Hornady Critical Defense 9 mm

I reload with the Hornady Critical Defense in 9 MM 115 gr and have not had any problems - Kimber - Glock - Sig - etc...

Kimbers are known for stiff springs. When my Aegis Elite Ultra was new it would not eject or cycle using 115 gr. ammo. A few 100 rounds of 147 grain softened it up enough to use 115 grain stuff. To be on the safe side I use 147 grain JHP when I carry or bed stand it. YMMV.

I had a problem with that ammo in my SA XDE. The rounds wouldn't chamber but go straight forward into the edge of the feed ramp.But they worked in my other two 9mm handguns,SA subcompact and my Glock 19.I got rid of them after that, the Critical Defence ammo.

I’m surprised these loads aren’t feeding, they are very truncated and have the poly plug in the hollow point so there isn’t a lot to hang up on.

I went to a Hornady demo with the critical defense and critical duty ammo and left impressed by the consistency of their bullet design. Short barrel, long barrel, .45 to.380...no matter what gun or caliber was shot it all worked well all day long through most (but not all) of the FBI standards. (We didn’t shoot glass or steel with the Defense loads) I still use them in .38 and .357 guns, but after testing my .380 is fed Win SXT and my compact 9mms Fed HST.

It is tough to break in a new gun using premium ammo, the cost mounts up really quickly. I broke my Micro 9 in with lots of WWB 115 and 124 gr fmj before a reliability test with the 150 gr federal HST micro loads that I’m now carrying in my small 9mm guns. The Kimber was very reliable out of the box, I can’t recall a single hiccup.

Stay safe.

I finally found some federal 150 gr short barrel hst, excited to try it. The lucky gunner tests look amazing.

Critical defense runs well in the Springfield hellcat and Ruger ec9.

works fine in my micro 9cdp

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Can’t speak to function in the kimber but I use the critical defense in my xd and it functions well. Shot a coyote with that gun and load combo. Bullet was recovered perfectly mushroomed.

Any one particular example of a firearm can choke on any one particular design of round. I have a Taurus TCP (granted, not in the same realm as Kimber) that used to choke in Winchester white box, or anything with a flat point. Critical Defense was the only thing it would cycle reliably. That spent 3 months back at Taurus for an unrelated issue, but since it has come back, it eats anything. I haven't heard anything specific to the micro 9 being picky, but in general I find the smaller a platform is in relation to the cartridge, the more finicky they become.

DPD uses Hornady Critical Duty and Hornado truncated cone FMJ for practice. They perform well in Glocks, SIG Sauers and even the .380 ACP versions do well in a SIG Sauer P232. If the ammo would not perform reliably, major police departments would rapidly abandon it. Externally the bullets share the same shape but the performance is very different.

Critical Defense vs. Critical Duty: Clearing up confusion over Hornady ammunition (police1.com)

I have shot 9mm Hornady Critical Defense through my Sig938 with no problems. I cannot attest to how it expands but the marketing pitch for Critical Defense vs Critical Duty says the former was designed to perform better from short barrelled pistols compared to the Duty line. PzGren has a good link in his post.

I carry the 135grn CD in my Kahrs... both the 3.6" CW and 3.1" CM... they feed and fire perfectly. In fact, I don't know if I've ever had a hiccup with the CD, and the CM in particular can be picky.

Hornady Critical Defense intentionally doesn't penetrate deeply enough to reliably reach and damage vitals and it also isn't designed to defeat common barriers encountered during concealed carry. It's designed to shoot clothed adversaries in best case conditions.

Shawn Dodson said:

Hornady Critical Defense intentionally doesn't penetrate deeply enough to reliably reach and damage vitals

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Do you have a reference for that?

Brubz said:

Has anyone had experience using this round in a Kimber micro 9 ? There's some videos out there that say it performs poorly and jams others say they've had no problem with it at all I wonder if any of you guys had any personal experience.I don't want to spend $400 range testing 250 rounds of this ammo if I can help it

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The "jam" comes from the recoil and bullet pull. The gun recoils back but the bullet wants to stay in one spot resorting in
jumping the crimp. If this occurs the bullet can actually extend past the end of the cylinder and "jam" it from advancing to
the next round. That said, I've never had it happen and Critical Defense or Critical Duty is what I carry and have shot
the most of in my LCR9, LCR38, LCRx38, and S&W M60-14 in .357 mag. I did have a S&W 340PD that had a warning
to not shoot any round of less than 120 gr or jumping crimp could happen. It's more prominent in lighter revolvers than
the ones like my m60 or a K6. Just use good quality ammo and Hornady is and you should never have a problem with
the heavier Kimber K6. The 340PD only weighed 12.5 ounces loaded and with .357 mag ammo, I bet it would jump
crimp with lighter weight bullets.
Dano

Riomouse911 said:

I’m surprised these loads aren’t feeding, they are very truncated and have the poly plug in the hollow point so there isn’t a lot to hang up on.

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My thoughts exactly. They have a very strong taper and have the plug. I've fired a good bit of Hornady Duty/Defense and never had an issue. I'd like to see the hang up with my own eyes because this is interesting. I have a hard time picturing where it would get hung up.

Charlie98 said:

Do you have a reference for that?

