Best 9mm defense ammo at their local stores?

Gander Mountain tends to have a good selection of defensive ammo. Academy is less so, but I think they carry Winchester PDX1 in most of the common calibers.

These are all going to be very expensive compared to buying online--you'll likely pay more for a 20 round box in the store than you would for a 50 round box online.

Since you're in Houston, another viable option might be to take a trip to Brenham and stop by Ammunition To go--they have a large variety of quality 9mm JHPs in stock.

My local range carries a few boxes of Gold Dots and Corbon...but that's it. And they are verrrrry proud of them

Capp,I am just about done breaking in my PM9 and I intend on picking up a box of Hornady Critical Defense,Rem Golden Sabres,and some Gold Dots.
Not sure of your issues on mail ordering but that's generally the way I do it.
Just got in a case of 500 rounds of 9mm 115 gr.UMC and will be getting another 500 rounds of Blazer Aluminum case in a couple more days.
No tax.much lower pricing,and $10.31 shipping for each of the 500 round cases.
I will either grab the defense rounds at Academy since I want to try one box at a time as one never knows if your pistol just simply wont digest brand A over brand B.
Once I figure out what is most reliable I will catch it on sale and again order online,if of course it's an appreciable difference in price from what's available locally.

I may be the only one, but when I can't get a hold of the infamous 9mm
"Secret Service Load"; I prefer Winchester's 115 grain "SilverTip JHP's".
Nowdays, I'm not going too be shoot'in into cars; or at windshields~!

I am always able to find cheaper online, but then it ends up being even more expensive with shipping. What am I missing?

Then you are obviously not shopping right LawScholar.
I just bought that case of Blazer 9mm for $89.00 plus $10.31 shipping.
The UMC ran me $101.99 plus 10.31 shipping.
Try that locally.

I mostly mean for self defense JHP, not plinking ammo. Shipping to my location from the ammo websites I have tried is 15-20 dollars.

There might be better out there but I tend to use WWB 115 or 124 grain JHPs.

Gold Dot 124s when I can find them.

I think it doesn't matter a whole lot, which designer you get your designer ammo from. I like Golden Sabers. In my testing, the jackets separate most of the time right at the end of penetration, where it doesn't matter anyway. The utmost important thing is shot placement. If you hit a non lethal area, it wouldn't matter if you were shooting a .460 Weatherby. Hit the right spot, and a high flying toothpick will do the trick. Just about all of the big name loads do just about the same thing. Function in your gun is more important than advertising hoopla.

I have a Kahr PM9. It has functioned well with 147 grain HST.
That said, penetration isn't all that great, and, I'd be looking for a truncated cone, or flat point bullet for the Kahr. With our local bad guys on steroids, penetration and shot placement trump expansion.

I use Federal 125 grain flat points, at 950 fps in my backup magazine(s).

I should really get something a bit hotter, that would provide a larger wound channel.

I have a Kahr PM9. It has functioned well with 147 grain HST.
That said, penetration isn't all that great, and, I'd be looking for a truncated cone, or flat point bullet for the Kahr. With our local bad guys on steroids, penetration and shot placement trump expansion.

I use Federal 125 grain flat points, at 950 fps in my backup magazine(s).

I should really get something a bit hotter, that would provide a larger wound channel.

Buffalobore has some very hot ammo, in FMJ FP, at around 1200-1300 fps out of the Kahr, at least that's my guess. But, I'm holding out to load my own.

I suspect the wound channel would increase considerably when moving from 900 fps, to 1200-1300 fps.

Depends on the bullet design. Premium loads that you will probably never find in your local shop the 147gr is better out of the short barrel.

Most of what you will find locally the 115 may be the best.

heeler said:

Then you are obviously not shopping right LawScholar.
I just bought that case of Blazer 9mm for $89.00 plus $10.31 shipping.
The UMC ran me $101.99 plus 10.31 shipping.
Try that locally.

Click to expand...

Care to share your source? I have not been able to find a lower price source for 9mm than Walmart. They used to have it for $8.97, but since I last stocked up it went up to $10.97 per box of 50.

As for what's best out of the Kahr PM9:
I'd go to Kahr's website, look at what kind of ballistic results they get in the gun tests that they link to.

