Post by hunter on Jan 31, 2020 11:49:28 GMT
Best 9mm Ammo Brands For Concealed Carry
Finding the best 9mm ammo for concealed carry, duty or other purposes has long consumed both the shooting public and also the ammunition industry for some time now. Many people purport that one particular brand or particular brand of them are, of course, but which one really is?
Define "best." Best for whom? And compared to what?
Defining Good 9mm Ammunition
9mm ammunition
Before we get rolling, we should probably define the "best" 9mm ammunition. What makes one brand or particular box really good and what makes another one not so good?
Performance is one aspect. Carry ammo has to do the job it's made to do, which is fly straight, penetrate to sufficient depth and - in case of jacketed hollow points - expand sufficiently to open up a larger wound channel, dump the round's energy into the target and come to a stop before exiting. If it doesn't work, it's only good for the range.
Reliability is another. After all, what good is any 9mm ammo hollow point if you can't trust every round to ignite?
Another is price. Granted, 9mm ammo isn't expensive; even the good stuff is bargain-basement compared to rifle rounds. (If you think a box of HST is expensive, go get a box of Nosler Partition, even in something common like .30-06.) That said, it's one thing to spend a lot of money for really good ammo; it had better work or else no one will buy it. Good ammo you don't have to spend much for? Even better!
Another factor, though, is totally subjective and that is how well it shoots in YOUR gun. You'll probably find that many brands and specific product lines thereof are okay but a few really stand out. Those are the ones to get.
If the 9mm ammo in question is a proven performer, if getting it doesn't break the bank and it works well in your gun, you've found a winner. Now, with that said, let's go over some popular types of 9mm ammo that are very popular for self-defense.
The polymer insert acts as an assist. When the bullet enters a soft target, the polymer nub in the bullet puts additional hydraulic pressure on the cavity in the bullet, making expansion more reliable.
Critical Duty is a known performer, and Critical Defense is a very popular carry round, so it's an excellent choice. Ballistic testing by various parties indicates as much.
There is, however, a slight caveat. Hornady's Critical Duty and Critical Defense bullets - namely the projectiles, not the cartridge - require a little bit be trimmed from the case mouth to fully seat into the case. The slightly shorter case (less than 1mm is taken off) gives some guns indigestion, so make sure to check to see if your gun (or guns) can feed it reliably.
Another popular 9mm ammunition brand is Federal HST. Federal HST succeeded Hydra Shok as the premier handgun ammunition made by Federal with a number of design improvements over its predecessor. A number of law enforcement agencies and police departments have adopted it, so it's good enough for the professionals.
HST ammunition mechanically locks the lead core to the jacket, so the round acts like a bonded hollow point without actually bonding the two layers. The tip of the jacket is skivved (thinned) to make expansion more dramatic and reliable, and testing (and real-world use) has indicated HST does so more dramatically and reliably than Hydra Shok, which was practically the go-to carry ammo for some time.
A "law enforcement only" line called HST Tactical and the civilian brand are both made by Federal. The former is supposed to only be sold to cops, but some ammunition sellers will sell it to civilians. The latter can be found in most gun stores.
HST 9mm ammunition is one of the most popular brands for good reason, so you'd hardly go wrong.
Winchester Ranger T Series is part of the Winchester Law Enforcement line, meaning it's supposed to only be sold to law enforcement. Since ammunition is sold to consumers (institutional or private) by a distributor rather than by the maker, that means some won't abide by that 100 percent and thus you can get it.
Ranger T Series is known for good penetration and reliable expansion in testing, and a number of police departments nationwide have found it very suited to its task. It can work in shorter barrels but a compact or full-size will get a bit more out of it since it is a duty round. Some hunting will be involved (you have to find a willing distributor) but it isn't terribly difficult to source.
RIP Rounds...The New Hotness Or Tactical Gimmick?
A brand and box that's been catching on lately is the RIP by G2 Research. The name is "Rapidly Invasive Projectile" not anything else, so let's not get into that. This ammunition has a unique design, which some people find attractive. However, others believe that the wheel is reinvented dramatically less often than various people (who are trying to sell you stuff) say.
RIP rounds are built like a hollow point, though they aren't. They're all copper, with a copper base kind of like a wadcutter with a jacket (of sorts) extending past the base. The jacket is cut, which leads to weak petals that peel off upon entering soft tissue. The jacket breaks off into trokars ostensibly piercing soft tissue targets (organs, veins, arteries) and the core continues deeper into the target - again - kind of like a wadcutter.
Does it work?
Also, this ammunition is only a few years old. It doesn't have a track record yet to draw on. Speer Gold Dot has a track record; Federal Hydra Shok, Remington Golden Saber, Hornady XTP, Winchester Ranger and Silver Tip hollow points and so on have track records and are known to be reliable and effective.
It's a cool idea, to be sure, but ultimately you'll have to make up your own mind on this one.
Speer Gold Dot is one of the stalwarts of 9mm ammo for defense, as it's carried nationwide by many police departments and LEO agencies (including the FBI) as well as civilians. It's renowned for being incredibly accurate with good penetration and reliable expansion in almost all popular calibers in standard and +P loadings.
The pedigree does bring with it a price tag (not astronomical though) but this is one of the "go tos" for defensive ammunition. Like other proven types of ammunition - such as Remington Core-Lokt or Nosler Partition for rifles - you won't ever go wrong.
Everything that could be said about Winchester Ranger T Series can be said about Remington Golden Saber. It's a LEO round, but some distributors will sell to the public. It's known for good penetration and reliable expansion. If you carry a larger gun, you'll likely get a bit more out of it.
There are standard and bonded versions out there, should you decide to look into it. Just like with Ranger T Series, you're going to have to do some hunting to find it, but it is a very popular round with police departments and federal agencies, so it's a good choice for a carry round.
Why bother trying to find T series and, for that matter, why even bring up the LEO ammo in the first place? Because a box of 50 T Series goes for only a few dollars more than a box of 20 Defenders through the retailers that will sell to you.
Another brand and box that gets people curious is Liberty Civil Defense 9mm ammo. Liberty takes a slightly different tack compared to traditional JHP.
Liberty Civil Defense goes the lighter/faster route, employing a 50-grain nickel-coated copper hollow point. It's propelled to +P velocities achieving 2000 fps, which independent reviewers have largely confirmed to be accurate.
The idea is to propel the bullet fast enough for ensure reliable expansion as well as to produce hydrostatic shock, a pressure wave that damages elastic tissue. While common with rifle cartridges, it's harder to do with standard handgun projectiles without pushing chamber pressures far beyond what's safe.
The effect is that the projectile mushrooms and flattens, but the petals burst apart due to the hydrostatic shock. A possible downside is a bit less penetration than typical JHP 9mm ammo, but for civilian purposes, that's actually not a bad thing.
According to the founder of Liberty Defense (whom I spoke to at SHOT Show) a few police departments have adopted it with very encouraging results. At least one of the agencies has a real problem with having to put down deer struck by cars; standard 9mm ammo wasn't doing the trick, so they sent them some to try and the issues were solved. It's also supposed to be very effective on feral hogs.
We haven't tested any, but what testing is out there...actually looks very encouraging.
All are known to be decent performers and at a variety of price points ranging from less than $20 for a box of 20 (Corbon) to more than $30 for the same amount (HST) and about $22 or so for a box of 50, such as Winchester white box. You get the general idea.
There are more out there, so do be sure to test a few out. You'll probably find a box or two that your gun happens to group very closely and feeds easily. That is the load to carry. If it's a reliable defense round, and you happen to shoot it well, then that's the load to get.