Open Carry ammo question.

What type of round would work best in a .40 S&W. I have looked at all the different types and I just do not know what type would be the best one to use in the weapon. Any help would be nice, and I don't care about brand or price, just type.

For general self defense I carry a 165gr jhp but any of the major manufactures jhp's well work I have Rem golden sabers in my gun right now. I stay away from the 180s as I like a bit more vel then they give.

7om5hipp said:

What type of round would work best in a .40 S&W. I have looked at all the different types and I just do not know what type would be the best one to use in the weapon. Any help would be nice, and I don't care about brand or price, just type.

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I'd pick up some .40 S&W. :lol:

In all seriousness, .40 is big enough that HPs will expand reliably and you needn't worry about under-penetration. In light of that, I'd go with a Jacketed Hollowpoint (JHP) designed for self-defense, like Hornady Critical Defense.

No need to worry and fuss about which one to use. The reality is that any of them will probably be just fine. Early on in the TV show "Scrubs" the young doc wasn't sure what does of Tylenol to give a patient. The grumpy old doc yells at him "It's regular strength Tylenol! You open her mouth, grab a handful, and throw it at her mouth! Whatever sticks, that's the right dose!"

Pretty much the same here. You can hunt and peck and dig and fuss over the "perfect" round, but the fact is, none of them are instant death rays. You still need to be able to make them hit the target. And if you can do that, the actual round used isn't all THAT important. SO, buy what you can find (JHP if you're allowed). Buy the prettiest box or whatever you like. It's better if you can practice a ton with your carry choice, but if not it's not the end of the world. You can go the route of buying a less expensive defense round and shoot 100 of them a month so you are familiar with it's function and recoil, etc. OR you can buy more expensive stuff and let it sit. Then practice with the cheapest stuff you're willing to shoot. You'll be practiced enough and a good enough shot to do what you need to with the more expensive rounds if the time comes.

Honestly, there's no need to fret over the ammo you carry. Just be sure you carry it and know how to use it.

I carry Glaser Safety Slugs in the loaded magazine, and regualr JHPs in a backup.

Reasonsing:

If I have to shoot in self defense, its well above 99% certain there will be direct Line of Sight to the target. The Glaser minimizes the chance of a round overpenetrating or missing and going on to ricochet and hit someone else. The bullet breaks up into many small pieces upon impact with a solid object, those pieces lose velocity quickly and thus stand small chance of inflicting lethal wounds on a bystander in the event of a miss or going thru a wall.

If things continue from there, I can swap to the other magazine for rounds that will go thru some barriers and retain solid mass to stop the attacker.

As long as a bullet shape is completely reliable in your pistol, the terminal performance differences between the types is negligible. Choose something you can afford to fire 200+ rounds in practice with to make absolutely certain of its reliability.

Hornady Critical Defense would get my nod as first choice if I needed a hollowpoint's performance, which I would definitely want if I used a .40.

I prefer either Speer Gold Dot 165gr JHP Duty load in their hotter 53970 offering or the Federal 165gr HST load. At present, my primary carry gen3 Glock 23 is complimented with the aforementioned Gold Dot ammunition.

But let's face it. All of these posts and responses leave out one factor... and it is a major one at that. Who has shot people with their chosen and preferred loads? Who has actual experience with their choice(s) and can offer how well they worked or didn't work?

In other words, it's pretty much a crap shoot. You are only going to know if you have taken the right decision in your caliber and load choice when the time comes to use it. And even then, you are only going to know how it worked for that specific case.

Lyndsy Simon said:

I'd pick up some .40 S&W. :lol:

In all seriousness, .40 is big enough that HPs will expand reliably and you needn't worry about under-penetration. In light of that, I'd go with a Jacketed Hollowpoint (JHP) designed for self-defense, like Hornady Critical Defense.

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i carried crit def for a long time, i recently switched. ive put a few different kinds of rounds down the pipe of my .40 and i currently have winchester R40TA the ranger t series.

the good ones i have found are:

Speer Gold Dot
Winchester Ranger T-series (new age "black talons")
Federal HST, NOT hydrashok
hornaday critical defense

i tend to like the 180gr. its personal preference between 165 or 180 gr

The 180 grain stuff seems to shoot high in every .40 S&W handgun I own. Really noticeable with the Browning Hi Power. I tend to lean towards 155 or 165 gr. for that reason, whether practice fodder or defensive load.

SouthernBoy said:

But let's face it. All of these posts and responses leave out one factor... and it is a major one at that. Who has shot people with their chosen and preferred loads? Who has actual experience with their choice(s) and can offer how well they worked or didn't work?