Here is a test of the 147 grain HST:
Kahr 147 grain HST test
These are Federal 147 HST. All I can say is WOW! .599", and .624" expansion from a bullet only traveling at 927.5 and 929.9 fps with a penetration of 8 1/2" and 8 9/16" out of a 3" barrel. I guess that the longer score lines on the side of the bullet help with the expansion. If the formula to convert wet packs to FBI ballistic gelatin standards is accurate, I'd be happy with this round out of a 3" Kahr PM9 in my area's climate.
The expanded flower was so pretty that as a goof I used the expanded bullet to stamp a flower design on some old leather.
This is a nice low felt recoil round. It's true that the heavier 147 gr. have less felt recoil. It's a slower drawn out pulse. http://usrange.org/smf/index.php?topic=2254.new;topicseen

Here is another:
Kahr PM 9 chronograph...
Hirtenberger 9mm 100gr. Truncated Soft Ponts Kahr PM 9 MM 3" Barrel:
1101 fps
1192 1192
1200 1200
1186 1186
1163

Federal 115Gr +P+ JHP's Kahr PM 9 MM 3" Barrel:
1085 fps
1165 1184
1131 1168
1163
Winchester Ranger STX 127Gr +P+ JHP's: Kahr PM 9 MM 3" Barrel:
1190 fps
1160 1124
1158 1139
1140

I'd be real surprised to see over 1200 fps, regardless of bullet weight, out of a 3" Kahr barrel.

At 1150 fps, a 9mm bullet with a .210 Meplat would give you a Wound channel diameter of 0.604" with a bullet with a meplat diameter of .210", and a striking velocity of 1150 fps.

At 950 fps, Wound channel diameter of 0.499" with a bullet with a meplat diameter of .210", and a striking velocity of 950 fps.

At 900 fps, Wound channel diameter of 0.473" with a bullet with a meplat diameter of .210", and a striking velocity of 900 fps.

I think I'll stay with the Federal in flat point and HST.

Don't see enough increase to make the added velocity worth the recoil.

MC Sports sells Hornady, Fiocchi and Gold dots. Dicks has about the same things with maybe the Golden Sabres thrown in. The Walmart sells 115gr. Ball ammo and 115gr. HPs from Rem and Winchester, sometimes. I'll use the plain ol' Rem 115gr HPs now that its getting warmer. For the Winter I use Federal 147gr. HPs...just the regular HPs. +Ps are hard to come by here, unless I want to drive 60 miles and pay way too much.

rustedangel,my "source" is getting on the computer and first shopping the very many online places and secondly is bidding smartly on GunBroker.
The above mentioned ammo I bought you are referring to came from bids I recently won(in the last week) on GB.
I also scored 500 rounds of S & B fmj .380 for $116.99 plus 10.31 for shipping.
One must keep a sharp eye out for the deals.
Oddly enough when it comes for centerfire deer hunting ammo Walmart usually trumps most I see online.
It's my goal for now to stock up on about 2500 rounds of each type of pistol ammo for the three calbers I shoot because with all that's going on I think a year from now it will prove to be a smart move.
And even if I am wrong I still am buying it for a song.

I live right near a Cabelas so I have a very large selection of defense ammo whenever I need it. I like the Winchester PDX1 round for my carry round but there are many good choices.

Thanks for the info heeler.

Fortunatly I live only a few miles from a Cabela's store. I can get just about any 9mm ammo that's on the market. The store here carries a full line of defensive ammo, including the Buffalo Bore +p . There must be at least 10 different types of PD ammo just for the 9mm there. I prefer Speer Gold Dots or Hornaday Critical Defense for all of my PD handguns.

Most of the stores are carrying Winchester PDX1 9mm 124gr bonded +P JHP's including the Walmart. Top quality defensive ammo IMO.

What is the best 9mm defense ammo that can be had at your local sporting goods.

Click to expand...

I never really bothered to shop for SD ammo at one of the local mass market sporting goods stores. When shopping at my local gun store I never had any problem picking up 115gr or 124gr +P JHP ammo. For years, I've used Federal Hydra-Shok in both my 9mm and .45ACP pistols by preference. Lately though, I have been trying their new HST +P rounds.

I thought that I had read that a lighter bullet (like 115 grain) with a faster velocity, was better out of a 3.5" or shorter barrel than a slower heavier grain.

Click to expand...

When 9mm 147gr load first became popular a number of years ago, there was no question that 115 and 124 gr loads were head and shoulders better than the available 147s. The heavier bullets originally became popular due to their use by Navy SEALS. What most people ignored was that these cartriges were sub-sonic rounds designed to be used in suppressed SMGs. Used in pistols they gave pathetic results with over-penetration, no expansion and poor "stopping power".

Personally, I still prefer the lighter/higher speed rounds in the 9mm, but the current generation of 147s have are loaded to higher velocities and with better designed bullets and have addressed many of the flaws of the original loadings and are perfectly adequate SD rounds these days.

I have several boxes of Winchester 9mm SXT's, but a while back I got a deal on some Hornady 115 gr. XTP's for less than $16/box of 50, out the door. I found the below link to be informative and bought most of what they had. They shoot well in my 2 CZ's and Ruger PC-9 and they really tear up 2 water/newspaper filled milk jugs stacked back to back.

http://www.handgunsmag.com/ammunition/HG_xtpmarks_200807/

I keep my PC-9 mags loaded with them but use Winchester SXT's in the CZ's. These old standbys are fine with me