.40 S&W Ammo Primer

Ok, I finallyg got my carry gun (P239) in this caliber and was wondering if anyone knows of a good place to do some research on some of the various loads out there for self defence and such. I hear one group of people say go with the 180 gr round while another says choose a lighter one. One group says go +P and another regular.

I can't comment too much on the various defense rounds -- I've got a stock of 135 & 180 gr. Hydra-Shoks and 165 gr. Golden Sabres. But, there's no such thing as .40 S&W +p , all of it already is.

Hehe, I meant in general about the plethora of information out there.

Legally, the safest course is to find out what the local PD's carry in your area. I live in southeast Mass, Federal Hydrashok is the ammo du jour. I've also seen Rem Golden Saber.

I was thinking of maybe Gold Dot.

I use Hydra-Shoks in .40 for my Glock 27....

IIRC, the 165 has the best ballistics for the .40. Rangers and Gold dots would be my choice. However, I would not load any primary defense rounds.

Don't rely too much on test data. Remember each gun - even among the same make and model will have slightly different shooting characteristics.

Best (and most costly of course) thing to do is to buy several boxes of several different types of carry rounds (ex: 3 boxes of Golden Sabers, 3 boxes of Cor-Bon, etc.). Vary the bullet weight among brands. See what your particular weapon likes - reliability, acccuracy, etc. Remember, this is not a sport shooting target round, so 100% reliable feeding should trump pin-point accuracy. You need to be accurate, but don't feel that you'll need to drop 10 rounds into 1/2 inch if the SHTF.

Also, recoil is important in making quick follow-up shots on target. See which round you like for its recoil characteristics.

All of the ones listed above are great rounds. I'd add Hornady TAP, and Cor-Bon loads to the mix.