and to the Glock 43 I also tested, I was able to perform much better in simulated self defense tests with the 42 than the 43 and my performance with the 42 compared to the 19 was very similar while coming in a smaller and lighter package.
Stopping power looks legit on paper, but in the real world it just
doesn't seem to have a noticeable effect. The only instances where more
firepower might have helped someone involve firefights between police
and criminals. In those cases, the criminal is fighting for his life
against armed and trained police officers so yea, they will continue to
fight as long as possible because at that point they know if caught
their life is over anyway. In the civilian world, criminals have no
reason to fight an armed civilian. A mugger or robber has no vested
interest in you specifically and would much rather run away and try
mugging/raping someone else or robbing another house than try their luck
against a would be victim armed with a gun.
In short, there are about 10,000 homicides a year. Most gun deaths in the US are caused by the .22lr. The CDC estimates 250,000-3 million justified instances of self defense involving a firearm occur every year in the US (most of which involve no injuries, adding validity to my point that most attackers flee when they realize you are armed). Even though there have been millions of self defense instances involving firearms since the internet was born, I have searched the internet and been unable to find a single example of a civilian being successfully victimized after using a small caliber firearm against their attacker. In fact, the whole stopping power obsession was based off one single shootout between police and criminals in the 1980's where the criminals were shot multiple times and continued fighting."
