Personal Defense Ammo

[Weg]

.45 - 230 Grain Ball.

[A-R]

When do you decide that "I've carried this round long enough for to stake my life on it" and go plop them off at the range?

Usually keep my SD ammo in the gun/mags about a year to 18 months then shoot those rounds and reload with fresh SD ammo. Try to rotate pocket gun ammo no longer than one year (actually had some Hornady .380 CD fail to go bang after more than a year in the mag on my last rotation (sweat, heat, lint- who knows?)

Is this what you meant?

Or how many rounds of SD ammo do I test fire before confident that it operates perfectly and fires accurately? This depends on gun - few for revolvers, more for Glocks, even more for other semi autos especially those known to be ammo finicky. Pocket semi-autos I shoot the most before being convinced because with small wimpy rounds out of small wimpy guns I may need every round I've got. Typically if new-to-me gun I'll run a full load out through gun (if I have three mags that's three mags full thru gun) if no problems, reload and carry away. I know others who shoot 100 or more trouble-free SD rounds thru a carry gun before being convinced.

[A-R]

Winchester PDX1 124 grain +P's right now. I'm looking to switch out, as I've heard that they have issues with the hollow point clogging and thus not properly expanding.

Not sure what I want to switch to though. I'm thinking something in 147 grain since they'll probably play nicely out of my 17's barrel.

Haven't heard that about PDX. I carry that in my 9mms if I can't find good deal on Gold Dots. I tested some 9mm PDX in milk jugs covered in fabric a few years ago out of 3.5-inch barrel Walther PPS and it performed very well.

[C-dub]

About a year for me too. Then I just shoot'em up and reload with some fresh. Sometimes I change brands at that time and sometimes I don't.

[magillapd]

9mm - Speer Gold Dot 124 gr +p
.40 cal- Speer Gold Dot 165 gr

[RPB]

Preferred: especially this time of year (jackets etc to go through)
Hornady Critical Defense...
9 mm 115 grain
.45 ACP 185 grain

Summer I might carry a spare mag with
#23614 Gold Dots (low flash low recoil 115 gr 9mm), but I don't carry the other Gold Dots

but primarily I prefer the critical Defense above

I stick with 115 grain, I'm used to it for practice, I want as few distractions as possible if I need fast followup shots.

Hence, same weight, low flash + low recoil + similar velocities etc. in my 9mms

I do the expensive "practice with what you carry" more than anything else though.

I bought _Federal self defense low recoil _ and found it to not be all that low recoil compared to the #23614 Gold Dots and Hornady Critical Defense. .... and I verified my feeling with some charts I found online a couple years ago .... so, I stick to those 2.

[03Lightningrocks]

When do you decide that "I've carried this round long enough for to stake my life on it" and go plop them off at the range?

When I go to the range I always shoot the rounds out of my concealed carry gun and spare magazine first. It helps me to feel confident that the weapon will function properely after being holstered and carried in between range trips. When I am done practicing I reload it with fresh self defense rounds.

I use the Speer 124 grain gold dot hollow points in my 9mm and use Federal hydroshock in my .40. My .45 has the Winchester Ranger T series (ra45t)

[CC Italian]

I usually buy whatever is on sale that is a quality American made hollowpoint for most of my handguns.

I would say the number 1 ammo(bullet) that I use in hollow point is the Hornady XTP. Never had one not expand!

I have Gold dots, Golden sabers, Barnes bullets, PDX1, Hydra shock etc. I have them all but IMO the xtp is the best for the money!

Let me put it this way, in every caliber handgun I own I have at least xtp ammo for it I can't say that for the other ammo I mentioned.

Gold dots are good but they are very expensive and I only use them in snub nose because they expand well or in my 10mm because they tend to stay together better then Golden sabers and noslers. xtp are probably the best for hot 10mm loads, that or the barnes. They always stay together at higher velocities!

[The Annoyed Man]

I have carried various loads over the years. Here is what I (and my wife) carry currently:

In our short barreled 9mms: Corbon DPX 115 grain +P.

In our (one) longer barreled 9mm: Speer Gold Dot 124 grain.

In my .357 snubbie: Hornady Critical Defense 125 grain .357 magnum.

In my 3" and 3.5" .45s: Corbon 185 grain +P JHP.

In my 4.5" and 5" .45s: Speer 230 grain Gold Dot.

