It's a handgun caliber. Pick one that feeds reliably in your gun. Then practice shot placement. I personally tend to gravitate towards heavy for caliber weights in standard pressure
Hard to argue with this...kind of what I follow as well.
It's a handgun caliber. Pick one that feeds reliably in your gun. Then practice shot placement. I personally tend to gravitate towards heavy for caliber weights in standard pressure
I use Underwood JUST for carry, especially in 10mm and 357 Sig, because they offer significantly higher muzzle velocity.
I buy lower cost ammo for practice and plinking.
Examples:
10mm 155 grain bonded jacketed hollow point
Muzzle Velocity:1500 fps
Muzzle Energy: 774 ft. lbs
367 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point
Muzzle Velocity: 1475 fps
Muzzle Energy: 604 ft. lbs.
Of the current offerings, I'm running 147gr HST standard pressure. If I could not find it I would get speer gold dot G2 147gr.
I haven't been overly impressed with most wonder ammo being produced. I'd take plain WWB hollow points over quite a lot of options that you'll find in most gun shops.
Under the heading of "New tech-
nologies" I found the article by John G. Roos entitled
'"Meteor' Round 'Blended-Metal-Technology' Bul-
lets Live Up to Hard Hitting Claims."
I found reading this article a bit depressing.
This is the sixth time in the past two decades that I re-
call a new "magic" projectile having arrived, with great
fanfare and outlandish claims, to deceive the firearm
illiterate. Before reading the article, I predicted that
these projectiles would be a very lightweight (they
were: 60 gr. in 9 mm Parabellum, 77 gr. in 40 S&W,
90 gr. in 45 ACP) and shot at abnormally high veloci-
ties (they were: 2000 to 2 150 ft/s at the muzzle) - they
always are. And they would be shot into clay, as they
usually are (and were in this case), to most graphically
preserve their large temporary cavities. These cavities
always impress those who lack understanding of
wound ballistics.
....
History keeps repeating itself in the "magic
bullet" arena. In the 1 970s we had the National Insti-
tute of Justice (NIJ) and its infamous Relative Inca-
pacitation Index (RII). They rated handguns on the size
of temporary cavity the bullet generated. They used the
not only unproved, but clearly disproven, theory that
the incapacitation a bullet causes in the human body is
proportional to the diameter of the temporary cavity it
produces.
...
Despite undeniable documentation proving it
wrong, the "light-bullet-high-velocity" fallacy reap-
pears every few years. The Glaser Safety Slug, darling
of the NIJ, lost its popularity as the RII was relegated
to the trash heap. But then came the "THV" (from
France, the initials are for very high velocity in
French), then the "Thunderzapper," then the two can-
didates for the "advanced combat rifle" (that shot indi-
vidual flechettes at about 4000 ft!s), and finally, in
1 995, the "Rhino Bullet" ...All have now joined the RII in the "failed
frauds" corner of history's trash heap. The BMT bullets
will join them before long.
How much difference does barrel length make in the balance of bullet weight and velocity? And is there an optimum length that provides the advantages of a short barrel without ballistic compromise?I don't know about the .357 Sig offering, but the over driven 10mm 155gr XTP from Underwood is a shallow penetrator. Driving it faster than what Hornady designed it for opens it up faster and reduces it even more compared to standard loads, which are already iffy. Expansion is consistent and impressive, though, and that is where the "extra" energy is going. Opening up a bullet that's designed to not open that much that fast.
Real world results and professional testing have put penetration about 7-11". Hornady's Critical Defense 175gr expands nearly as much and penetrates much better.
How much difference does barrel length make in the balance of bullet weight and velocity? And is there an optimum length that provides the advantages of a short barrel without ballistic compromise?
Speaking solely of 9mm HST, 124 and 147 gr standard pressure pass FBI requirements from a 3" to 5" barrel, at least.