+P and +P+?

I'm probably not the best person to write about this, and while my experience with +P and +P+ is limited, it has been that the gain in velocity is outweighed by muzzle blast and at times, sharply increased recoil. It's true that in the US many police agencies have determined that the only way to obtain consistent expansion of 9mm bullets is through increasing their velocity beyond "normal" standards. It's also true that most of the studies that lead to that conclusion were done before a lot of the bullets we now have were available. If you use cartridges with bullets in the 115 gr. range, expansion is usually pretty consistent. If you use bullets in the 147 gr. range, very high velocities may be needed to expand them. The big thing with me was that in practicing, I found the muzzle blast caused me to flinch all the time and was just plain annoying, and that the recoil was often sharp enough to hurt my hand after more than a magazine or two. I found that if I concentrated on getting bullet placement where I wanted it, I just wasn't concerned so much about expansion. Besides, I found expansion with normal loads was pretty good. Any hollow point from a handgun, regardless of velocity will not expand if it encounters some denser material that plugs the opening and effectively creates a solid bullet. A lighter bullet driven to relatively high velocities expands pretty well and doesn't require +P loading. It doesn't penetrate as deeply as the FBI standard requires, but then most of us aren't using them for the same purpose. Normally loaded ammunition was always my preference. But I'm a small person and perhaps larger individuals didn't encounter these problems.
 
I have a fair bit of experience in shooting +P 9mm ammo of different kinds. They are not uncontrollable or anything. I find them to be really nice to shoot actually. A good balance of power and controlability. In very rough terms, it makes a 9 feel something a bit more like a 40. They have more oomph to them, there is generally more muzzle flash, and the sound is different. The +P stuff seems to usually be supersonic out of a pistol barrel, so it has a different sound to it.

For any kind of defensive purpose (police, military, CCW, etc.) I absolutely wouldn't hesitate to carry something +P or +P+ in a 9mm if it was within the regulations. 9mm with good hot ammo, to my mind, I would not feel undergunned. If this kind of ammo was not available for whatever reason, .40S&W would be the better choice. As far as I know, there are no +P .40S&W rounds, as the round is higher pressure to begin with. It is just the old (100 years, or whatever) rounds that are still popular: 9mm, .45ACP, .38 Special, etc.

I've never shot +P .45ACP, but I would love to try it. Seems like the potential is there to create something with some real oomph!
 
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