SR9E & Hornady Critical Duty

I may never have to clean this pistol :wink: . I've put about 200 rounds of the Hornady CD thru it without cleaning, and not a single problem of any kind. The barrel has only a light dusting of powder residue and nothing to speak of elsewhere. I love this combination of gun and ammo. :mrgreen:

hell, cleaning a good pistol is part of the fun! labor of love (most girls don't get it).

I'm glad you've also happened upon the Critical Duty. I found exactly what you have only in the sr40c not the 9E, and obviously .40 not the 9mm. I posted several times about it a couple of years ago but stopped for fear people would start to suspect I work for Hornady because I spoke so well of it. lol

I found it to have excellent recoil characteristics and they just plain seemed to fly really well in terms of my ability to be accurate with it. The recoil was more of a factor for me with the .40 then it probably would be for you with the 9mm. And played a bigger role for me then I think it would have, had I had a 9mm.

In some self defense rounds in .40 REALLY crank up the velocities, and can kick rather violently. The PDX1 was one I can think of off the top of my head that I found just too much (for me).

The Critical Duty was the most tame. I also hear good things about the Critical Defense as well but haven't tried any myself.

Rei40c said:

I'm glad you've also happened upon the Critical Duty. I found exactly what you have only in the sr40c not the 9E, and obviously .40 not the 9mm. I posted several times about it a couple of years ago but stopped for fear people would start to suspect I work for Hornady because I spoke so well of it. lol

I found it to have excellent recoil characteristics and they just plain seemed to fly really well in terms of my ability to be accurate with it. The recoil was more of a factor for me with the .40 then it probably would be for you with the 9mm. And played a bigger role for me then I think it would have, had I had a 9mm.

In some self defense rounds in .40 REALLY crank up the velocities, and can kick rather violently. The PDX1 was one I can think of off the top of my head that I found just too much (for me).

The Critical Duty was the most tame. I also hear good things about the Critical Defense as well but haven't tried any myself.

Click to expand...

The Defense round is a slightly lighter bullet than the Duty round and I think has a somewhat softer tip. Other than that they're identical except for the usual performance difference associated with the different weights, etc. I get a significant military discount on the Std & +P Duty round at my LGS, which was the deciding factor for me.

Penetration (9mm) is ~11" thru heavy clothing with the Defense, and 15" with the Duty. About the same with the .40, although a slightly bigger hole of course.

Hornady has all this posted on their site with pics.

GunnyGene said:

Rei40c said:

I'm glad you've also happened upon the Critical Duty. I found exactly what you have only in the sr40c not the 9E, and obviously .40 not the 9mm. I posted several times about it a couple of years ago but stopped for fear people would start to suspect I work for Hornady because I spoke so well of it. lol

I found it to have excellent recoil characteristics and they just plain seemed to fly really well in terms of my ability to be accurate with it. The recoil was more of a factor for me with the .40 then it probably would be for you with the 9mm. And played a bigger role for me then I think it would have, had I had a 9mm.

In some self defense rounds in .40 REALLY crank up the velocities, and can kick rather violently. The PDX1 was one I can think of off the top of my head that I found just too much (for me).

The Critical Duty was the most tame. I also hear good things about the Critical Defense as well but haven't tried any myself.

Click to expand...

The Defense round is a slightly lighter bullet than the Duty round and I think has a somewhat softer tip. Other than that they're identical except for the usual performance difference associated with the different weights, etc. I get a significant military discount on the Std & +P Duty round at my LGS, which was the deciding factor for me.

Penetration (9mm) is ~11" thru heavy clothing with the Defense, and 15" with the Duty. About the same with the .40, although a slightly bigger hole of course.

Hornady has all this posted on their site with pics.

Click to expand...

I still carry the Critical Duty on occasion but because of availability over the last year or so have settled on the 180 grain Gold Dot. The Critical Duty came in 175 grain for .40. This was back in the days I was deciding on what my carry ammo should be and I got involved with "bullet religion" so to speak, wondering which was best. Probably too involved with it in hindsight.

As it stands now though with me these are my two favorites and will be for a long time I suspect. I still think if I had to pick one of the two, I personally get better groups with Critical Duty and have more confidence with it. The difference between shooting the two is so very slight it's probably not even worth mentioning, but I do find it to be an ever so slightly better shooting round on the range.

Obviously although I didn't mention it both of these rounds feed flawlessly with no discernible difference in reliability, at least in the few hundred I'd sent downrange (which isn't much but they are expensive!). I've never had a malfunction with either.