What ammo should I carry?

[surprise_i'm_armed]

liberty2014:

As law-abiding gun-carrying self defense types, our mindset is to "stop the threat", not necessarily to kill.

That being said, if you ever are truly in fear of your life, and have to defend yourself or others with your gun,
you must be firing potentially LETHAL rounds.

Never carry any kind of rubber bullet, or aim for the legs, or fire a warning shot. Once you have determined that
the threat is armed and about to do harm, you must try to fire first and at his center mass. Generally a double tap,
or triple tap ( 2 - 3 rounds) may be needed to effectively stop an armed attacker.

If you know what a tweaker is (methamphetamine user), it will become more clear to you that your use of anything
less than LETHAL rounds could be lethal to you and yours.

Some bad guys will not be impressed by "show and tell" with your gun. It's your strong intention to engage (fire it)
that will make the biggest impression.

Happy trails at becoming more comfortable with these concepts.

Welcome to the forum. Don't be a stranger - come burn up some keyboard time with the rest of us.

Over and out.

SIA

[bauer]

These types of ammunition are not, I repeat, not non lethal, people have been killed with them the same as with conventional lead bullets.

as do some unlucky individuals in Iraq that were on the receiving end of 12 gauge rubber darts and 40MM rubber buckshot.


Stick with the OC/taser for less then lethal options as MoJo stated!

[Dirvin]

IMHO-The thought that inevitably follows the thought of merely wounding, or simply displaying my gun to stop a threat, is that I have laid my cards on the table. The BG might leave and come back with a bigger gun, more BGs etc.. When it gets to the point for the use of force, and I have to draw my firearm, I will have exhausted all means to de-escalate. The only course remaining is to shoot to kill. If I leave the BG alive, I and my family are still at risk. Shooting to wound, and brandishing my firearm are escalating the situation, not de-escalating. Whenever I have to escalate a situation, I want it to end quickly and finally.

[n5wd]

IMHO-The thought that inevitably follows the thought of merely wounding, or simply displaying my gun to stop a threat, is that I have laid my cards on the table. The BG might leave and come back with a bigger gun, more BGs etc.. When it gets to the point for the use of force, and I have to draw my firearm, I will have exhausted all means to de-escalate. The only course remaining is to shoot to kill. If I leave the BG alive, I and my family are still at risk. Shooting to wound, and brandishing my firearm are escalating the situation, not de-escalating. Whenever I have to escalate a situation, I want it to end quickly and finally.

Not to mention, if you ever DO have to draw your weapons, you, or someone in your party, should be dialing 9-1-1 at the same time, to request the presence of the poh-pohs ASAP. If the BG leaves, then brings back some homeboys, and you're still standing there waiting for him, you've made some tactical mistakes!

[TexasCajun]

IMHO-The thought that inevitably follows the thought of merely wounding, or simply displaying my gun to stop a threat, is that I have laid my cards on the table. The BG might leave and come back with a bigger gun, more BGs etc.. When it gets to the point for the use of force, and I have to draw my firearm, I will have exhausted all means to de-escalate. The only course remaining is to shoot to kill. If I leave the BG alive, I and my family are still at risk. Shooting to wound, and brandishing my firearm are escalating the situation, not de-escalating. Whenever I have to escalate a situation, I want it to end quickly and finally.

Not to mention, if you ever DO have to draw your weapons, you, or someone in your party, should be dialing 9-1-1 at the same time, to request the presence of the poh-pohs ASAP. If the BG leaves, then brings back some homeboys, and you're still standing there waiting for him, you've made some tactical mistakes!

I agree that if possible, someone should be calling 911. However, if I'm engaging a BG with my weapon and I'm alone, then the 911 call goes out after the shooting stops. #1-Trying to do 2 things at once is difficult, but trying to engage a BG and hold a conversation with LE would be near impossible for either to be done with any sort of effectiveness. #2-With the way that media likes to play (and sometimes edit/distort) tapes of 911 calls, it's best to not give them much to work with. I envision the call to go something like: "Please send police & ambulance to (location), shots have been fired". <Click> #3-The next very next call should be to a lawyer, even before the police arrive. Explain everything and anything to your lawyer outside of hearing range of the police.

[JeepGuy79]

I agree with above. Run what it will eat. I like winchester Ranger -T myself. It is reliable and has good expansion.

