What's your carry Ammo?

I generally carry Hydra-Shoks in various calibers myself although I also have some 158 gr LWSCHP loads for some of my heavier .38 snubbies.
 
Depending on the time of year and the situation, I've got several carry guns. I generally have Federal Hydro-Shok JHP in all of them, though I'll occassionally try a box of something else for educational purposes. I use 158gr in the .357, 147gr in the 9mm, 165gr in the .40 and 230gr in the .45. BTW, if anybody's interested in terminal ballistic data on some different personal defense ammunition, there's some useful resources at http://www.firearmstactical.com/tactical.htm and more specifically at http://www.firearmstactical.com/ammo_data/ammodata.htm. In case anyone's interested, no that's not the reason I use what I do. Before I'd even think of looking at terminal ballistics or accuracy data, I care about one thing: absolutely 100% reliability. And that depends on your gun, not the make, model or caliber.

Ken
 
Currently I have Hydra-Shok 165Gr in my .40 S&W P99. I also picked up a box of Remington Golden Sabre 180Gr JHP that the guys at AG recommended for my carry ammo. I haven't seen much of a difference with the way it feels through my gun, but it is about 2X more expensive than the Hydra-Shok.

Adam
 
Federal 135gr. .40S&W Hydra-shok JHP
Hornady 325gr. 480 Ruger XTP Mag Hollow Point
Winchester 60gr. .32 Auto Silvertip HP

OK, so maybe the Hornady isn't a regular 'carry' round, but makes a great companion in the field.

Bullets.jpg


I hate cell-phone photos. "Honey, I need a new phone so I can upload better bullet pictures to the Gun Forums." *SMACK*
 
I carry Speer Gold Dot 135gr. .38 +p's in my S&W 342 and Double Tap Gold Dots 125 gr. .357 in my S&W 649 Bodyguard. Those Double Taps are rated at 1600 fps out of a 4" barrel. Check out Double Tap ammo if you have not already.
 
1 mag of winchester ranger 155gr jhp .40 s&w
the other is 135 gr federal hydrashock .40

sometimes if i carry my 10mm its winchester 175 gr silver tip HP

and usually also accompanying me when i carry either of the above is 65 gr hydrashocks in .32
 
in my 9mm,i have 16(15 in mag and 1 in the pipe)of these-Federal Hi-Power Hydra-Shok Jacketed H.P. 147 Grain..


*it was free ammo*
 
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In my 44 its my pumped up 200gr JHP's reloads on steroids, in my 1911a1 its 200gr JHP's speer soup bowl JHP's pumped up reloads on steroids, in my 9mm its winchester silver tips because i haven't tested my pumped up 9mm reloads yet. In my 375 snubbie its the 125gr JHP pumped up reloads on steroids.

I seen a guy brought into the ER shot with a 45acp 5 times and still live once. After seeing that i started loading my 45acp a little hotter. I did perfer my magnums over most of the other handguns for many years. Its all about knowing how your gun shoots and handles and it takes practice, practice and more practice too. Its about making your first shot count just like in bear hunting, you don't want to wound it, you want to kill it quickly.
 
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Right now I keep 230 Gr. Federal Hydra Shok .45s in my 1911, though I've been reading about the black talon school of JHP ammo, and I'm thinking of switching to one of thems.

I just need to square away some cash so I can actully TEST the rather pricy ammo.

A great carry load ain't much if it won't reliably feed....

-Weer'd Beard
 
I carry Winchester Silvertips in my 45. They were cheap and cycle reliably. Pretty soon I think I might pick up a 1911A1 with a .400 Cor Bon barrel and recoil spring, and see how that works against a wetpack.
 
Weer'd Beard said:
Right now I keep 230 Gr. Federal Hydra Shok .45s in my 1911, though I've been reading about the black talon school of JHP ammo, and I'm thinking of switching to one of thems.

I just need to square away some cash so I can actully TEST the rather pricy ammo.

A great carry load ain't much if it won't reliably feed....

-Weer'd Beard
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Buy the Winchester Rangers. They are the same round, without the "evil" looking black finish on the bullet.


BigBill said:
In my 44 its my pumped up 200gr JHP's reloads on steroids
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Should we even start the discussing about the legal ramifications of loading your own carry ammo? I've seen it posted many times and the general school of thought is that if you end up using it, you are asking for trouble by the prosecution scrutinizing your methods.

Thoughts?
 
Walther .380 PPK - 85 gr Winchester Silvertips
637 Airweight - Remington 125 gr +P JHP's - a little warm to shoot a lot of comfortably, but I still hit what I'm aiming at... and it's still less recoil than a .357 out of the COP. [smile]
 
9mm = Speer GDHP 124gn, 124gn +P

.40 S+W = Ranger 165 gn. (That white boxed stuff FS used to sell, DEA contract ovverrun stuff) or Speer 180 gr GDHP.

.45 ACP = Taurus Copper hex 185gn, Barnes X Bullet. (GREAT stuff, but wont
feed in some 1911s or other fussy guns)

Winchester Silvertip 185gn. Bullet design is OOOOOOLD but still seems to work, low recoil

Ranger 230gn (RA45T). Shows up at gunshows here and there.

Speer 230 gn GDHP.

Remington Golden Sabre 230gn, same with new BONDED CORE version is a bit better, but not huge diff.

All my ammo choices were based off Ammolab's findings, when it was still
around. All of the above will "work" as long as the shooter does
their part. Yeah, theres plenty of other ammo that works, but a lot of
the stuff out there (especially that overpriced fed low recoil stuff in the little
plastic box) tends to turn into FMJ when it actually hits the
media. It's a damned good thing that even ball ammo will still stop
someone, if the bullets land in the right places- because theres an awful
lot of crap on the market that won't expand properly, even under "lab"
conditions.

-Mike
 
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Adam_MA said:
Should we even start the discussing about the legal ramifications of loading your own carry ammo? I've seen it posted many times and the general school of thought is that if you end up using it, you are asking for trouble by the prosecution scrutinizing your methods.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think it's a diceroll. Mas Ayoob (the progenitor of the "dont use handloads"
argument). I think it depends on how dicey the investigation gets, and
how nasty the DA/prosecutor is, etc. A lot of it could be locality
specific, etc.

I don't think its really a matter of scrutiny from the "oh so and so made
ammo that was MORE LETHAL, blah blah etc", as this could easily be
argued away. (If you think about it, they could also say this about people
who have ever taken any kind of documented firearms training, etc, saying
you were "trained to kill" or some crap).

He did bring up a VERY good point though.... which is basically that if some
investigator needed to test the ammo, there isnt really a control
there.... They can't ensure that the box of handloads you supplied was the
same as the ones in your carry gun when the incident occured. However,
if you were using commercial ammo, this is trivial. So that possibly could
be crucial in terms of residue tests, etc.
 
Federal Hydra-Shoks in my 45's, .380, and 38 Spec.+P, Remington Golden Sabers in my .40's. I would like to come across some Winchester Black Talons in .45 and .40 for my H&K USP Compacts. Used to see them pretty often at gun shows. SXT's are about the same, I guess. Actually, they're all about the same in wound performance and ballistics. But the name Black Talon, the name is so-o-o-o great.
 
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