My carry ammos

From a combination of reading, trying it out, luck, poor judgments, inertia, etc, here are the defensive ammo types I use for my handguns.

22 LR - CCI Velocitor Ammunition 22 Long Rifle 40 Grain Plated Lead Hollow Point. I used to use Stingers, but I had some jams due to their overall length with the small bullet. The Velocitor work fine in my guns, have a bigger bullet, and are still fast.

22 Mag - Hornady Critical Defense Ammunition 22 Mag 45 Grain Flex Tip eXpanding. I may try out the Speer Gold dots. I know the penetration on these is not very good, and the hollow points may not expand, but I just can't get myself to not use a hollow point. I grew up in the 80's when it was a big deal if your auto loader fed HP's, and got started shooting water cans and fruit with 22's with both solids and HP's, and saw how the HP's blew up the fruit. So if I get attached by a cantaloupe it's going down.

32 ACP – I've had Glaser as the first couple of bullets, followed by either Speer 60 gr HP, or Hornady 60 gr XTP. I may give up on the Glasers after reading about the lack of penetration, but they're, like, so totally 80's, and I grew up believing Glasers were awesome. Knarley too.

380 – Rem Golden Sabers, and more recently Hornady XTP's.

9mm – Glasers again, but I'm going to give those the boot. Golden Sabers in +P with 124 gr loads, and have quite a bit of Cor-Bon +P stuff for the 9mm carbines.

357 – I have a S&W 640, Maganported, in all steel, so it's not too bad to shoot with 357 loads. Rem 125 grain GS. I've read about most people using .38 Special +P loads, and I'd use that too in an air weight, but full 357 loads aren't that bad out of mine, and I've shot a lot of rounds from it – room mate's dad had a huge box of old ammo I fired up from for years it seemed, and got pretty good with the 640. I figure why not hit em with some extra power? Unless for some reason the 357 bullets don't expand at the velocity you get from a J-frame.

45 – Hornady 200 gr +P TAP loads. Work great from my FN Tac. I like the extra power of the +P, which in a gun as big as this one still has OK recoil.

44 Special – Hornady 180 grain XTP. I've fired some Blazer's with the 200 grain Gold Dot HP, and would use those except I've had issues before with aluminum cases being sticky to get out. No big deal for range work, but not for carry purposes. I see Midway has some Speer ammo in brass cases with the same bullet that I might buy.

Thoughts, comments, screams of horror? Your own carry loads for different calibers?

My first thought was that everything listed above 9mm was not enough for defensive carry. Why would you carry a .22/.32/.380 when you carry a similar size pistol in 9mm/.357/.40/.45?

,22 LR is from a beretta 21, back up piece to something else. Same for the 22 mag - S&W 22 mag J- frame, back up piece to another carry gun.

32 is from a Beretta Tomcat. Sometimes I'm lazy, have shorts on, and want to front pocket carry. It's about 1000 times better than having a 9/40/45 back in the gun safe. I'd dump the mag at them, then either run, or flip the gun up and use the butt as a black jack for close encounters.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

I carry a .45acp in the winter. I would ditch the 200grain +P Hornday's for something in 230 grain. (HST's, PDX1's, Ranger T's, or Gold Dots work very well.) I've heard that 200grain ammo in .45acp doesn't penetrate as deep as the 230grain HP bullets. At least in Gold Dots, the 230's are more desirable than the 200's.

I shoot only 38+p in my 640/649 357magnum
reason
5 faster rounds on target in a tighter group


380 I gave them up. I would use ball ammo

9mm Glasser is a no no in my book.Stick with the rem GS 124 gr or 147 better yet bonded sabers

45acp I would look into federal HST, Win Ranger

22mag solid/FMJ

22lr solid


44spl I would go Gold Dot

.45 i use Winchester Ranger T 230gr

9mm = 147gr. WWB JHP.

The load is accurate, penetrates about 14" in gel, expands to about .6", and is relatively unaffected by various barriers.

It's also $15.47 a box at Wal-Mart so I can shoot the crap out of it for practice.

9mm - Winchester Ranger 127 gr +P+ (if you have a gun that can use this round like a Glock). If you can't shoot +P+ Get the Winchester Ranger 124 gr +P or 147 gr +P Ranger T-series. Federal HST is great too.

.45 - Winchester Ranger 230 Grain +P T-Series, or Speer Gold Dot 230 Gr +P

Anything less than 9mm isn't very effective as a concealed carry gun. Sure it will kill someone with good shot placement, but with the selection of ultra-compact 9mms available today, you shouldn't need anything smaller.

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