Ok, I'm curious to hear from you guys on this subject. I've been hearing a lot lately of the newest self defense ammo coming out and I was wondering what you guys consider "The best". By the best, I mean a good compromise between penetration and expansion. Several relatively new rounds come to mind such as the Corbon DPX, Federal HST, Winchester enhanced Ranger T, and the classic Gold Dot. I've used Hornady TAP in the past with good results but am leaning towards the new Federal HST when I replace my aging ammo supply soon. Any thoughts on the subject?
i've heard good stuff about federal HST. one of the problems encountered with the older hydrashok rounds is that it becomes stuffed with material when passing through heavy clothing. once the round entered the body it would not expand to it's full potential. this supposedly does not occur with HST. i have winchester t-series in my off duty weapon. last year the dept armorer and i tested a couple of different rounds in some old vests. without getting into specifics about the balistic ratings of the different vests and trauma plates we shot at, let's say that ranger t-series was impressive. with that said, winchester has a very strict policy in selling these rounds. they are pretty hard to get.
What ever shoots good out of my 45 is what I will put in it. Right now she is loaded with 185gr Speer Gold Dots. I tell you what they loaded them suckers on the stout side thats for sure.
GOLT DOT. The ONLY bullet that can guarantee 100% weight retention. They actually GAIN weight as they go. The jacket is plated on and cannot come off. They can adjust the jacket thickness one molecule at a time to get the perfect combination of jacket thickness-hollow point configuration. I have seen the results of many different HP bullets in human flesh. The Gold Dot is as close to perfection as we can get right now. I would not trust my life to anything less.
i was BSing with a guy at the range who turned out to be a Federal Air Marshal. at the end of his session i saw him load up gold dots into his Sig. i don't know if that's what they use while on duty but his profession gives him credibility regarding his choice of ammo.
Would not feel poorly equipped with gold dot, corbon, Winchester Ranger, or hydra-shoks. But for an autoloader, must be a round that feeds and cycles WITHOUT FAIL EVERY TIME. Otherwise, you are holding a poorly shaped club.
You've used ammo in self-defense with good results??? How so? Maybe I should be asking YOU some questions about what's best..lol I have an FEG Walther PPK clone in .380 that won't reliably feed Hornady XTP's because of the truncated cone design. It loves Speer GDHP though and just about any FMJ I feed it. Can't go wrong with Speer GDHP - they feed like FMJ's feed and from what I've read, they have excellent one-shot stop statistics.
I've noticed most gun reviews use TAP ammo for accuracy testing. It is very expensive, especially in rifle cartridges.
coltm4-air marshals are under contract like will all agencies, so he has to use gold dots like he has to use his sig 229/239...not to say i don't have a box of gold dots for my two pistols... anyhow, i'm surprised no one has mentioned 12 gauge for home defense...
i used to have extreamshock .45 fang face, nasty little buggers. once they hit soft tissue the seven "fangs" would seperate at 90 degree angles and the tungsten fillament would shatter causing 100's- 1000's of trauma wounds. if the bullet had enough energy to exit the body the exit wound was the size of a baseball. ive seen video of a 450 lb hog droping almost instanly from one 9mm round in the stomach area, it was awsome
Rem Golden Sabers work very well for me. While I'd be interested in some of the tacticool designer rounds, I tend to avoid stuff I can't afford to practice with.
oh i forgot the main reason i bought those rounds were because the would fragment on solid objects making them the safest round for home defense
I use Rem 165gr Golden Sabers in my Glock 22. They cycle without problems and accuracy is good too. I never tried any of the frangible rounds, so I can't comment on those. I've used Hornady XTP, .357 mag, in my Ruger GP100. They work well for me.
I think for the most part it's academic......... In my opinion, in order for a realistic comparison to be made, the same gun/s should fire the same bullets into the same medium, from the same distance, with the point of impact being the same relative to the size of the medium. The number of variables involved in the composition of a defensive shooting target, (ie a person with varying levels of clothing, and point of impact) and the lack of human test subjects, make accuracy of primary importance as opposed to performance data. Yeah, I know about opinions, and this is just mine...