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https://www.hornadyle.com/handgun-ammunition/9mm-luger-115-gr-ftx#!/

Trying to delete, can only edit.

Even if you have two of the same exact gun models in front of you and you want to know if both will shoot a certain ammo brand and type, I'd shoot the ammo to find out! Me and my brother in law have the very same exact Remington 700 in 30-06. His gun will shoot Hornady Superformance 150 Grain ammo great. Stick it in my exact model 700 and it does not shoot the best accuracy wise!

Now certain makes of a firearm will lend itself to a certain ammo profile if you will. For example, a lot of 1911 firearms have steep feed ramps and feed ball ammo and those hollow points that do not have a larger HP cavity much better than say something like Hornady HST rounds that have large open HP cavities. Clear as mud? Those firearms that don't shoot a wide or more open HP cavity may shoot something along the lines of the Remington Golden Sabre rounds that have a more ball ammo shape to them.

Shawn Dodson said:

https://www.hornadyle.com/handgun-ammunition/9mm-luger-115-gr-ftx#!/

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That isn't what that says at all...

Never owned a Kimber but my CZ Compact eats that and anything else I feed it. Good ammo.

Charlie98 said:

That isn't what that says at all...

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According to Hornady's gelatin data ( https://www.hornadyle.com/handgun-ammunition/#!/ ), the following common Critical Defense self-defense cartridges penetrate as follows:

• 380 ACP 90gr, 10.25" (Ruger LCP 2.75" bbl)
• 9mm 100gr Lite, 9.25" (Kahr Mk9 3" bbl)
• 9mm 115gr, 11.25" (Kahr Mk9 3" bbl)
• .38 Spl 90gr Lite, 8.25" (S&W 637 1.875" bbl)
• .38 Spl 110gr, 13.00" (S&W 637 1.875" bbl)
• .38 Spl 110gr +P, 11.25" (S&W 637 1.875" bbl)
• .357 Mag 125gr, 13.00" (S&W 686 3" bbl)
• .40 S&W 165gr, 11.50" (Springfield XD 3" bbl)
• .45 ACP 185gr, 13.75" (Springfield EMP 3" bbl)

According to informed medical opinion a bullet should penetrate a minimum of 12 inches to ensure it has the potential to reliably reach and damage vital structures deep within the torso. The bullet may first have to perforate an arm before reaching the torso, the attacker may be muscular or fat, or the shooting angle through the body requires an unusually long path to reach vitals (such as being knocked to the ground and shooting upward). Most well designed cartridges penetrate 14-16 inches in bare gelatin, heavily clothed gelatin, and automotive windshield glass.

Notice that Critical Defense is tested ONLY in gelatin that's covered by heavy clothing. If it's tested in bare gelatin it may expand to a greater diameter and penetrate less.

Many CCW self-defense shootings happen around cars in parking lots. If you have to shoot through automotive glass or sheetmetal then you have no idea how Critical Defense is going to perform because it's only tested in gelatin covered by heavy clothing.

Notice the short barrels used in the test. Longer barrels increase velocity and, as shown for the .38 Spl 110gr +P load, a modest increase in velocity (+80 fps) increases bullet expanded diameter (0.54" vs. 0.50" for the non +P load) which DECREASES penetration (11.25" vs. 13" for the non +P load).

Automotive windshield glass provides a reasonable indication of how a bullet will perform if it hits bone. The most likely bones to be hit are arm bones and rib bones. Arm bones are most likely to affect a bullet's terminal performance. Rib bones have a negligible affect.

IMO, Hornady has done a superb job in promoting it's Critical Defense line of ammunition to the uninformed.

Shawn, thanks for taking the time to paste in all that data. I agree with you that the addition of denim to the ballistic gel test throws the results off. It would be nice to see a pure apples-to-apples comparison without tossing a confounding factor into the mix.

It's interesting to see the .45 FTX penetrated 2 inches deeper than the 9mm.

Shawn Dodson said:

Most well designed cartridges penetrate 14-16 inches in bare gelatin, heavily clothed gelatin, and automotive windshield glass.

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Shawn Dodson said:

Notice the short barrels used in the test. Longer barrels increase velocity

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Shawn Dodson said:

IMO, Hornady has done a superb job in promoting it's Critical Defense line of ammunition to the uninformed.

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I think you are cherry picking data. If Hornady is testing those bullets from short barreled handguns through covered gel, of course the numbers are going to be lower... I would say good for Hornady for firing them from realistic firearms likely to be carried with their ammunition. I do question the gummy tip, however; I think the addition of a plug in the HP cavity isn't such a good idea, but I understand the concept and why they did it.

Charlie98 said:

I think you are cherry picking data.

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It's Hornady's own "cherry picked" data. It's tested against heavy clothing only, to show its reliability in expanding after passing through heavy clothing. Critical Defense isn't designed to perform well in any other test event (bare gelatin, automotive windshield glass, automotive sheetmetal, wood, or drywall) like Critical Duty.

Heavy clothing is the worst case situation for bullet expansion. Bare gelatin is the best case situation for bullet expansion. Bullets shot into bare gelatin usually expand to a greater diameter which causes them to penetrate less deeply, which is possibly why Hornady doesn't offer any data for bare gelatin performance.