How do you choose your SD/Carry ammo?

[sonja]

Stuff that feeds well, has a good reputation, shoots well in my gun, and is not priced somewhere to the north of gold.

[rusty1911a]

Originally Posted by superdude

#1. Reliable feeding if in a semi-automatic.

#2. Terminal performance of bullet.

nuff said

[DuckfootTinfoil]

Just a different opinion, but I say carry whatever your local Police Department or Sheriff's Office is carrying. If you end up using it "for real" there WILL be an investigation. At some point you may very well be asked why you chose whatever ammo you used, the implication being you intentionally picked particularly lethal ammo. You may be best off by just saying something along the line of "Well gee, I don't know a lot about that stuff, I just figured if its good enough for the cops, it must be okay."

For what its worth, I run 230-grain Speer Gold Dot. My agency mandates this load in policy.

[pezzulli]

I go to Dr. Robert's List and test the one that I select in my pistol for functioning. Also, DeltaKilo is a great source of reliable information.

HTH,
John

[Rifter]

Originally Posted by DuckfootTinfoil

Just a different opinion, but I say carry whatever your local Police Department or Sheriff's Office is carrying. If you end up using it "for real" there WILL be an investigation. At some point you may very well be asked why you chose whatever ammo you used, the implication being you intentionally picked particularly lethal ammo. You may be best off by just saying something along the line of "Well gee, I don't know a lot about that stuff, I just figured if its good enough for the cops, it must be okay."

For what its worth, I run 230-grain Speer Gold Dot. My agency mandates this load in policy.

Once again this old myth surfaces. What you use doesn't matter a bit if it is a righteous shoot. Nobody has ever been dinged for using handloads or any of the commercial "extra deadly" loads like Black Talon that get hyped by the media in a true, legit self defense incident.

Been looking for a case like that for 40 years and haven't seen one yet. I carry 230 gr. FMJ-FP Hornady handloaded to 950 fps. I'm setting up to do some testing with the Hornady 230 gr. XTP HP at the same speed.

Gold Dots are good, Federal HST is good, Remington Golden Saber bonded is good, Winchester Ranger T is good, and the new Hornady Critical Duty looks to be good as well (has passed all the FBI tests for retained weight and penetration). Pick one that feeds reliably and that you can get, and practice enough to be sure you can hit the target the first two shots under duress.

[RandyP]

My preference is FMJ ball ammo and after that most anything that is a hollow point and on sale - after I fire a box of it and it feeds reliably, I have no qualms about it being in my carry handgun of the day.

I am of the strong belief that bullet caliber/weight/make/style will always be trumped by shot placement and in keeping with that belief I don't fret much over my ammo choice beyond reliability.

I appreciate that many folks have a deep and abiding interest in the topic.

[NRAJIM]

my choice was easy to make, I have an in-law that just retired from the FHP, and years ago he gave me several boxes of their duty ammo Speer Gold Dot JHP in several different calibers. After trying out the ammo I found it to feed 100% reliable in my pistols so I continue to use it. And after seeing Deltkilo's sticky I feel even better about using it for my S.D. ammo.

[MAG-63]

Originally Posted by Rifter

I carry 230 gr. FMJ-FP Hornady handloaded to 950 fps.

I use the same bullet and have them loaded over a modest charge of Unique. A little slower than what you list, but I'm confident that they would do the job if called upon.

[Rifter]

Originally Posted by MAG-63

I use the same bullet and have them loaded over a modest charge of Unique. A little slower than what you list, but I'm confdent that they would do the job if called upon.

I'll vouch for the fact that they do.