When you carry your sidearm, regardless of the caliber - do you prefer full metal jacket or hollow point? On range, do you train with one over the other?
1 Like
Deril,
I always carry HP when carrying, but I generally shoot mostly FMJ at the range with some HP just to keep familiar with it. If I am shooting revolvers, I generally stick with HP since I reload .38 and .357 and all my reloads are HP.
What are your thoughts on that?
Carry HP, Federal HST 9mm 124 grain. Train with Federal American Eagle FMJ 9mm 124 grain, although I do like to rotate my HP every so often by shooting that at the range and replenishing it with new stuff. Both have identical muzzle energy and velocity.
Hollow point in all self defense pistols when not at the range.
FMJ at the range.
When I teach others to shoot, we always use FMJ with hearing protection and before we leave, we shoot a mag of the hollow points self defense ammo without hearing protection.
Reason being, if the self defense ammo is heavier, the person can see if they feel a difference and the no hearing protection is so they know how loud their gun is so as to not be startled if they should ever have to defend themselves.
1 Like
I wanted people’s thoughts on t JHP rounds for $20. Also I attached the list of ammo for 9mm. What’s the difference and do all of them fit in my handgun?
9mm as we’re used to it is 9x19. 9mm Makarov or 9mm Mak as listed above is the wrong ammo for your 9x19 luger or parabellum. It was designed by the Soviets for a sub machine gun, I think. 9mm luger and 9mm parabellum are essentially the same thing. The 9x17 is a .380 cartridge.
6.5 cartridges are odd like this too. Some 6.5 bullets are in large casings and are super long, like the 6.5 Swede. Some are in short casings and are shorter bullets like the 6.5 grendel. The 6.5 creedmoor, which is talked about all the time fits in the middle of the grendel and Swede.
Ammo gets weird.
1 Like
My range Ammo is usually either Armscor, or Federal. My carry ammo is Underwood.
2 Likes
Correct, 9mm Luger, 9mm Parabellum and 9 X 19 are the same. The 9 X 18 Mak is Russian stuff, I think 9 X 21 is mainly sold in Italy and there may be some other obscure German stuff in there.
@KillJoy What gun do you own? Most likely it takes 9mm Luger, which is the most popular 9mm round out there. As for the 20 bucks for 50 rounds, I’ve actually seen the Hi Shok for cheaper than that. Federal has come out with Hydra Shok and more recently HST (which is what I carry) since coming out wit the Hi Shok round.
@Kerryman71. I bought Federal 9mm Lugar 147 gr JHP Hi-Shok
I know my gun takes 9mm Lugar. I just didn’t know what that other ammo is. (Poor grammar). I want to know if what I bought works well for defense rounds.
2 Likes
.40 cal, Winchester White Box on the range, and Remington Golden Saber for carry.
Its JHP, which means jacketed hollow points, so you should be good to go! I guess if you need to, you can always Google what you bought and read reviews.
I run at least 100 rounds of my defensive ammunition before carrying it. I use 9mm 115 gr FMJ for the range and carry 147 gr JHP
2 Likes
Yes, the 147 grain JHP Hi Shok will work well for self defense. I fired 115, 124 and 147 grain through mine before deciding on 124 grain. It felt better to me and ballistic testing results showed it performed very well.
I use Hornady Critical Defense as my carry, and whatever the cheapest brass case ammo I can find for plinking. I do cycle my carry ammo, so I practice with it occasionally as well.
2 Likes
I carry 124gr +P LE Gold Dots, practice with Federal 115’s.
Love my Hornady Critical Defense for carry. As far as practice ammo, I will echo @Dave1 except there are certain surplus ammos I won’t shoot.
I end up using FMJ a lot as the range sells it for a good price and I never seem to have enough ammo in my range bag. 
1 Like
I use fmj rounds at the range and carry Sig Sauer hollow points in all my carry pistols.
1 Like