Best ammo for personal protection

Just looking through my ammo storage:

1. Federal hydra-shoks in .40 & .45
2. Win SXT's in .40
3. Gold dot's in .45
4. Golden sabres in .45
5. Hornady TAP LE in .40 & .45

Of all of the above mentioned, my guns seemed to prefer the TAP LE the best.
 
NAA said:
WTF? The 'country' doesn't "allow" bad guys to attack... :eek: But the rest is pretty much true after a certain point... :(
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It allows the Bad guys to attack by ensuring that they are protected as much as possible from deadly consequence from their intended victims. Government has determined that they prefer to have a society for all intents and purposes unarmed and accept the personal loss to the victims.
 
A bit of the article I posted earlier, very interesting read ,

Special Loads

Some special purpose loads make sense for home defense, the hollowpoint .223 being a case in point. Some frangible-bullet handgun loads have been recommended on the theory that they won't go through sheetrock but will vaporize an opponent. Actually, the more effective high-energy versions of these rounds may punch right through if they strike on a perpendicular angle.

The old wisdom used to be to load a nightstand shotgun with birdshot. This is devastating at very close range, but at "down the hall" distance, the pellets may have spread enough that they won't have sufficient penetration into a large, heavily clad intruder.

I would personally go with #1 buckshot (20 .30 caliber projectiles) in a full power 12 gauge load, or reduced-recoil 00 buck (nine .33 caliber projectiles), or #3 buckshot (20 .25 caliber pellets) for a 20 gauge home defense shotgun. Caution: Low recoil buckshot won't feed reliably in all 12 gauge autoloaders.

In handgun loads, hollowpoints geared for optimum penetration make sense for home defense. In many calibers, the Silvertip will be a good choice.

A handy home defense gun is the M-1 carbine. Only one hollowpoint is made for it, Winchester's 110 gr. at 1,990 fps. It's the hands-down choice for this purpose.

Home defense is a lot more about the shooter than the gun or the load. It's about consistent application of technique more than equipment. And it's about proper planning, tactics and mindset more than anything.

The first priority is awareness and preparedness. The second is proper use of tactics. Third comes skill with the safety equipment, which includes-- but is not limited to-- weapons. Only fourth comes the selection of optimum tools-- the guns and ammunition-- to deal with the predictable threat.

Average Penetration In Ballistic Gelatin
No Impediment Sheet Rock Barrier
.40 S&W 180 gr. JHP 14.2" 25.2"
.223 Rem. 55 gr. FMJ 14.3" 11.5"
12 gauge 00 buckshot 22.8" 23.2"
12 gauge 1 oz. slug 21.0" 23.4"
 
I keep a few pistol mags loaded with ordinary FMJ Winchester .40 S&W that I use at the range. In a "grab a gun" type emergency, it would be my Glock 22 and a couple of those mags. I have a feeling that the average Canadian scumbag assailant would be caught more than a little off guard by pretty much any kind of gun with any kind of ammo.

If I had some advance warning that a gun might be needed, and if the legal issues were not an overriding concern, I would load up some mags with the .40S&W Remington Golden Sabre hollowpoints I have. If that didn't cut it, I'd move on to my Winchester 110 grain .357 JHPs. And if THAT didn't do the trick, I'd be on to my VZ58S with Norinco 7.62x39mm ball. And if that's not powerful enough, then at least I put up a good fight, and I'm screwed.
 
Colin said:
It allows the Bad guys to attack by ensuring that they are protected as much as possible from deadly consequence from their intended victims. Government has determined that they prefer to have a society for all intents and purposes unarmed and accept the personal loss to the victims.
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I DISAGREE...

....if perp is in YOUR house and comes at you , or your loved ones, with a knife or some other possibly "deadly" weapon you are allowed to respond with deadly force. I am pretty sure most police, crown attornies and judges would say that you acted "within the law"....this is especially true if you have witnesses to back up your side of the story and if evidence at the scene backs it up including some sort of "defensive wound" from the attacker.



However, if someone breaks in your back door and you are standing there with a shotgun you have to give him a chance to leave. If he does leave you aren't allowed to shoot at him or shoot him in the back. Just because someone is on your property and is trying to steal something does not give you justification to shoot him. That part of the law I AGREE with.
 
350 Mag said:
I DISAGREE...

....if perp is in YOUR house and comes at you , or your loved ones, with a knife or some other possibly "deadly" weapon you are allowed to respond with deadly force. I am pretty sure most police, crown attornies and judges would say that you acted "within the law"....this is especially true if you have witnesses to back up your side of the story and if evidence at the scene backs it up including some sort of "defensive wound" from the attacker.



However, if someone breaks in your back door and you are standing there with a shotgun you have to give him a chance to leave. If he does leave you aren't allowed to shoot at him or shoot him in the back. Just because someone is on your property and is trying to steal something does not give you justification to shoot him. That part of the law I AGREE with.
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+1 I agree with 350 Mag.
 
Given the required storage requirements of HG, they better give you ALOT of notice.

