Personal Defense Ammo (Hollow Points)

[OurDee]

9mm Luger +P 124 GR. BJHP GOLDEN SABER
45 AUTO+P 230 GR JHP MAGTECH GUARDIAN GOLD
45 AUTO+P 230 gr XTP
.45 Auto 230 GRAIN Remington GOLDEN SABER GS45APB
45 AUTO 118GR/1307FPS/448FT LBS RUGER ARX

 

[VulpesForge]

I personally carry 180gr or 200gr xtps. They work for deer so they'll work for people. They expand a bit and penetrate well without falling apart. 10mm if that wasn't obvious.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Some generalities:

HSTs and Gold Dots work in pretty much every caliber worth carrying.

Some old school bullets work just fine, but have their own niche. Silver tips work in heavy bullets like for .45 Colt loads but are generally trash in light/fast bullets.. Hydra-shoks are the opposite, they work quite well in light/fast and are a good bullet for non-snubby .357 Magnum loads but are trash in slow/heavy like .45 Auto. Little Silver tips don't penetrate enough, slow hydra-shoks are just expensive ball ammo.

Critical Defense is meh. Critical Duty is often biased toward penetration compared to some competitors. If you need to shoot a morbidly obese walrus wearing two leather coats hiding behind an Edsel's door, consider Critical Duty in .357 Magnum from a 4-6" barrel.

Anything fired from a handgun that fragments is probably trash. Anything that's pre-fragmented doubly so.

Anything under .380, forget hollow points.

Look for something that's bonded or otherwise doesn't shed it's jacket, that your gun groups well with at point of aim and doesn't choke on. Put the bullet where it needs to be.

Buy from someone who can provide an exemplar to a crime lab if need be. It'll never be an issue until it's an issue.

 

[wcd]

Some generalities:

HSTs and Gold Dots work in pretty much every caliber worth carrying.

Some old school bullets work just fine, but have their own niche. Silver tips work in heavy bullets like for .45 Colt loads but are generally trash in light/fast bullets.. Hydra-shoks are the opposite, they work quite well in light/fast and are a good bullet for non-snubby .357 Magnum loads but are trash in slow/heavy like .45 Auto. Little Silver tips don't penetrate enough, slow hydra-shoks are just expensive ball ammo.

Critical Defense is meh. Critical Duty is often biased toward penetration compared to some competitors. If you need to shoot a morbidly obese walrus wearing two leather coats hiding behind an Edsel's door, consider Critical Duty in .357 Magnum from a 4-6" barrel.

Anything fired from a handgun that fragments is probably trash. Anything that's pre-fragmented doubly so.

Anything under .380, forget hollow points.

Look for something that's bonded or otherwise doesn't shed it's jacket, that your gun groups well with at point of aim and doesn't choke on. Put the bullet where it needs to be.

Buy from someone who can provide an exemplar to a crime lab if need be. It'll never be an issue until it's an issue.

Thoughts on Remington Green and White Box JHP?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Thoughts on Remington Green and White Box JHP?

I don't know of any institutional testing nor do I have any significant number of real world shootings, so I have no basis for thoughts of any value.

 

[wcd]

I don't know of any institutional testing nor do I have any significant number of real world shootings, so I have no basis for thoughts of any value.

Thanks one of the factors that is a big influence for me is that around here they are still available and they seem to run through my 1911 with good accuracy and consistently hit the target with little variation from box to box provided I do my part.
Thank you

 

[KellyinAvon]

If you need to shoot a morbidly obese walrus wearing two leather coats hiding behind an Edsel's door,

That is painting a picture with words right there! Good to have you back in these parts of the Internet BBI.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

9mm Gold Dot 115 gr

1. Excellent terminal performance without over penetration, pretty darn close to the "perfect" bullet, HST

2. Was less than 50 cents per round, so clearing one mag of SD (occasionally all three) every range trip was routine, all mags cleared at least once a year, did not invoke "precious" syndrome, so I fired 100-200 rounds of SD ammo every year - always fresh ammo

3. Exact same POI as Lawman 115 gr practice ammo, within a gnat's *** of POI of most other 115 gr ball (white box, federal)

4. All of the same could be said of 124 gr GD/Lawman/WB/Fed, but 115 gr much more common in my neck of the woods.

5, Didn't go +P because of over penetration concerns of all except 124 gr, but 124 gr +P target ammo on the regular? Very limiting on sources and harder on the guns.

6. Could get 3 50-rnd boxes with case of Lawman online and stay within std shipping charge - oh, the good ol' days

That is painting a picture with words right there! Good to have you back in these parts of the Internet BBI.

Ditto! Good to see you back @BehindBlueI's!