Winchester 9mm pdx1 +p

Had a large raccoon violating a family pet this evening. I figured my 9mm m&p would suffice in taking it out, since the only other handgun I had on me was a glock20 loaded with 150 grains at 1,500 fps. I had pdx1 124 grain +p in the pipe, and I cleanly and ethically took care of the rodent and will no longer have to worry about the cat and an upset little girl if something was to happen to it. However the reason I'm writing is because I was very disappointed In this round. It was a perfect broadside shot at 7 yards and the round Didnt even pass through the critter. This is a main reason I don't carry 9mm for personal defense, however If you do, I would steer clear of these rounds, they couldn't even pass through 6 inches of light skin and bone, imagine how bad it would be if it was a critter of the two legged kind trying to harm you!! Winchester pdx1 bad!!

Just because it didn't pass through doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. If it didn't pass through it mist likely bounced around inside a little coursing more internal injury.
Say you hav a BG aiming a firearm at you, it's dark and you can't see behind him, are you sure you still want that round to pass through him? Which could hit an innocent bystander behind him?

But at the same time I do agree with you, why hit someone with ammunition that isn't going to pack a kick strong enough to stop them?

You are going to need to do a necropsy to find out why the round did not penetrate through and through. Did it hit bone? Was there some other reason?

Or did you miss the fact that the round actually did pass through and is now buried out in the yard? Exit wounds are not always big gaping holes, and finding a spot in flesh that tends to close up over a piercing can be difficult.

Before you curse the ammo be sure you have all the bases covered.

No, I have no financial interest in the ammo in question, nor do I even use it. I'm just trying to get enough actual, real, verified facts to be able to decide if the story is worth considering. So far, the decision is there are not enough facts to support either of the conclusions reached - that the round did not pass through and that the round is no good for self defense. (It does seem quite adequate for killing racoons.)

stay safe.

To answer both of your questions, no I would not want to over penetrate on a BG, however you also have to understand this round never passed through a mere 6 inches of very soft tissue. There was no bulge on the posterior side nor an exit wound, I frantically checked out of disbelief. A raccoon has nowhere near the muscle, bone, or skin thickness as us humans, and this round couldn't have penetrated more than 3 or 4 inches. Imagine if it would have been a beefed up thug on crack?!?!? I want a round with enough energy to pass through the BG, and be able to hit his vitals. This is why I carry the 150 grain 10mm load from double tap. The Norma hollowpoint violently expands yet still has enough velocity to pass into the vitals. From my observation, I personally would not carry this load, and just wanted to pass along it's ill reputation it now has with me.

I would guess the bullet did not travel in a straight line through the animal.

Is this a full size M&P or a compact version. If it's the compact version I can see the shortened barrel being the culprit here.

If not, may I suggest you go for a heavier load? 124gr +P is more or less the same as 9mm NATO, which is considered to be a pretty beefy load for 9mm, but there are 147gr and 147gr +P loads available-I'm pretty sure in the PDX1 line.

That being said, your results are surprising. But unless you know the exact entry point and path of the bullet, I wouldn't discount the load just yet. As other have said, bone could have caused the bullet to ricochet, hitting another bone and keeping it inside the body. I could see a shoulder blade causing this pretty easily.

KYGlockster said:

Imagine if it would have been a beefed up thug on crack?!?!? I want a round with enough energy to pass through the BG, and be able to hit his vitals.

Click to expand...

9mm is NOT my preferred choice for shooting beefed up crack head thugs.