Have you ever seen a gun so cheap that you had to have it, regardless of how crappy it is? You might not be a sucker like me, but when I see a gun for $60 at a pawn shop, I’m going to snatch it up. Maybe it will be just a paperweight, but it could also be an ugly treasure. I recently stumbled across a Cobra FS 380, and for $60, I snatched it up. The question I had was simple: does a $60 gun work?
Can it be a functional defensive choice? Can it be fun to shoot? I grabbed it and some ammo and sought to find the truth! To answer my questions, if you’re new to the gun industry, you might be a bit new to this type of gun and Cobra as a firearms manufacturer. It’s a fairly interesting tale that ties in with American gun culture, gun laws, and gun control.
Who was Cobra Firearms?
Cobra Firearms is a now-defunct company that closed its doors in February 2020. No one noticed they had done so, as Cobra Firearms had long faded from the firearms industry. The company had a short run as far as firearms companies go. I can’t seem to find a definite date of when they started, but they are distantly related to the Ring of Fire companies that started in 1970. Cobra wasn’t one of the first, but they were steady in their production of firearms.
The Cobra Firearms brand is mostly associated with weapons referred to as Saturday Night Specials. This name was used to describe a wide variety of very cheap handguns. Some of the original Saturday Night Specials were cheaply imported firearms, often from Germany. Gun brands like Rohm were very cheap imports, and they caused the gun control wing of American politics to take action.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 instituted a point system for firearms imports. The points covered caliber, sights, barrel length, weight, and more. If a gun had enough points, it couldn’t be imported. This effectively banned affordable firearms imports, and even more expensive firearms like the Walther PPK were banned (Luckily, Walther produced the PPK/S that met the points criteria).
With the ban on the imports of cheap firearms, the market took notice, leading to companies like Raven launching. Raven and their MP-25 became the standard for the American Saturday Night Special. The Raven series expanded into what became known as the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire companies were all related to Raven and named because of their location in Los Angeles County.
So, what about Cobra?
Cobra was headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in 1998, it purchased tooling to produce derringers. Cobra started its company by producing firearms like the FS 380. The FS 380 can directly trace its roots back to the old Raven MP-25. They are very similar.
Cobra did not just produce these massive blowback-operated firearms; they expanded into revolvers and produced J-frame-style .38 Special revolvers. They also produced higher-end firearms known as the Patriot series, which were more modern, polymer-frame, higher-quality carry guns. Even with a crop of revolvers, derringers, and modern automatics, they continued to produce these cheap Saturday Night Special firearms.
Breaking Down the FS 380
FS Stands for Freedom Series. These were always uber-cheap guns, nearly inflation-proof. The Freedom Series was produced in .32 ACP and .380 ACP, and used the very standard American Saturday Night Special layout.
These guns are basically upsized Raven MP-25 pistols. They are made from Zamak, which is a polite way to say pot metal. Zamak is a zinc alloy that is formed into the gun through injection molding, which was the cheapest way to manufacture a firearm.
The FS 380 has a fixed barrel and operates on the straight blowback principle, which is also a cheap way to make a handgun. With a straight blowback system, the slide has to be extremely hefty. It has to be heavy enough to keep the action closed until the pressure drops to safe levels, and the cheapest way to do that is to make it massive and heavy.
This creates a very bulky and huge .380 ACP pistol. It’s massive, bigger, and broader than any other single-stack .380 I think I’ve ever seen. To keep things cheap, the sights are part of the slide and the injection molding process. The gun comes with a rudimentary safety and a pair of cheap plastic grips. There isn’t much more to the gun than that.
To The Range
I brought 100 rounds of .380 ACP to the range. If the gun could shoot through 100 rounds, I’d consider myself impressed by the $60 gun. So, did I get through all 100 rounds? Hell no. I didn’t make it through a single magazine without a malfunction. In fact, I didn’t even fire a hundred rounds because I didn’t have the time to sit out at the range that long fixing malfunctions.
I fired a total of 32 rounds before I tapped out. The gun had multiple failures to fire, failures to eject, and even a double feed. Eventually, the thing just broke. The trigger didn’t reset and wouldn’t reset. It stays locked back and mushy. That’s lame. My $60 gun couldn’t last 60 rounds. The FS 380 is an abject failure.
Any positive points?
No, not really. For some reason, the sights are awkwardly high. The gun is not accurate at all. I had trouble hitting a 10-inch gong at 15 yards. For reference, I can hit that gong with a KelTec P32, a much smaller gun, with ease.
The gun has some pushy recoil. The big slide racing rearward creates excess muzzle rise. I’d say that it kept me from making fast follow-up shots, but the gun’s failure to cycle reliably is what really killed my follow-up shots.
In my opinion, the Cobra FS 380 absolutely sucks. It’s a terrible gun with no redeemable features. It’s not worth $60. Am I disappointed? Of course. But am I surprised? Not really. The Cobra FS 380 is a great example of how you get what you pay for. My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.
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