Semi-autos, yes. Revolvers, no. I'm not carrying full house magnums in my LCR.
Semi-autos, yes. Revolvers, no. I'm not carrying full house magnums in my LCR.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
In our testing for DOD we found that it tended to not expand as reliably under adverse conditions and that it tended to over penetrate that 12-18" FBI standard, particularly out of shorter barrels. HST and G2 performed the best by far under the widest range of testing conditions.
Last edited by KhanRad; 07-01-2018 at 10:15 AM.
"A man with an experience is not a slave to a man with an opinion."
I've standardized on Federal's HSTs for my autoloaders in 9x19, .40 S&W and .45 ACP because they're on Doc's list, available and reasonably priced. My 4" .38s use Remington's LSWC-HPs and my 4" .357s use the same company's 158-grain SJHPs because they're available, reasonably priced, shoot to POA with the fixed-sight guns and have a good reputation from "back in the day" (since current professional testing is sparse-to-non-existant).
No. My three carry guns are a j frame, G 43 and a G 19 that sits on the night stand. I’m currently using the 124 hst in the 19 and recently found out those are not sufficient for the g43 so I got the heavier 150 hst. I suppose I could go 147 across the board but I have several hundred rounds of the 124 and don’t feel like switching lol
"Shooting is 90% mental. The rest is in your head." -Nils
By caliber, generally speaking, yes, I use the same in everything. The noted exception being my Shields (9mm) where I avoid +P and +P+ ammo as I've heard the cycling can be too fast and induce stoppages. Might be myth, but, why tempt faith and the idea of a small, light slide cycling too fast is a known phenomenon in other platforms? I agree it's all about shot placement anyway, so, while fun, quibbling over HST vs Gold Dot, for example, is counter-productive.
Barring some reason to have a specific load for each pistol ( say, one load does not shoot to the sights, or function well)... it makes sense to me to standardize. That said, if a gun wont function with common premium JHP ammo, it's probably a gun problem not an ammo problem.
I have long carried and shot RA9T in all of my Glocks. It works and shoots well enough in all my guns to be "standard" for me. I know where it shoots, how it feels, and I don't have to think about which gun/which load I'm using for any given shot. I should perform fine from anything G26-34's sized... and where the bullet goes is far more important than what it might do when it gets there. I used to carry whatever I could get my hands on locally. Then I happened into a large lot of RA9T for $10/50... and stuck with it. I've since purchased a case or two over the years, and shoot through a bit of it to rotate carry ammo out, and fresh in. I've bought and shot a few other JHP loads, and I practice with my own reloads ( 147gr bullets and WSF, loaded to near the same velocity as RA9T).
If RA9T dried up, I'd not feel bad switching to HST or Gold Dots.
Absolutely.
While terminal bullet performance (expanded frontal area, depth of penetration) are obviously important, they are markedly LESS important than hitting something of significance for producing incapacitation, assuming a determined and strong aggressor bent on causing serious bodily harm or death.
"Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman
I use 124+P HST in all my 9mm pistols regardless of barrel length. My last purchase was 4 cases.
I try to stock only one defense load per caliber. My work issues Ranger T 180 grain for the G23 and I manage to maintain a small stash for my off duty G27.
124 grain Ranger T +P is on hand for my three standard (double column) sizes of Glock 9s.
.38 is where two weights of defense loads are kept. 130 Ranger Bonded or 135 grain Speer Gold Dot for my newer .38 442-2 and the old classic 158 grain LHP for the old fixed sight .38s that shoot low with the newer lighter bullets.