I am not going to assume your feelings on using your weapon but I can tell you that if things have escalated to the point that mine is out, it will likely be smoking in my scared shaking hand and the last thing on my mind will be which bullets are made of rubber. My only thought will be stopping the threat.

[chandler583]

I carry hornady critical duty. 135grain +p.

[dac1842]

I observed where someone mentioned a warning shot? WHY? Your gun should not break leather unless you feel your life is in danger. If your life is in danger then you shoot to neutralize the threat. Forget the warning shot. that is the dumbest thing one can do.
Practice with your weapon regularly, don't let the only time you shoot your gun be at the CHL requalification. May as well use for a paperweight if that is all you are going to do.
One more pet peeve, (going into this since I think you said you were new), Don't ask about hypothetical scenarios, practice what you will do. No one knows how they will react in a certain situation until they are in it. If you practice scenarios you are more likely to react the way you train.

Avoid the John Wayne mentality. You aren't John Wayne. Keep in mind in most situations you might find yourself in, being a good witness will be the best thing you can do.

[Jumping Frog]

I know pulling is a last resort thing and is ONLY to stop, not kill so should I load 1 or 2 rubber or less lethal rounds at the top of my magazine?

A person shot with a handgun survives 85% of the time. Shooting them with regular bullets already is "shoot to stop", not "shoot to kill".

Rubber bullets are a naive idea. Simply get ordinary self defense ammo that feeds reliably in your gun and be done with it. There are dozens of threads easily found on this forum suggesting legitimate self defense brands. Pick one and test it.

I won't carry any brand of ammo that has not had at least 200 error-free rounds through my gun.

[packa45]

In your last resort self defense tool my advise is carry live ammo preferably a JHP that has a good balance of penetration and expansion so the temporary and permanent wound cavity is as large as possible. The larger the cavity the better chance you have of inflicting hemostatic shock (blunt force trauma) as well as causing physical damage and tearing of vital body tissue... The more damage you do the aggressor is less likely to continue his violent action.

As several have said if you want less lethal options get pepper spray or a taser.

If someone wants to cause me severe bodily injury I am meeting that force with as much force as legally possible to stop the attack. Some attackers will break off of an attack when met with resistance, others will try to KILL you for fighting back. Either way I would rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

[liberty2014]

After trying out a few different brand i went with 115 grain gold dot in 9m and a can of sabre red pepper spray. Thanks for all the input guys, i appreciate it a ton.

[TXwaterdog]

The kind that goes bang.. but really.. I'd have to agree with the overall theme here. If I was going to pull that trigger I'd be firing lethal rounds. It would be a life or death situation. I would never want to be in a life and death situation and have less than stellar ammo in my gun.. It's simple, spring for the good stuff that you'll never fire. Keep a clip full of it for your carry gun.. try the rest out at the range to ensure it feed and loads properly.

[TexAg12]

Don't worry about carrying something non-lethal in your mag. You carry for a reason and it would be horrible if your life depended on it and you didn't have what you needed. As for ammo, I carry DRT ammo in both of my guns. It's some amazing stuff.

[rocketsteve]

The reason I asked about less lethal is because when i took the chl course the instructor drilled it into our head pretty hard that we are NEVER shooting to kill. We are shooting to stop, if I can hit somebody center mass with a few rubber bullets to give me enough time to take his weapon I'm all for it. I still plan on carrying live ammo, just wondering if my first two rounds should be rubber.

I 've loaded my EDC with Speer Gold Dot 124gr. +P hollowpoints. NYPD and other LE agencies, across the U.S., use this ammo as standard issue for their service weapons; you won't find a "rubber bullet" anywhere in sight, if one even exists.

I'm not trying to kill an attacker; I'm trying to stop the attack as quickly as possible, which means I will continue to shoot my EDC until the attack has stopped. If the attacker should happen to die, that is an unfortunate result of the encounter, but I'd prefer that over my own death.


Speer Gold Dots have an extremely good performance record and it's the brand of ammo that I have chosen to protect my life with.

[IChangIT]

Gold Dot 185gr rides in my EDC. If I have draw to defend my life I want to have the best ammo I can get my hands for the best fighting chance. It's not about killing or maiming or wounding...it's about stopping the threat and my survival. My life 1st, the legal stuff after.