competition bullet vs self-defense

[Cory]

I shoot 115gr Winchester White Box the vast majority of the time for practice. My preferred defensive round is 124HST or 124 Gold Dot. I feel like the biggest thing to take note of is the difference in how they pattern in your gun. If one shoots high and the other slightly lower, or this round needs a tip of the front sight, this one needs a drive the dot... that kind of thing. I feel like that's more important than difference in recoil impulse. There will likely be a difference, but the focus is usually on getting the bullet where you want it... if you focus too much on the recoil you're bound to mess up the more important part.

That being said, outside of a few local steel matches I'm not a competitive shooter yet.

-Cory

[Peally]

The difference is so minimal I don't bother regularly training on defensive ammo. You do notice a little difference, but if anything it just causes a split second of "huh that's neat" in your brain before you forget about it entirely.

The reason I shoot 9mm in lighter loads is so my wrists aren't dying after every practice session.

[Wayne Dobbs]

"Muscle memory" is one of those terms like "accidental discharge" that needs to leave our lexicon forever. Muscles don't have memories. We have neural pathways developed from physical task repetitions and this is what creates overlearned, automatic responses.

[psalms144.1]

Our issued "training" ammunition is M882 124 gr +P equivalent FMJ. Our issued "duty" ammunition is A260 147gr JHP - fairly slow moving. They shoot to slightly different POAs, but I shoot enough duty ammo in drills and quals that I know to offset for the difference in training drills where accuracy is paramount. This isn't a major issue. As JHC pointed out, it was dramatic when I shot full house .357s for "serious" work and shot pathetically light .38 wad cutters for fun, but those days are past.

[Hi-Point Aficionado]

I roughly velocity match my cast handloads to the 180 grain HST that I carry. Not for any recoil concerns but to keep POA/POI similar between the two.

[dragonmouse]

Thanks guys for all the discussion. That's all I was after was some real world experience and numbers. I missed a deer a couple of years ago, having shot powder puffs outa the 44 mag all summer and mistakenly didn't resight for the magnum loads before season. THAT was a major poa/poi difference. I now realize how different that is to the small difference's in the common loadings for competition and self-defense. I will load lighter bullets for practice to save a few pennies but load them for accuracy to match my carry ammo and have the best of both worlds. With what I have onhand, I can load for about 1/3 of the cost for the next couple of years over factory fmj's. Win/win more bullets more shooting! Again thanks to all.

[dolphin62]

The real difference..one hits a asshole and the other hits targets.

[dolphin62]

Technical areas of the forum, essentially anywhere other than General Discussion, are not appropriate places for pithy and/or clever throwaway statements that do not add to the conversation. Let's please strive to keep PF from becoming just another shitty gun forum.

sorry it wont happen again.

[chl442]

For classes and shooting groups at 25 yards , 50 yards I like Speer Lawman 147 grain or Federal American Eagle 147 grain fmj as I find for me at least it replicates POA/POI of Federal HST 147 grain pretty well in my Glocks and Hks. If I'm focusing on 10 yards and in , working draws to first shots from concealment ect I'll use whatever 115 grain stuff that's running 18 cents a round . That's what's worked for me .