9mm self defense ammo

[Magnum314]

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.

 

[sheepdog697]

everybody will have a different opinion. i like the +p variants.

 

[Route 45]

124 +P or 147 +P HST for me. Have also carried other proven rounds like Gold Dots and Federal Tactical Bonded, but HST's are my go-to ammo now. In .45 ACP as well.

I don't have anything against "boutique" ammo. Heck, I wish I would have thought of a way to sell ball ammo to people at double or triple the price.
Then again, I don't know the wholesale price on the magic fairy dust that they sprinkle Xtreme Defenders with, so they might actually be reasonable compared to production costs.

I wish I was sophisticated enough to know better than the people who actually test and use current hollowpoints in the real world.

 

[ajeandy]

I use Federal HST 124GR Law Enforcement

Has better penetration than the 147 gr

 

[BehindBlueI's]

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.

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.

 

[Tombs]

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.

 

[natdscott]

Federal 147 Hydra-Shok has worked well on anything I've shot with it, so it continues to fill the magazines.

-Nate

 

[cosermann]

Penetration is needed to damage vital structures. Expansion is nice if you can get it (and thankfully, modern bullets give us some good alternatives to choose from in duty calibers).

Make sure you have reliable data from reputable sources on both performance measures.

The bullet has to do what it needs to do when it's placed where it needs to be.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

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.

The quest for "wonder ammo", and particularly one that has large impressive looking muzzle energy to print on the side of the box and makes a big temporary stretch cavity for impressive pictures is an old formula. Early pushers of the marketing over performance used clay to make people think the temporary stretch cavity was wounding potential, modern hucksters use gel (generally improperly).

Taken from an article by Dr. Fackler that appeared in the Fall of 2001 International Wound Ballistics Association journal:

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.

 

[GIJEW]

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?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

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.

 

[cosermann]

Speaking solely of 9mm HST, 124 and 147 gr standard pressure pass FBI requirements from a 3" to 5" barrel, at least.

Yep, those loads do well over a range of barrel lengths. If it's tested you know.

Otherwise it's just rules-of-thumb and generalities and "it depends." Doc Roberts take on the subject [1]:

"Actually, all our testing has traditionally been done in 4" barrels for 9 mm, .40 S&W, and 4.25" for .45 ACP, although recently most of the organizations we test for have been asking for 5" barrel data for .45 ACP. There is really no difference in performance between a 3.5" and 4" barrel in 9 mm and .40 S&W. In .45 ACP, we [DO] see a reasonably significant change in performance going from a 5" to 3.5" or less barrels."

Fortunately for those with shorter barreled guns, there does seem to be more testing done on shorter barrels nowadays. So, there may be less guess work involved IF you can find the relevant data.

[1] - https://www.ar15.com/ammo/project/Self_Defense_Ammo_FAQ/

 

[glock212327]

147gr Federal HST