Whats your carry ammo

I don't know if this has been discussed before but i did a quick search and found nothing.

What is your ammo that you carry in your EDC or your night stand gun for personal protection.

Mine is 40 s&w Federal HST.

You can find this at CTD in McKinney most times. Was 19.99 last I bought.

.357 Sig Speer Gold Dots.

Hornady TAP FPD

Hornady Critical Defense and Remington Golden Sabre

I like to keep it simple so all of mine get GOLD DOTS.

The absolute best ammo (or bullet, I should say) is the Hornady Cridical Defense. The HP part of the bullet is filled with a soft red polymer that will reliably expand in any soft tissue and will not get clogged up. I carry this in my 40 S&W ammo. For my 10mm ammo, I run 175 Win Silver Tips at 1180 fps in a G29 and 1220 fps in a G20. They are very good also!

147 HST in 9mm. Glock 19

I also carry 175 Silver Tips in my G20, and Zombie max in my G19, and Magtec 92gr HP,in my Ruger LCP.

I carry Gold Dot 9mm 124gr +P JHP and Gold Dot 200gr JHP in 45ACP

357 sig Gold Dot

45 ACP Hornady Critical Defense

185 bonded Golden Sabers in my 45.

Did not find a bullet test for your ammo.

40sw

1 mag of Gold dots
1 mag of Hydra Shocks

45acp
use to use gold dots, but gun stopped liking them, now use Hornady XTPs or just 230gr ball.

corbon 125gr +p 9mm

HST and Gold Dot are the only two I trust my life to.

327 gets speer gold dots. The 9 gets critical defense. The 38 gets hydra shoks. The 357 Sig has gold dots. The sawed off 20 gets 000 buck.

+1

Corbon 115's in the 9mm and 230 FMJ"s in the 45.

I carry what the local agencies carry, Federal HST, and Speer Gold Dot. I took to heart a comment I heard years ago 'It's hard for an attorney to make you out to be a monster if you shoot what the cops do'.

gold Dots in 357 Sig for social purposes...sxt's and full metal jacket for backup for hog hunting...Winchester PDX1 230 grain HP in 45acp its a great round.....i carry those in a S&W M&P full size pistol but i never feel underpowered with plain old hardball in 45acp

That's a very true statement.

Plus the ballistics of the hst IMO is very good

It is a statement. But show me in any court case where a reload or non factory ammo was an issue!? I've never seen or heard of one. The lawyers and police I have talked to did not care what ammo you used. The ammo used is not even brought up. It's the bigger picture of what happened. I load and carry my ammo in my G20 and G29. It is much more accurate and consistant. I would rather tell me I used my ammo that functioned 100% in my pistol and went to my point of aim.

It was an issue with Black Talons it didn't go anywhere but it added to defense costs. It's more of an issue in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic states. The local agencies almost all use Federal or Speer so it's not like I'm handicapping myself. I carry 9mm most(HST) and occasionally 45 or 38(Gold Dot).

40 S&W- one mag of 180 grain Gold dots and one of 105 grain DRT

9mm- 147 grain gold dots

the 9 gets gold dots and the 45 gets hornady critical defense or gold dots.

You are technically/legally an ammo manufacture though.

You have proper licensing to make and sell ammo. I think that would make a difference in court over somebody that wasn't.

Most of us reloaders could load the same load as you do, but that fact that we are not legally setup to manufacture and sell ammo would probably be a huge issue in court.

If I loaded and used it...there may be an issue. I could buy the same load from you and it wouldn't be an issue because you made and sold it under a license.

I think for the average re-loader it would be safer to use factory ammo or buy from a licensed manufacture such as yourself just to cover their bases.


Just my .02 cents...

Black Talons bought them when they were cheap still have enough to practice with when they run out Fed. Hydra-Shok will be my next choice.

The lion's share of the U.S. LEO handgun ammo market goes to:

- Ranger T
- Federal HST
- Speer Gold Dot

If it's good enough for most of the nation's police officers to bet their lives on, it's good enough for me. I carry all of these, in one caliber or another, in various guns at various times. Ranger T and Fed HST are my top two choices, but Ranger T can be difficult for civilians to find at times because Winchester tries to restrict sales to LEO only. Fortunately, I write about this stuff, so the ammo makers are generous.

To this collection I would add one more: Winchester PDX1. Not many know this, but PDX1 is identical to the FBI Ranger Bonded duty load. It's simply repackaged/renamed for the civilian self-defense market.

With the caveat that no handgun round is 100% guaranteed to stop an attacker 100% of the time, all of these rounds qualify as top choices for concealed carry/self defense.

One last observation, and a bit of a pet peeve with me. If you're going to choose a load that your life may depend on, spend the money -- and spend the time -- to ensure that you can shoot it accurately and that it is completely reliable in your firearm.

.45ACP 180g Speer Gold Dot

Federal Hydra Shok JHP.

Winchester PDX1.

