Stopping Power
Interesting snippet from Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness. I’ve pretty much found all arguments about people’s preference for an effective handgun carry round to be largely academic, for reasons illustrated here. And I say that as someone who carries a 45ACP, mostly.
Still, given my recent purchase of a 9mm, I am pondering what my self defense load should be.
January 24th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Speer Gold Dots seem to be where the bar is set. I have stuck with the 124 grain +P from Black Hills for several years now. Good stuff!
January 24th, 2011 at 10:44 am
Corbon Pow’r Ball
January 24th, 2011 at 11:36 am
I’d have to go with the Speer Gold Dots in 124gr +P as well.
January 24th, 2011 at 11:41 am
The best thing the 9mm has going for it is it’s ability to penetrate. You can extrapolate as you wish. I have never actually seen a bullet, of any kind, go through one person, and then hit another person. I won’t say it don’t happen, just that you don’t see or hear of it that often. I’d say 115 or 124 grains, as hot as possible. Bullet type is not as important to me. I always stagger ball and HP.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
I carry Winchester Ranger 147 grain JHPs in my 9mms, same load that LAPD and LASD use. Todd Green carries 124 grain +P.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
If your gun will feed it, I’m a fan of Cor Con DPX, though the bonded +p rounds work well to from what I have seen in my research.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
I carry NATO-STANAG 124-gr ball in my magazine, with a Gold Dot in the pipe. The NATO ball is quite steamy, high penetration ammo, and will do the job on a variety of targets. You plan on firing multiple rounds with a 9mm anyway.
I specifically would NOT use 147-gr ammo. It is marginal on penetration and if your gun is going to have feeding problems, you will see it with that ammo. The 147-gr Ranger MIGHT give you better wounding, but you also get better wounding with multiple hits.
Adequate penetration and feeding, those are your two main worries with a 9mm. Hot ball ammo handles both issues adequately.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
There IS a difference in effectivness of rounds like 9mm .vs. .45 as David Spauling has written about (videos of shootouts do indicate the .45 hits harder.)
BUT the difference is not huge as the same videos show and the ability to shoot strait matters more than 9mm .vs. .45.
But, if you can shoot strait and fast with a .45, and tolerate the weight if the piece, I’d say pack it.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Caleb, look into how and why police agencies adopted the 147-gr round. Your research should tell you that it was a bunch of old revolver guys who made those decisions, and revolver guys have always fired the heaviest bullet they can.
9mm semi-autos were somewhat controversial as police sidearms when they first came to be used in the 70’s. You avoid controversy as a public agency by changing as little as you can. The 9mm, mostly because of it’s use by the Germans during WW2, had a reputation for over-penetrating that police commanders of the time didn’t want to arouse the public with, so the subsonic 147-gr round was born.
Nines replaced .357s in my department, and the standard round had been the 148-gr semi-wadcutter, a hard-cast round. It penetrated WAAAY more than any 9mm ball, but that was lost on the bozos who make the decisions.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
And with that being said, try Winchester +p+ 127gr JHPs. 1240 fps from my Glock 26 (and I chronoed it.)
January 24th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
BTW, subsonic 147-gr rounds wouldn’t function the early Gen 1 Glocks reliably, and we went to Silvertips for a while, until Glock figured out the problems and our armorers corrected the issues.
January 24th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I like Winchester Silvertips (115gr) in my BHPs. Flawless feed for over 20 years and hundreds of rounds shot. Federal 9BP 115gr JHP as my second choice if no Silvertips available.
I don’t run +P through my BHPs. Some are older and I see no need to overstress them.
January 24th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Self defense round? A .45 JHP, preferably one of the high performance rounds. 9mm – my pathologist friends are not impressed, so neither am I.
Stranger
January 24th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Uncle,
I am very pleased with Hornady’s Critical Defense line, the FTX bullet with its polymer filled hollow point is going to expand every time and make a nice big hole, which is the point of an HP defensive round. I carry 9mm most often, but also carry .380 and .45 depending on my mood and I carry those little nickel plated CD hollow points in every one of them. I am not a bullet expert, but I am a professional researcher so I know how to do product comparisons, and the data I have gathered shows that the consistency of these rounds, from any angle and through any clothing is remarkable. Its what I trust to protect my wife and kids, nuff said.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Cor-Bon DPX.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
124 grain Federal Hydra Shok.
January 24th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
124 gr +p, unless the pistol manufacturer recommends against it. Some of the smaller mini nines might have issues with the +p. Federal Hydra Shok, Speer Gold Dots and Remington Golden Sabers have always worked for me. I’ve heard good things about Black Hills also. Run at least one box of the carry ammo through your weapon before you use it as carry, just in case. My department started issuing us Winchester SXT for our Beretta compacts back in the nineties and we were getting so many failure to feed problems on the range we began to complain loudly until they went back to Hydra Shoks. Funny thing is, Th 40 cal weapon that replaced the Beretta fired the 180 SXT’s without a problem!
January 25th, 2011 at 12:35 am
Another vote for the 124 gr +P Gold Dots. Very reliable in my M&P, and good terminal ballistics per Doc Roberts.
147s are better for bowling pins though.