Hornady Critical Defense Ammo - Is it everything that's advertised?

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Would like to try it out. If i could even find some in stock. Been looking for some .380 for my P3AT.

Brion
 
I have it loaded in my home-defense 9 mm magazines, but have no experience with it.
 
It sounds like the old trick of melting candle wax into your hollow points. I am sure it works, the wax does.
 
Show me a product that lives up to is advertising hype, I'll show you a bad advertising company.
 
I've liked the looks of it since I first heard of it awhile back.

But I'm not interested in using any 115gr. 9mm HP for self defense.
 
Hornady Critical Defense Ammo - Is it everything that's advertised?
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Let's hope you never have to find out!

My take is that anyone needing to buy bullets based on advertising is approaching the subject of armed self-defense wrong. You need to practice/train so that you can place every bullet into COM & brainpan every time -if you can do this, then you shouldn't have to care what flavor-of-the-month bullet you are carrying.
 
Hornady makes good ammo so I would guess it would be a fine product. I think once you get into top tier JHP (Winchester, Remington, Speer, Federal, Hornady etc) they are perform close enough not to matter.
 
Critical Defense Ammo

I bought some this week from Midway. It is .38 Special, NON +P.I will try some of it later this week and post the results.It looks like the theory behind it is very solid. Chris
 
After reading about the Critical defense ammo. A friend and I packed up and went to the range. First, we shot Hornady TAP 230gr +P into a line of water jugs. We recovered the mushroomed slug. Next, we fired into 4 layers of 5.11 canvas. We recovered the slug but it did not expand, and it stripped its jacket when it hit the canvas. We then took wax tipped rounds and fired them into the canvas. We recovered a partially mushroomed , intact slug.
I have never tried the Critical Defense ammo, but the principle behind it seems to be solid, based on my experience with our little test.
 
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Show me a product that lives up to is advertising hype, I'll show you a bad advertising company.

The trick to making money seems to be to charge twice as much as everyone else and let the "you get what you pay for" crowd make you rich. So yeah if a product isn't hyped beyond what it will actually do someone needs to hire a Madison Ave. advertising firm to show them how it's done.
April 22nd, 2009 07:25 PM
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Seems like you naysayers should try the new Hornadys before popping off your mouths. From my personal experience, they do work.
 
Hornady Critical Defense in S&W M&P9?

I have it loaded in my home-defense 9 mm magazines, but have no experience with it.
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Well, I haven't--yet.

Haven't been able to accumulate enough to verify that it works. The conventional wisdom these days seems to be that one should fire a couple of hundred rounds of one's carry ammo before relying on it.

I sure would like to hear about the experiences of any others who have tried this ammo in the M&P9.

Or anything published that authoratively challenges that "conventional wisdom" as it may apply to a well-known modern gun and quality ammo, or something on the M&P.
 
My take is that anyone needing to buy bullets based on advertising is approaching the subject of armed self-defense wrong. You need to practice/train so that you can place every bullet into COM & brainpan every time -if you can do this, then you shouldn't have to care what flavor-of-the-month bullet you are carrying.
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That's a very simplistic and potentially dangerous "analysis".

There was a recent self-defense shooting in Akron by a pizza shop owner. I believe he hit his target every time, but the 9x19mm FMJs he used penetrated completely and left VERY deep dents in a steel door which was behind the attempted robber.

The kind of ammunition you use DOES matter. I'm not worried about justifying a good shoot against somebody who's an immediate threat to my life. There's NO justifying a shot that hits the target, penetrates completely and kills a two year old down the street. Bend over and kiss your behind good bye if that happens.

As far as availability goes, I switched to Hornady 200gr. .45acp TAP and then couldn't find ANY, not even direct from Hornady. In order to have enough self-defense ammunition for the magazine in the gun and two reloads, I had to settle for 230gr. Gold Dots which I didn't want. I was lucky to find those.
 
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Hornady=high quality

A highly respected company, and I would love to get my hands on some of this ammo.
 
I spoke with a fellow afficianado the other day and he had recently conducted gel tests with the 380 version of this ammo.

He said it was very impressive and consistent in penetration and expansion. He had swapped his wifes 380 over to it as a result of his testing.

Hornady has that plastic tip technology down pat. From the amax to the leverevolution and now to this. I have tried the leverevolution ammo and it expands very nicely.

Cool thing about the ftx components is that they expand very reliably over a wide range of speeds.
 
Reading the brochures for the Hornady ammo that has "TAP" in its description uses buckshot in the projectile. Perhaps a Hornady version of the former Glazer ammo now sold by Corbon.

For sure the buckshot style ammo provides an extra layer of prevention from stray rounds injuring folks in adjacent bedrooms by accident. Eliminates the over penetration experienced by the pizza dealer mentioned above using FMJ RP ball ammo.

Ralph
 
Are you sure about that? I fired some Hornady TAP .45acp +p 230gr. about a year ago and I'm pretty sure it was lead core with JHP. I'm referring to the rounds with the black cases.
 
Outerlimit, I refer you to the OP in post #1. Go to the second URL he posted and you will find the following:

Personal Defense Demands Superior Ammunition.

Protecting the safety and security of your family requires ammunition that is accurate, deadly and dependable.

Hornady ammunition is the brand of choice for tactical teams, snipers and police officers throughout the world because it performs flawlessly. Now you can have the same reliable ammunition technology for your personal defense needs.

Hornady’s new family of TAP™ For Personal Defense (TAP FPD™) ammo is superior tactical ammunition designed specifically for protection from deadly threats. TAP FPD™ is engineered to deliver reliable and consistent performance every single time.

FEATURES:

* Loaded with Hornady bullets that deliver the terminal performance law enforcement and military professionals have trusted for years.
* Revolutionary bright silver nickel-coated** cases eliminate the potential for corrosion and improve feeding in all firearms. The new Silver nickel-coated cases are easier to see in low-light conditions and when checking for loaded chambers.
* Propellents are engineered to protect your night vision by minimizing muzzle flash.
* TAP™ For Personal Defense Buckshot Ammo produces the tightest patterns of any buckshot on the market.

**formery black nickel-coated cases

I obtained the above text when I clicked on the "More Info" at the far right box when looking at the 9MM listings at the bottom of the chart.

I believe I'm correct for at least this listing. I don't know if other calibers are the same.

Ralph
 
Sounds like the nickle cases are different than the black cases. I've seen a lot of the nickel cased ammo, but I haven't been able to find any of the black cased ammo lately.
 
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