Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What ammo do you carry in your 9mm?

Wife’s Sig 938, Gold Dot ....147’s. Considering going to Buffalo Bore! memtb

That's what I carry, 124 FMJ

9mm 124 gold dot or fed HST
45 cal 230 same
40 cal 165 HST
38 cal 135 gold dot

124 GDHP +P

i have some old black talon for 45acp in my display case.
i became enambered years ago when speer had the 200grain flying trash can or ash tray, what ever it was. I found a few years ago ten boxes of them bullets, and bought them all. i loaded them with a healthy dose of power pistol. impressed the snot out of me shooting water jugs. then i read they really weren't all that good. Still don't believe that.

i read the same article, americanrifleman, page 65, may issue. it was showing that pressure, but is was also showing velocity at 1326fps. there are any number of commercial fmj loads available inexpensive at around 1200fps plus/minus. this stuff is around 1190, similar bullet and not expensive: https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/prod...-winchester-service-grade-115gr-fmj-ammo
they are bumping velocity 100fps, but i don't see that as all that much.

i bought some of that hornady critical duty, based upon the testing results at ammunitiontogo.com. I liked the idea of that polymer tip sealing the hollow point for entry purposes.
I have swung over to the 9mm camp based upon firepower capacity, but my heart still belongs i think to the .45acp. my personal carry most of the time is an original baby glock in 357sig, which i have aftermarket barrels for that and .40s&w, and 9mm. mostly, being an old fahrt, i have a 165grain silvertip loaded in .40 to 1200fps. I just bought a sig m17-p320 for a lot or reasons. but i have a glock 20 and 21, plus a springfield xd and it holds about 14 .45acp's. just a little to big to carry all the time. the baby glock accepts the high cap mags so i have the firepower in a small package.
A friend of mine who is a now retired sheriff's deputy, was firearms instructor and range officer for the department, was having lunch with me one day and he was packing a 9mm glock. having know him since childhood and knowing he had a colt delta 10mm in the glove compartment of the patrol car, and a .375H&H in the trunk, i asked him about the pistol and the caliber. He kind of wrinkled his nose and said the glock was a perfectly aedequate bullet dispenser, and the round only took two or three to do what one should do.
I found that really funny and never forgot it.
the .375 by the way was for certain areas in the valley where houses were made out of railroad ties. People thought bullets couldn't penetrate.
well, a 300grain fmj out of a .375H&H will.

Underwood loads their +P+ to 40,000 psi therefore the 320 is +P+ capable

I have had failures to feed and jams with the Gold Dot and Critical Defense, my 115gr FMJ and my XTP's handloads do not in my Sig P320 do not. That is what I carry

Neither do I.

A friend on the board here has friends who worked for Winchester. The joke is SXT stands for "Same eXact Thing".

124 HST

When outdoors I carry FMJ 115 nato ball for critters

you will get a lot of arguments on the +p and the +p+. as to they really give y ou anything. I have seen the ranger t 127 in +p+ where they didn't open up. I personally have fired gold dots into 2x4 where they plugged up.
and i am probably off on this, but it seem like 115grfmj 9mm will penetrate something like 30inches or in that area. You might not get a open hollow point, but you sure get penetration. I would think in that famous miami shootout where the fbi criticized unfairly the bullet, in fmj in would have continued another couple of inches into the heart.
as to the quote in american riflemen, the military is loading up to about +p on the full metal jacket 115grain.
i don't know if that extra 100fps or so brings very much.
as to the specs, consider the following:
SAAMI specifications for common +P cartridges are as follows:

Cartridge Standard pressure +P pressure Notes
9 mm Luger 35,000 38,500 10% increase
.38 Special 17,000 18,500 9% increase
.45 ACP 21,000 23,000 9.5% increase
.38 Auto 26,500 36,500 38% increase to make .38 Super
.257 Roberts 54,000 58,000 7.5% increase
The +P+ designation is not currently used by the SAAMI, but is used by some manufacturers to designate loads that exceed the +P SAAMI specification. One source lists the 9 × 19 mm +P+ loading as having a pressure of 42,000 psi, an 18% increase over the standard pressure of 35,000 psi, and the .38 Special +P+ as 22,000, a 29% increase over the standard pressure.[5]

personally, i don't think i want to beat a gun to death getting into those higher pressures for what i see as little atvantage. The military can put them u p there, but they have a bigger budget than i do.

Don't carry a 9mm very often but on my next order to Underwood will be getting some of the 90 grain Xtreme Defender. Am carrying the same bullet right now in .38 Super which clocks 1560 from a 4.25" Commander....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClJcJ8LQFbQ&t=610s


...I like velocity...lots of it....

Bob

i am not against velocity, but looking at some of those wonder bullets, they ain't working sometimes quite as advertised.
and ultimately at heart i am at the other side of the argument about big fat bullets at moderate velocity.
which is outside the 9mm discussion i think.
i did watch the video, had seen it before, and actually have some of the underwood ammo with i think that phillips head bullet.
i believe he did say not much difference between the +p+ and the +p, if i got that right.
also interesting in the tavor at much higher velocity it only brought you another couple of inches.
but, these are solid bullets, not jhp's. and you are still getting a lot of performance. I think i have seen some of this where the fmj flat pt bullets the army is going to will exceed this in penetration. could be wrong tho.
but in any case, these were at the upper end of the fbi 18inch penetration rewquirement maximum.

You'll find the +P+ 9mm Underwood load is almost identical to your 38 Super load, at 1550 fps from a Glock 19. That's what I carry; being a solid it's an entirely different thing than traditional JHP bullet weights. I like this load because penetration in soft targets seems to be on par with the best 124-147gr JHP loads, and far better in hard barriers, but also the gun shoots flatter (less flip) with the light bullet weight for faster follow ups accurately.

Contrary to what traditional JHP loads do, the higher velocity +P+ loads with this 90gr solid Lehigh bullet penetrate a little further and seem to be a little more effective in all my testing. The trade off is more bang and flip as expected, but it does not sacrifice penetration like a hollow point does at higher speed.

Hey, I'd be willing to mail you the money for a box of Lehigh 9mm Xtreme Penetrators if you wouldn't mind lobbing some of them at a varmint pig and getting back to me with the results. It certainly would be cheaper than me driving somewhere to shoot a pig! I got 1152 fps out of my Sig P365, 1212 out of a Glock 19.

147 gr. XTP @ 1000FPS

rjm
was digging around in the ammo area, how bout this:

underwood 10mm, 220 gr hi tek coaed hard cast, 1200fps.

underwood 10mm, 140gr xtreme penetrator, 1500fps.
and then i found some of my hand cast 41magnum

using that slovenien mould for dimple, solid, pentad hollowpoint and regular hollowpoint
hp cast to 247grain, dimple to 254grain, solid to 262grain, 9grains of unique
i think that in the 41magnum would make an owie too.

I like 124 +p Gold Dots just fine.

In my experience the 124 and 147 grain +P+ Underwood Gold Dot’s give up a bit of penetration to the +P but expansion is greater as is wound channel.