Thermactor
member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2008
- Messages
- 992
Do any of you guys consider Federal 9BPLE to be a viable self-defense load anymore, given today's newest 9mm hollow point technology?
As of today, subject to change tomorrow, it prices somewhere between plinking ammo and Federal HST. It is affordable to train with, and affordable to prove to work in your platform.
But it has a lot of trash-talking detractors online, and they have a point to make that bonded ammunition offers better weight retention. And I've seen the ballistics testing that showed the 9BPLE's jacket shedding pieces along the wound track.
And the 9BPLE is an old load. So, as I gather, at some point there was a shift from 9mm to 40 caliber back to 9mm among the LE community as some hot new whiz-bang 9mm ammo made the 40 cal "obsolete" (fair disclosure, I'm a big .40 fan so lets not veer into that track please).
This newer 9mm tech like Winchester Ranger T +P+ 127gr loads are perenially out of stock wherever I look, and wherever they are found, they are damn expensive. But the main thing is, you can't find them ANYWHERE. Find me where I can find RA9T in stock! That's the problem.
So this brings me back to the 9BPLE. It's what we had before 9mm became cool again. Would you trust your life to it?
As of today, subject to change tomorrow, it prices somewhere between plinking ammo and Federal HST. It is affordable to train with, and affordable to prove to work in your platform.
But it has a lot of trash-talking detractors online, and they have a point to make that bonded ammunition offers better weight retention. And I've seen the ballistics testing that showed the 9BPLE's jacket shedding pieces along the wound track.
And the 9BPLE is an old load. So, as I gather, at some point there was a shift from 9mm to 40 caliber back to 9mm among the LE community as some hot new whiz-bang 9mm ammo made the 40 cal "obsolete" (fair disclosure, I'm a big .40 fan so lets not veer into that track please).
This newer 9mm tech like Winchester Ranger T +P+ 127gr loads are perenially out of stock wherever I look, and wherever they are found, they are damn expensive. But the main thing is, you can't find them ANYWHERE. Find me where I can find RA9T in stock! That's the problem.
So this brings me back to the 9BPLE. It's what we had before 9mm became cool again. Would you trust your life to it?
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