The time required to open at least three sets of locks for just the HG alone, let alone the mag and load the ammo negates is application as a defensive device in this country.

Keeping a HG cocked and locked may solve the immediate problem but you are likely to be held to more guilt in the eyes of the law then the orig criminal.

Sure, if a villan was really slow and made enormous amounts of noise to give you a two minute head start, go for it. But then you have the deadly force response.

I like to refer to the bear defense thread. If a nasty 'bear' was going to attack me or family and do bodily harm, my choice would be 325gr of hard cast flat nose 45 slug coming at it around 1550fps with 8 more following suit.

Win 94 that is easily accessible and fast to load. I will be my life that I can aim a carbine a lot better under this type of stress then any HG.

More effective too....

Jerry

PS I make my own bullets....
 
iamcanadianeh said:
I was wondering what the best ammo for personal protection in 9mm is. I've heard a lot of people who use Hydra Shocks and swear by them, and theres the new Federal expanding full metal jackets out now, are they any good?
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This depends on the situation, which is why there are so many different loads available. First of all it depends on what you're shooting the ammo out of.

The SAAMI spec that US makers use gives you fairly feeble 9mm ammo as it was settled on back in the 1920s, IIRC. However, if you've got a 9mm pistol from back then, you need to use ammo to this spec.

"+P+" is code for the NATO pressure standard, which pretty much all modern 9mm pistols are designed to use, with the exception of the cheap 9mm pistols made in the US.

Other things to bear in mind are who you are likely to be shooting - are they going to be wearing a T-shirt or a thick winter jacket? The thicker the clothing the more penetration you will need, so having some super-light expanding or fragmenting bullet probably isn't the wisest choice. Different hollowpoints have different expansion characteristics also depending on what they hit.

Also, is your firearm suppressed? If so, then you need something subsonic.

Having said all that, these are my choices:

Federal Premium 9BPLE 115gr JHP +P+ - this has a fantastically good record;
Winchester Ranger 115gr JHP +P+ - basically the Silvertip but with a copper jacket at a higher velocity, also has a good record;
Winchester Ranger 127gr SXT +P+ - another 9mm with an excellent record, probably the best all-rounder, the extra mass gives it more penetration;
Federal Hydra-Shok 124gr JHP +P+ - similar to above, apparently not quite as good though;
Cor-Bon 147gr JHP +P - the best choice IMO if you need more penetration, I think it's the only 147gr load that is supersonic, unless someone else has come out with something else recently (not sure if it's made anymore).

Three of these five loads I've carried for self-defence, when I lived in the US.

Everything else IMO is either not as good, as good but has a lot of gimmick quality and you're wasting money on something you could get cheaper, or is for certain specialised uses that don't generally apply. There are a lot of frangible loads for use on aircraft and things like that now. Shooting through walls and so on is a real issue, 9mm is highly penetrative.
 
If I gotta use a handgun it's gonna be Golden Sabres as they all I can normally get my mits on. However, to avoid certain storage aspects that may be pounced on by some lawyer, I'd still go with 00 buck or maybe a 123gr out of my No.5
 
mr00jimbo said:
Just curious also where to buy, around the Vancouver area. I hope nobody judges you when you guy in and buy it, like "...why do you need this" type deal.
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Just ask them why they sell it.
 
I have Winchester SXT Personal Protection 9mm Luger 147GR JHP in my Sig P226R and Federal Hydra-Shok .45 Auto JHP 230GR in my Glock 21.
 
My experience is that anything close to subsonic does not expand reliably in real flesh. I would opt for midweight hp ammo, 124grn for 9mm, 155-165 for .40, and 185-200grain for .45 I would consider a .45auto 200grain swc a verry good all around defensive load, good penatration, reasonable damage, and its going to do the same thing every time. My tests of 230grain .45 ammo against flesh, bone, and other things showed me it was a verry poor choice. Its nice to have an outdoor range and a wide open deer season(in the CWD area :) ) were you supply of actual tissue is free.

Oh the most crazy load I have done was probably the 185 gdhp in a .45lc case out of a ruger blackhawk, loaded to what I thought should be max, and probably making close to 1400 or 1500fps?
That was deadly
 
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Anyone have any info on Fiocchi 9mm 147g JHP's? I believe it is a sub sonic load.
Just wondering as I picked up a box of these a bit back.
 
slicknick said:
If I gotta use a handgun it's gonna be Golden Sabres as they all I can normally get my mits on. However, to avoid certain storage aspects that may be pounced on by some lawyer, I'd still go with 00 buck or maybe a 123gr out of my No.5
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I'm not a big fan of Golden Saber, it's not as accurate as most of the competing loads, and it turns the barrel of your pistol yellow. At least the stuff I had did. Took me ages to get it all out. There was a big stink when the FBI HRT asked for something like 2-inch groups at 25 yards with Golden Saber out of their custom 1911s and a lot of the companies tendering protested because to get that sort of accuracy with Golden Saber made it extremely hard to meet the reliability standard. I think Les Baer was the only company that tendered that managed it.

Plus being American they don't spell "sabre" correctly, which is another blow against it. :p
 
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