124 Gr. Hydra-Shok® JHP (9mm)

I carry my reloaded 148gr cast lead 38 double end wadcutters loaded halfway between the 38 and 357 power level.



I just don't sign on to ammo makers hyped up, priced up claims that their super duper stuff will stop a charging rhinoceros. I'll just make and shoot my own.....thank you very much.

that energy dump with those flat point bullets you're using turn your 38 into a hammer of Thor, parisite.....hence the beauty of using a revolver

Wadcutters are designed to be a target bullet to cut nice clean holes in paper, and they do, but they also pack a wallop on whatever they hit. The back of the bullet looks the same as the front; just a cylinder shaped chunk of lead and very accurate. Lots of bearing surface on the rifeling.

Used to load hollow base wadcutters inverted in 38 spec. Nasty on small animals. Since I was a LEO it was ill advised to carry reloads for duty or off duty, so I quit. Law Suits on the Left and Upper Rt coasts brought all that on. Carried 158gr SWC 38 spec.

BTW, I believe in the ballistic tests on ammo as real good research material.

Since I am not a LEO I think I can carry what ever ammo I want and get by.
I feel under the law, a justified shooting is a justified shooting, no matter what ammo is in the gun.

I think as long as you hit only your assailant and the shot is righteous, it won't be an issue. I think Massad Ayoob is the source of this factory ammo indemnification thing; I wonder if he addressed the idea carrying a 10MM might be considered excessive force when almost no LE agency uses it. Or would it be fairer to say one carries a 10MM instead of 9MM because the potential to stop an assailant with possibly less ammo expended makes it a logical and safer choice?

If Buffalo Bore ammo is commercial but exceeds SAAMI specs does one nullify the other?

Is one's SAAMI-spec reload less a possible liability than Buffalo Bore's overpressure rounds simply because they're home-rolled?

BTW, my current carry ammo is Federal XM40HB and Winchester RA9TA.

The 10mm was initially pushed by the FBI. At the time, it appeared (on paper) to out perform the .45ACP and closely match, if not exceed, the .357 Mag. However, in actual shootings it failed to live up to the hype. Also, female agents had issues with the recoil, causing malfunctions in semi-autos. The .40 was born out of this and took off.

What Ammo can chad load that anyone else can't. He uses comercial bullets and powder. He is very good at what he does so maybe if you are not a competent handloader you should use commercial ammo, I will continue to tailor my ammunition to my guns, thats right you can get better terminal perfrmance if you match your bullet and powder to the gun and application you will use it for. As far as saftey and uniformity I would say my hand loaded ammo is as reliable, if not more so than his. He uses elctronic scales and powder deispensers(Very high quality and expensive ones at that) while on my ammunition that matters ie. hunting, long range target, and self defence I throw short and hand trickle to the right wieght on a beam scale and verify by rewieghing on another beam scale.

And back to the OP I use 357 mag 140gr FTX over unique, blue dot, or H110 depending on which gun it is loaded for and 200gr jhp over blue dot in the 45 acp.

Speer Gold dots and Winchester Ranger SXT, but soon i will be carrying some Hornady Critical duty in my spare mag, i figure that if i am in a bad enough situation that i need my spare mag then i better have some barrier punching stuff, and also if i get in a situation where i need that extra penetration then the Critical Duties should do the job.

Federal 9mm +p+ 115 grain jacketed hollow point. I shot 3 of these just for comparison purposes and holy hell. $39.97 about 4 years ago.

Black Talons!

380, 9mm & 45acp all have Gold Dot ammo, Federal HST would be my second choice and Winchester Ranger SXT a third in 9mm and 45acp.

9mm is black talon first followed by hydrashocks, pocket gun has a cci shotshell followed by cci hollow points, home defense usually just has some bird shot as I might use it in the yard for a randomn varmit also

My .40 gets Rem Golden Sabers or Hornady Taps. I recovered one of the Golden Sabers from sand and it was a nasty looking bullet. Excellent expansion and weight retension. The six petals of the brass jacket were protruding outwards with jagged edges with a good solid lead base in the middle. This would have made a nasty wound channel.

90 grain hydra-shok in my .380

124 grain Hydra-Shok in 9 and 90 grain Hydra-Shok in .380. I am a LEO and avoid loads that would penetrate sheet rock in an interior active shooter situation.

9mm Golden Sabres alternated with 115gr FMJ or 45 Golden Sabres alternated with FMJ.
(I do carry 5 mags though)

.357 sig Winchester Rangers or Gold dot

357sig Gold Dot

Has anybody tries the Hornady critical duty in 40 cal?

357 PDX

95gr 9mm +P C.O.P. (copper only projectile)

This bullet worked for me when I needed it. Had to defend myself at a point blank range. The detective said it was a picture perfect mushroom. It stopped the threat, passed fully through & bounced off the guy behind him that was attacking me as well.

*If anyone is wondering, I was not charged with anything & let go due to acting in self defense.

.40 Hornady critical defense....

Winchester Silvertips in .38 special +p are in my j-frame.

TAP, Hornady Critical Defense and Golden Saber