In other words, it's pretty much a crap shoot. You are only going to know if you have taken the right decision in your caliber and load choice when the time comes to use it. And even then, you are only going to know how it worked for that specific case.

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One can and should look at actual shootings if one can find them or other test methods that give some one a idea how a bullet preforms when striking certain objects.

Bullet development because of the F--ked up Miami FBI shooting (cause more by poor tactics and lousy shooting) then bullet failure has given us big improvements in the way bullets react.

I well gladly carry any of the major manufactures hollow points for defense against two legged and four legged predators of the same relative size. These bullets are designed to work in certain parameters and with in them they all tend to work well.

When I am hunting or carrying for use against larger critters I carry a different type of bullet I prefer a WFN hard cast in my hand guns and all the velocity I can get out of them. Not that you can't use a 45acp 40S@W but there are better choices. Heavy for caliber at max vel seems to work well with them> I saw a 250 black bear shot with a 315gr WFN at 1300fps 44mag taken in the chest and bullet exited the rear ham 40 plus inches of penetration he was DRT. I have drove 41mag hard cast WFN side to side through some fairly big bears.

Would I use them for self defense against people if that's what I had in my gun at the time yes but realizing they are going through and then some.

There is no perfect bullet I carry the best I can come up with in the most likely situation I can think at that time.

I found that a 165gr rem golden saber does and excellent job on squirrels and porcupines that were chewing on my cabin. A 22rf would have been more appropriate I used what I had.

7om5hipp said:

What type of round would work best in a .40 S&W. I have looked at all the different types and I just do not know what type would be the best one to use in the weapon. Any help would be nice, and I don't care about brand or price, just type.

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That is simple, the type of round with the markings .40 S&W on the base of the case...:lol:

Lyndsy Simon said:

I'd pick up some .40 S&W. :lol:

.

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Darn somebody beat me to it...

Honestly, I use either Remington or Winchester .40 S&W JHP rounds either 160-185 grain. The Winchester rounds I get from Walmart are the government overrun stuff in 50 round white boxes for about $25 a box. And the Remington rounds I get in 100 round boxes also at Walmart for about $45 a box. I really don't see a point in spending $25 a box for 20 rounds of crit defense or the "standard" defense rounds. Remington and Winchester have been making guns and ammo for a VERY long time so I'm pretty sure that whatever they make will work just fine for my needs.

Grim_Night said:

Honestly, I use either Remington or Winchester .40 S&W JHP rounds either 160-185 grain. The Winchester rounds I get from Walmart are the government overrun stuff in 50 round white boxes for about $25 a box. And the Remington rounds I get in 100 round boxes also at Walmart for about $45 a box. I really don't see a point in spending $25 a box for 20 rounds of crit defense or the "standard" defense rounds. Remington and Winchester have been making guns and ammo for a VERY long time so I'm pretty sure that whatever they make will work just fine for my needs.

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Federal at Wally World was 19 bucks a box of 50. They had some white box stuff for 37 for a box of 100. I bought the federal, it works flawlessly. At some point I will reload my .40 S&W cases, then I will do my own performance hollow points.

Any JHP that feeds properly, and reliably goes bang when you squeeze the trigger. Run a few clips of various types if you like, take note of any failures to fire or eject, and the one(s) that never have a problem are your best bet. Never wanna hear a click at a crucial time when you need a boom.

That said, I run Hornady's Critical Defense in my SR1911 (.45), purely because I got it on the cheap, and I've never had so much as a hard primer in a Hornady cartridge.

I carry what the local P.D. uses.

Cava3r4 said:

I carry what the local P.D. uses.

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This is an excellent idea. While the thought of what is most effective floats around, its really an academic point as any HP will do. If you are carrying what local PD uses, you can avoid the "psyco dum-dum mankiller" label in court by referencing PD's load and why they chose it. It's a lot easier to defend your ammo when you can get the police armorer to do it for you.

I use Hornaday critical defense

Winchester PDX1 180 grain Bonded Jacketed Hollow Points, however I am slowly slinking over towards the 165 grain variant.

I bought a box of Federal 165 grain HSTs on impulse the other day, haven't tried em out yet. They are marketed as "tactical" and "law enforcement." I'll report back.

I'm leaning towards 135-155 gr jacketed hollow point for defense.
165-180 gr fmj ball for practice. Of course practice with your chosen defense load as well to insure your firearm agrees with your choice. Make sure you don't use
+P, or +P+ rounds if your firearm manual does not recommend it. (my M&P manual says +p and +p+ will ruin it).

http://gundata.org/blog/post/best-handgun-caliber-and-round-for-self-defense/#40smithandwesson