Advising On Defensive Handgun Ammo Selection
You already know this: Products with proven “street credibility”
(i.e., those used by law enforcement) are going to prove popular for consumers.
It’s common for customers to ask gun shop staff for advice on defensive ammunition, and the question is particularly frequent among first-time gun buyers.
If they ask for the cheapest, that’s going to be round nose full metal jacket, which is a notoriously poor “manstopper” and an obviously bad choice for someone who wants to be able to quickly stop violent men.
The wrong ammo can have another consequence. Round nose lead or full metal jacket bullets, now used primarily for training and target shooting, tend to shoot through and through the body of the attacker — which is usually the only safe backstop there is.
The late attorney John LeVick spoke of one of his cases where a rescuer saved a friend’s life and his own, but one of his 9mm FMJ bullets went through the attacker and into the friend.
So, let’s look at recommendations.
In General
For the reasons above, your defensive-ammo customer generally wants expanding bullets. History has given us ample proof they stop bad guys quicker. They’re designed to stay in the body of the offender, reducing the likelihood of an over-penetrating bullet that could strike a bystander who was unseen by the shooter because of tunnel vision, darkness or the offender’s body simply blocking their view. The cookie-cutter shape of a hollowpoint is also likely to bite into any hard surface it strikes, reducing the likelihood of a ricochet that could strike an innocent bystander.
The only rounds with an established record “on the street” are those issued widely by police. Their high frequency of use builds a database.
My career — which includes 19 years as chair of the firearms/deadly force training committee of the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers and a like period on the advisory board of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers — has given me access to a great many of the police instructors who keep track of such things at their agencies.
Based on that input, I offer you the following recommendations.
Premium vs. Exotic Loads
The only ammo we have a good database on — due to being used by LEOs — tends to be premium-grade ammo from the five largest manufacturers, in alphabetical order: Federal, Hornady, Remington, Speer and Winchester. The product lines are Federal HST, Hornady Critical Duty, Remington Golden Saber, Speer Gold Dot and Winchester Ranger. (Only one of those brands, Winchester Ranger, is limited by manufacturer policy to law enforcement sales, but their PDX-1 commercial line is pretty close to the same thing.)
What about exotic loads? Most of the frangible bullets with very light weight and very high velocity come short on penetration, not meeting the FBI standard of 12″ minimum to 18″ in calibrated ordnance gelatin, and tend to be too expensive to practice with and “vet” in the given pistol.
Their point of impact vis-à-vis the point of aim may differ dramatically from training ammo. Moreover, very light/very fast is not what most Auto pistols were built for, and the altered cyclic rate may cause malfunctions. Non-hollowpoint fluted bullets — such as those from Lehigh Defense — are promising according to testing, and have worked very well in handgun hunting. However, we have little (if any) feedback from the field as to their manstopping efficacy.
Caliber-By-Caliber Evaluation
Let’s look at the popular defense loads.
During its brief flash of popularity, the 10mm Auto seemed to turn in the best performances in the field with 175- to 180-grain bullets somewhere around the 1,200 fps velocity range. Notable among these was the Winchester 175-grain Silvertip, now in production again, and Hornady makes an XTP in a similar weight/velocity range.
The .357 SIG had a longer and greater popularity run, but is now hard to find and has fallen out of favor due, in great part, to ammo unavailability. Its high-velocity 125-grain bullets performed awesomely in Virginia for Richmond PD and the State Police (both Gold Dot) and Tennessee troopers (reportedly Remington Golden Saber) and optional .357s in Dallas (Winchester Ranger).
9mm is now overwhelmingly dominant in both American law enforcement and the armed-citizen sector. Few police departments carry 115-grain anymore, but Federal is again running their 9BPLE load, a 115-grain JHP at 1,300 fps. Similar to the .357’s performance for the Richmond PD, this load performed exceptionally for the Illinois State Police for many years, and ditto in DeKalb County (Atlanta area) and for the Border Patrol in their early use of 9mm. It won’t always make the 12″ minimum in FBI gelatin, but creates a wide, fight-stopping wound channel.
The 9mm 147-grain subsonic is not as popular as it once was: Indianapolis PD went from it in the HST to 124-grain +P HST, but Los Angeles County Sheriffs are reportedly still happy with 147. The FBI, which really promoted the 147 at first, is now reportedly issuing 135-grain Hornady Critical Defense. In the middle is the 124-grain +P, my own choice for general 9mm carry, with rave reviews from NYPD and Las Vegas Metro (both Gold Dot) and Chicago PD (Winchester).
.380 ACP is popular, but problematic. It has enough power to expand a hollowpoint or reach the FBI’s recommended 12″ minimum penetration, but not both. JHPs can fail to go deep enough; ball will go deep enough, but it is the round that gave .380 its reputation for feeble “stopping power” in the first place. Fluted bullets such as the Lehigh or Black Hills HoneyBadger are promising in testing but have little field feedback. The Hornady XTP 90-grain JHP comes close to FBI’s penetration spec and generally expands at least to some degree.
.40 S&W has lost popularity but is still commonly used. The 180-grain subsonic JHPs have the mildest recoil and is still preferred by the California Highway Patrol, but 165-grain JHPs at 1,140 fps seemed to make the most dynamic wounds in the guns of departments like Nashville Metro, with Gold Dot, HST, Golden Saber and Ranger equally effective.
In .45 ACP, 230-grain JHP like the Winchester and the HST (particularly in +P) have been known to expand to an inch and still reach optimum depth.
There are still lots of .38 Specials out there, and one trend among experts is recommending 148-grain mid-range wadcutters, which exhibit deep penetration and substantial “crush cavity” with very mild recoil in the lightweight guns that are now the most-carried .38s. Remington’s 158-grain +P lead hollowpoint expands at least somewhat in flesh from short barrels, as do the hard-to-get 135-grain +P Speer Gold Dots, which ATK’s Ernest Durham and his team engineered expressly for 2″ revolvers.
In .357 Magnum full-velocity (1,450 fps) 125-grain hollowpoints from Remington and Federal remain the most proven, closely followed by Winchester’s recently re-introduced 145-grain Silvertip.
Ultimately, a consumer’s ammo purchase is driven by several factors — price, intended use, preferences, brand loyalty, etc. As a resident expert in the community, your recommendations on ammunition selection could save lives.
