Assuming both are 115g or 124g 9mm, will a hollow point round wear out a barrel more quickly?  I read that they are higher pressure, but don't know how much that would affect barrel life over the long term.  Prices are getting so low i've been thinking about building my stash with hollow points and plinking with them.

A.  The bullet type has nothing to do with higher pressure, that depends on the powder used.  

B.  Regardless of bullet type, pressure or pretty much anything else, it's going to take an insane number of 9mm rounds before you even come close to affecting the barrel.  

In other words, you're good to go with whatever ammo you choose.

Pistol barrels generally outlast most other components.  


Anecdotal, but I’ve seen pistols that were used weekly, for decades…Sigs, Glocks, various Smith revolvers…the barrel was not the part that wore out first, assuming it didn’t rust or someone didn’t damage it with crazy cleaning methods involving a drill and ammonia based solvent.  

Assuming factory bought ammo...

Comparing your one question to the two types....

It can and can not.

Same barrel with two different bullets as you say, is really two different cartridges with different bullets.

Assume you can get both equal weights FMJ to HP.

same weight, same power, same manufacturer, same brass, same COL the HP will generate more pressure because the base of the bullet will be seated deeper in the case.

In reality you'll be hard pressed to find all things equal unless your a reloaded.

So heavier FMJ or Lighter HP.

It comes down to pressure and speed.

Slower FPS is easier on the gun and hand, but it really is a non issue on a modern handgun staying in SAMMI specs.

Get what you can store bought and unless your shooting 8k out of it or running rounds dropped in sand and mud through it you'll never see a difference between the two.

How would a part of the bullet (whether FMJ or hollow point) that doesn't even touch the barrel wear out a barrel?

Also, by the time you've shot out a pistol barrel, you've probably shot out many other components first.

How is higher pressure going to "wear out" a barrel.
Do you mean heat and powder particles?

FYI, 9mm Pmax is ~35kpsi. 5.56mm Pmax is ~55kpsi. If higher pressure was the cause, our 5.56 barrel would be going quite quickly.

hollow point defense ammo might be loaded to the top end of the pressure range, but that's about it.  Shouldn't matter.  Mostly this sounds like Gun store BS.

If you're ever able to wear out a pistol barrel with copper jacketed or cast lead bullets you'll be the first. I know of a particular shop gun (a glock as it happened) from the gun shop I used to work at that had a round count well past 100,000 rounds on the factory barrel. Lots of parts got replaced on it over the years but not the barrel. That poor gun was just abused and the barrel lasted longer than basically any other part of the gun. On one of my personal Glocks I ran more than 30,000 rounds through it over the years before I caught a squib in a rapid fire exercise and even that didn't stop it working just fine. It belled a little bit near the chamber but it cycled fine and was just as accurate. I, of course, replaced the barrel after I found out it'd been belled but I didn't even find out for a while and fired a large number of rounds though it after it was belled.

I can't get past the fact that you think ammo prices are getting low.