SovereignAxe
Regular Member
This may have already been covered, but I did an extensive search and found nothing, so I thought I'd take it upon myself to pose the question.
My grandfather reloads lots of ammo, 9mm being one of them (a factor in my purchase of a 9mm Walther P99 instead of a .40-he owns none, and consequently doesn't have the dies for it), so I've got a pretty standard load of homemade JHPs in it right now.
However, I've been doing a lot of reading about ammo for self defense, and the more reading I do, the less I like the idea of using reloads for self defense. That's not to say that I don't have faith in my grandfather's reloading abilities. Quite the contrary: he is very precise in his measurements, and everything I shoot has shot better than any store bought ammo (amittedly, I've never bought any high dollar ammo). However, most data I have read has been against handloaded ammo for what seems like a few good reasons. Probably the best is forensic ballistics. Forensic analysis can determine the distance a person was shot from a gun by measuring the amount/concentration of gunblast residue on the "victim." If you use a hotter than normal load, there will be more residue on the "victim," and it could be argued that the victim in question was far enough away that you didn't have shoot them. A counter argument is to make a weaker than normal load, but who wants to do that?
I haven't done much research into the types of bullets I have in my ammo besides weight, but I know that many manufacturers now use a special bond between the lead and the jacket, which aids in weight retention in terminal ballistics. Many other features such as low flash powders for night vision, nickel plated brass for corrosion resistance, and polymer tips to keep the hollow point from clogging with fibers are all enough to make anyone sway to what is marketed as a more effective and safer round.
So what say ye, OCDO? Personally I'm looking towards replacing my loads with something like Hornady Critical Defense, Speed Gold Dot or Winchester PDX1. I'm leaning towards Gold Dot because they have 115gr and 124gr weights. Winchester only has 147gr (which IMO is too slow for 9mm), and their 124gr is a +P load (which my Walther isn't rated for, but could handle easily as it was built to handle .40 cal)which effectively makes it a 9mm NATO round (save for the hollow tip). Hornady only has 115gr rounds, which is probably limited due to their low flash powder. I'll probably go with Speer or Winchester, whichever I see cheaper in stores next paycheck.
My grandfather reloads lots of ammo, 9mm being one of them (a factor in my purchase of a 9mm Walther P99 instead of a .40-he owns none, and consequently doesn't have the dies for it), so I've got a pretty standard load of homemade JHPs in it right now.
However, I've been doing a lot of reading about ammo for self defense, and the more reading I do, the less I like the idea of using reloads for self defense. That's not to say that I don't have faith in my grandfather's reloading abilities. Quite the contrary: he is very precise in his measurements, and everything I shoot has shot better than any store bought ammo (amittedly, I've never bought any high dollar ammo). However, most data I have read has been against handloaded ammo for what seems like a few good reasons. Probably the best is forensic ballistics. Forensic analysis can determine the distance a person was shot from a gun by measuring the amount/concentration of gunblast residue on the "victim." If you use a hotter than normal load, there will be more residue on the "victim," and it could be argued that the victim in question was far enough away that you didn't have shoot them. A counter argument is to make a weaker than normal load, but who wants to do that?
I haven't done much research into the types of bullets I have in my ammo besides weight, but I know that many manufacturers now use a special bond between the lead and the jacket, which aids in weight retention in terminal ballistics. Many other features such as low flash powders for night vision, nickel plated brass for corrosion resistance, and polymer tips to keep the hollow point from clogging with fibers are all enough to make anyone sway to what is marketed as a more effective and safer round.
So what say ye, OCDO? Personally I'm looking towards replacing my loads with something like Hornady Critical Defense, Speed Gold Dot or Winchester PDX1. I'm leaning towards Gold Dot because they have 115gr and 124gr weights. Winchester only has 147gr (which IMO is too slow for 9mm), and their 124gr is a +P load (which my Walther isn't rated for, but could handle easily as it was built to handle .40 cal)which effectively makes it a 9mm NATO round (save for the hollow tip). Hornady only has 115gr rounds, which is probably limited due to their low flash powder. I'll probably go with Speer or Winchester, whichever I see cheaper in stores next paycheck.
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