Personal defense ammo suggestions...thanks

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Skidmarx

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2019
Messages
24
Location
West Central Ohio
I've always been a pleasure shooter....I shoot for fun, I'm old, I can afford it. I've been reloading, ammo is cheap.
I trust my reloads, they've been good to me.
Times being what they are, I'm having misgivings. Range targets don't shoot back. If you were buying personal defense ammo in 9mm, or 45 acp, what would you buy????
Thanks
 
Skidmarx said:
Times being what they are
Click to expand...
"Times being what they are," there's not much to choose from - at least not around here.:neener:
That said, I like the idea of that new Winchester "Train & Defend" 9mm ammo. The FMJ bullets in the "Train" ammo are almost the same shape as the HP bullets in the "Defend" ammo, they weigh the same (147grs) and it says on the boxes that they're kicked out at the same MVs (950 fps). The difference is, the "Defend" ammo costs twice as much as the "Train" ammo.
BTW, my wife and I completed Idaho's "Enhanced" Concealed Carry Class a couple of years ago, and the Instructor said it wasn't a "good idea" to carry handloads in the gun you're carrying for personal protection. However, I'm not about to argue about it - I'm just repeating what our CCW Instructor said.;)
 
Speer Gold Dots, Critical Duty, Federal hydra shock. Now I have never had to use a pistol in self defense and hope I never have to. So I've formed my opinion from ballistics research.
My everyday carry Ruger LC9s is loaded with gold dots. I really don't care for the extra weight of a 45acp but if I were going to carry one I'd go with a 200gr Gold Dot
 
I've got Hornady Critical Defense, Sig V-crown(Sierra) and Speer Gold Dot. I've never shot at anything that fired back, and haven't fired into any media/gel/dead animals. But they're all among the most accurate rounds I've used in every handgun I've tried them in. In the event they're needed for their intended purpose, I doubt any one is significantly better than the others.
 
I carried 9mm Underwood 65gr +P Extreme Defenders for a long time before I begrudgingly acknowledged that neither Underwood nor anyone else makes training ammo in a similar weight and charge, so I switched to the more mainstream 115gr Sig V-Crown. I saw the tests that Lucky Gunner did and although they used 124 and 165 grain, I figured that 115gr ought to be fairly close to the 124.
 
Winchester "Defend" 115-grain JHP, or Remington-UMC 115-grain JHP, in a Kel-Tec PF9, Taurus G2C, and a Ruger P95.

They're what I have plenty of on hand, and are what typically comes available now and then. They also work in my guns.
 
SquidBubble said:
I carried 9mm Underwood 65gr +P Extreme Defenders for a long time before I begrudgingly acknowledged that neither Underwood nor anyone else makes training ammo in a similar weight and charge, so I switched to the more mainstream 115gr Sig V-Crown. I saw the tests that Lucky Gunner did and although they used 124 and 165 grain, I figured that 115gr ought to be fairly close to the 124.
Click to expand...

While I have no qualms with your current ammo, is it such a big deal to train with the same load?

I carry 147 gr +P HST but train with 115 gr factory or reloads. I don’t have much variance on POI between the two out to 25 yards.
 
JohnDa79 said:
Speer Gold Dots, Critical Duty, Federal hydra shock. Now I have never had to use a pistol in self defense and hope I never have to. So I've formed my opinion from ballistics research.
My everyday carry Ruger LC9s is loaded with gold dots. I really don't care for the extra weight of a 45acp but if I were going to carry one I'd go with a 200gr Gold Dot
Click to expand...
Same 3, different order: Hydra-Shoks, Hornady Critical Duty, and Speer Gold Dot. I have a Glaser at the bottom of each of my carry gun mags, with a mixture of Critical Duty and Hydra-Shoks on top of them. . I have Gold Dots in my .38.
 
As touched on above, one of the critical areas is finding a defensive round that you can "emulate" in a training round.

Point-of-impact will shift, naturally, but, how the firearm performs is as key to muscle memory and training. So, carrying 147s but training with 115s leaves a question mark or two in my mind.

Now, shift in POI is one of those things that reinforces the notion that you have to be able to train with your carry ammo. So, those $6 each superdeathmagums will bankrupt you before you can get to solid confidence.
Which is why I've always been willing to use the 2nd or 3rd "best" ammo out of the surveys--when it's just enough cheaper to be able, say to buy 3 boxes for the price of two of the "best testing" ammo out there. That extra box you train with, especially if that training gets you either smaller group sizes or more confidence in impact location, is better than that "better" ammo.

So, for my 2¢ the ammo you can afford to be confident with, and consistent with, to where it's near second nature, is better than a specific brand. Not that there's anything wrong with starting from some well-tested rounds like the HST or Defend.
 
The two most important considerations in carry ammo are reliability and accuracy. Carry ammo isn't useful if either are lacking. Next important for me is availability. You can't practice with what you cannot easily buy. Last comes performance in gel. Many of the top performing hollow points will perform similarly in gel tests.

That being said I keep ammo on hand so I can test what a new firearm shoots best. Even among brand and caliber, firearms won't agree with each other. My full size Walther 9mm shoots 124gr +p Golden Saber best but the single stack pocket 9 Walther shoots 147gr HST best. So be prepared to test different ammo to find the best ammo.
 
My 9mm choice is Federal HST 124 grain JHP. I made that choice after watching the Ammo Quest extensive testing of the major brands of 9mm JHP ammo. The winner was judged on penetration and consistently reliable expansion. Winchester Defend took first place. Federal HST was a very close second. I went with HST because the Winchester ammo was not and still is nor carried by the three LGS in my area, but they all carry the Federal. I like convenience and availability when buying ammo. I was not going to let ¾ inch greater penetration divert those criteria. Below is a link to the wrap up video of the testing series.

 
I buy hollow points from a recognized American manufacturer like Remington, Federal, Winchester, Hornady, etc. that fire reliably in my pistol, then I forget about it. I don't place much stock in marketing of the "newest bestest" HD ammo. I concern myself more with hitting the target in the first place as quickly and as many times possible using whatever practice ammo is available, and knowing that whatever is in my gun when not on the range won't cause a malfunction.
 
I don't use defensive rounds. My philosophy is simply carry what you shoot and train. So before I hand loaded it was always the factory ammo that came in a box of 50. I carried a 1911 for more than 35 years using fm's 230 bullets. I have complete confidence in that round. Now, I switched to a 686 with 3" barrel, and only use what I shoot and practice with that gun, 158 grain soft point bullets. As @CapnMac "stated one of the critical areas is finding a defensive round that you can "emulate" in a training round". To me that is very sage advice.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
Ammo recommendations
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
ms6852
ms6852
F
  • Locked
Bulk Target Ammo...No Reloads
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
evan price
evan price
D
  • Locked
Preferred defense ammo?
Replies
20
Views
782
WeedWhacker
W
BlueHeelerFl
  • Locked
Soft shooting factory 9MM ammo
Replies
14
Views
4K
George S.
G
P
  • Locked
Need .38 Special personal defense ammo recommendations.
2
Replies
26
Views
1K
willypete
W
Back
Top