357 mag - Buffalo Bore 125 gr hp, this is the only commercial SD ammo I have seen loaded to real 357 magnum power levels
45 Colt - 230 grain lead hp

I phoned Hornady before buying the Critican Defense 125 grain load for my .357 because the only data I could find on their website for it was from a 6" barrel, and I was concerned about the velocity loss in a 2" barreled snubbie. They said that they had obtained 1200 fps and 400 ft-lbs (actually 399.something) from 2" snubnosed .357s. I'm not calling you out about Buffalo Bore's "real 357 magnum power levels," but Hornady's 1200 fps at 400 ft-lbs with a properly designed bullet designed to expend reliably—even through heavy clothing—is nothing to sneeze at. A lot of 9mm and .45 ACP pistols would be happy to have that kind of power on tap. And, Buffalo Bore's reputation notwithstanding, it is difficult to see how one could get much more velocity out of a 2" barrel than Hornady is getting. I imagine that must be pretty much at or close to the maxium possible out of 2" of barrel length.

[atxtj]

My current carry flavors:
9mm, Corbon 115gr +p or 147gr federal HST
.380, 85gr win Silvertips or 90gr federal hydrashocks
.45 acp 230gr federal hydrashocks

[CC Italian]

I am with TAM on most of the BB and DT stuff. Yes it is hotter but if you run that stuff over a chronograph (which I have many times) they are almost always lower then rated! Also they get more extreme spreads in fps. The big companies have less standard deviation then some of the hot BB and DT. I assume it is the powder they use but when I ran my 10mm ammo over a chronograph stuff like Hornady and Remington always came within 20fps+or- but the BB and DT could be off as much as 150fps from shot to shot with the same load.

Quality of bullet used is number one then you can fight over the 50-125fps difference from the hot stuff!

[SRH78]

357 mag - Buffalo Bore 125 gr hp, this is the only commercial SD ammo I have seen loaded to real 357 magnum power levels
45 Colt - 230 grain lead hp

I phoned Hornady before buying the Critican Defense 125 grain load for my .357 because the only data I could find on their website for it was from a 6" barrel, and I was concerned about the velocity loss in a 2" barreled snubbie. They said that they had obtained 1200 fps and 400 ft-lbs (actually 399.something) from 2" snubnosed .357s. I'm not calling you out about Buffalo Bore's "real 357 magnum power levels," but Hornady's 1200 fps at 400 ft-lbs with a properly designed bullet designed to expend reliably—even through heavy clothing—is nothing to sneeze at. A lot of 9mm and .45 ACP pistols would be happy to have that kind of power on tap. And, Buffalo Bore's reputation notwithstanding, it is difficult to see how one could get much more velocity out of a 2" barrel than Hornady is getting. I imagine that must be pretty much at or close to the maxium possible out of 2" of barrel length.

I probably should have specified that those are not in a snubbie for carry but in a 6" GP100 that sits in my nightstand. Just as a casual observation, most factory 357 mag loads are not filled to capacity with powder. You can hear it move around when you shake them. The Buffalo Bore loads are like my full power handloads. The case is full. As I am sure you already know, the benefit of using more slower burning powder is not that it creates more pressure but that it maintains that pressure longer. I haven't seen what BB claims from a 2" barrel but I believe it is safe to assume that you would see a lot less difference in velocity from a 2" barrel than you would from longer barrels. I agree that the Hornady load, and any other for that matter, is nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, I am using a full size revolver that is very comfortable to shoot with full power loads so why leave anything on the table?

[MoJo]

These are my choices for carry or personal protection.

.38 Special 135 gr Gold Dot short barrel (winter) or 125 gr Federal Nyclad (the rest of the year)
.357 Magnum 125 gr Federal or Remington JHP.
9mm 115 gr CorBon DPX
40 S&W 140 gr CorBon DPX
.45 ACP 230 gr Federal HST or Hydrashock
.223 M193 Ball
12 ga 00 Buck or slugs
.30-30 125 gr Federal JHP
.30-'06 M2 Ball

[Ruark]

I carry Buffalo Bore 100 gr. hardcast flatpoints in my P238 .380. While most .380 ammo is marginal, the BB will blow a hole clear through anybody, heavy clothes or not. Good stuff. For practice, I use Lawman.

[stash]

speedsix - what revolver do you use with the Rem 158 gr? I am having a hard time finding that stuff in the Rem. Buffalo bore has the same stuff but I don't know if it would be hotter than the Rem. I ask because I wonder if the Rem would be to hot in a J frame. I know it is a old round but I have read it is a pretty good PD round.