Self-Defense Ammo
High-tech designs and premium performance give today’s shooters a lot of options when it comes to selecting a handgun round.
One of the most daunting chores gun owners face today is deciding what ammo to use in a concealed-carry or home-defense handgun. Not all that long ago, you simply went to the local hardware store and asked for a box of .38s. You might have had a choice in the manufacturer, Remington or Winchester, but there was a single weight — 158 grs. in a round-nose lead bullet — and they were loaded to the same velocity.
The same was true if you wanted ammo for your semiautomatic pistol. You could chose the maker, but bullet weights and velocities were standardized for the specific cartridge. Obviously there were a few variations, but not many.
The concept of expanding bullets had been around for quite awhile in high-power rifles, but not for handguns — largely because it was assumed that you had to have velocities over 1,000 fps to have a chance of expansion. Few handguns did that. To this day, some people claim that you have to have high velocity to get good bullet performance. Bunk!
Early in the ’70s, along came a guy by the name of Lee Jurras with an upstart little ammo company named Super Vel. He began with a .38 Special loaded with a JHP bullet that reached some pretty zippy velocities.
The secret to much of this was the use of significantly lighter bullets than we’d ever seen. The .38 Special, for example, used a 110 gr. bullet. Today that’s common, but then it was virtually revolutionary.
Of course, none of us had chronographs back then, so factory data was often used. This data was accompanied by some truly spectacular photographs of blocks of clay rendered asunder by Super Vel bullets. The product line grew to include magnum revolver calibers and pistol ammo for the .380 ACP, 9mm and .45 ACP, At about the same time, Sierra Bullets began to sell JHPs that looked suspiciously like those in the Super Vel ammo.
Of course, everyone jumped on the bandwagon and we began to see debates on which bullet was best. These debates continue today. Super Vel also triggered the hot-button issue that still plagues us — which is better: light and fast or heavy and slow?
Proof, on either side of this question, is based upon interpretation of data and anecdotal information. It is very hard to get good science when the subject under investigation is shooting people. Beware of pundits who proclaim they have the only true answer.
Zealots of any stripe should be viewed with the highest level of critical thinking skill we can muster. Question everything and accept it only if the argument is convincing. And, of course, to do that we have to really listen to both sides.
Silver And Gold
The next big advance in ammunition occurred when Winchester introduced the Silvertip handgun bullet. Years later, Federal Cartridge Co. purchased the rights to manufacture and market the Hydra-Shok bullet. Those two products both started trends.
Some authorities pronounced Hydra-Shok best, and things were rosy in Anoka, Minn. Federal introduced the concept of a premium handgun bullet, and it still isn’t known why other manufacturers waited so long to begin offering competitive products.
Ammunition history changed course forever on April 11, 1986. That was the day of the Miami massacre, one of the bloodiest shootouts in law-enforcement history. It left two FBI agents and two criminals dead and several other agents wounded.
As a result of that tragic day, the FBI began an extensive investigation of ammunition performance. They developed a criterion for what was expected from handgun ammo, and Federal won a number of contracts with Hydra-Shok. Finally, the other big companies really began to take notice. They all launched development of their own lines of high-performance bullets.
The result was an evolutionary stream of better bullets: First, Winchester had the illfated Black Talon, now replaced by their SXT, Remington brought out the Golden Saber brass JHP and Speer provided the Gold Dot.
All took different paths to reach the same goal: a bullet that expanded reliably with adequate penetration at handgun velocities. One of the FBI’s inflexible requirements was a minimum of 12″ penetration in 10 percent ballistic gelatin. In large part, that remains the goal today, although some specifications are leaning toward a little less penetration.
The result of all this research and development is that there is a wide variety of great defensive ammo available to the consumer today. We are not including pre-fragmented ammunition simply because of the extremely high cost and a very real shortage of reliable data. Nor will we include the superfast stuff. For those who steadfastly believe that fast is good and faster is best, discussion really isn’t necessary.
Here, then, is a detailed description of the specific bullet types available to today’s self-defense-conscious shooter.
The Ammo Line-Up
Hydra-Shok is surely the elder statesman here, for this hollowpoint with a post in the middle is only found in Federal ammo. The theory is that the post focuses hydrostatic pressure outward against the jacket to improve expansion. That is certainly true — tests have shown that bullets with the post removed expanded a little less than those unmodified.
Perhaps the biggest competitor to HydraShok is the Speer Gold Dot. Since both are owned by the same parent company, Blount Inc., they compete with themselves a bit. The Gold Dot begins by using Speer’s copper-plated lead core — very similar to their TMJ (total metal jacket) — but then the nose is pierced and the hollowpoint cavity formed. The result is a very distinctive little remnant of jacket material at the bottom of the hollowpoint — hence the name.
Winchester’s offering, the SXT, is a derivative of the Black Talon design — although it is neither black nor clawlike anymore. The SXT is characterized by eight deep skiving cuts evenly spaced around the nose. Very much like the original Silvertip design, this is done by punching a hole in the nose of the core and then forming and skiving around it.
Skiving is simply the process of making some small cuts in the jacket — usually four, six or eight — that will make it a little easier for the jacket to start expanding. Skiving is not new, but it is used to great advantage to help bullets expand at some pretty modest velocities.
Remington’s Golden Saber is easily identified by the brass jacket and six skiving cuts, which are formed at an angle (rather than straight down, as is more common). If you look at one of the bullets nose-on, there is a visual similarity to the petals of a flower. You can see how it will open during expansion. The Golden Saber design is noteworthy because their .45 ACP load was judged equal to the Hydra-Shok by the FBI. Remington won in the competitive bidding process, and Golden Saber became the issue ammunition for agents armed with .45 ACP pistols.
.380 ACP
Often, lists of cartridge rankings in order of sales popularity include the .380 ACP in the top 10. This is a controversial inclusion. Some authorities decry the .380 as underpowered, while others, ourselves included, view it as near the bottom of the list. But the fact is that all the major manufacturers have premium-level bullets to load in it.
Speer has the lightest, with a 90 gr. Gold Dot (990 fps), a distinction shared by Federal, with a 90 gr. Hydra-Shok (1,000 fps), and Winchester SXT at 95 gr. (955 fps). The heavyweight title belongs to Remington with a 102 gr. Golden Saber, with a velocity of 940 fps.
9mm
In terms of total ammunition sales, the 9mm Parabellum is the biggest seller by a wide margin. The reason is simple: It is compatible in so many guns. Since World War I, the 9mm has been the dominant cartridge in Europe and much of the free world. When American law enforcement began the switch to semi-automatic pistols, high magazine capacity was a major concern, and the 9mm led the pack in those terms. Today almost everyone who makes pistols has one or more 9mms in the line.
Three bullet weights dominate today’s 9mm selections — 115, 124 and 147 gr. loadings. Within that group you can find standard, +P and even a few +P+, which are restricted to law enforcement. The information regarding all the various calibers, bullet weights and factory velocities is available at the various web sites, or in catalogs.
.38 Special
Next in line is the .38 Special, with bullets ranging from 110 up to 158 gr., many in the +P variety. Bullet types are the same, too. Ditto for the .357 Mag., although we add 180 and 200 gr. weights for hunters.