What 9mm Ammunition For Short Barelled Pistol?

I've had good luck with Hornady Critical Duty Ammunition 9mm +P 135 Grain and Underwood as well in my CD compact. Buffalo Bore Ammunition Outdoorsman 9mm +P 147 Grain Hard Cast Lead Flat Nose was used to take down a grizzly using a short barrel pistol.

Critical Defense is what I carry.

so, here's the 'problem' as I see it.... everyone who has posted on this thread has listed the ammo that they have shot with out a problem.... but no one list ammo that doesn't..... seems to me that it all works just fine... now has to which would provide the 'best' impact...? as well as most accurate.. still don't know.

I shot at least 4 different types of 9mm out of my new Sig P290 (which has got to be just about the shortest 9mm barrel there is) and had no problems and at 25 ft could see no difference in accuracy which was damn scary for a small pistol... all the rounds penetrated the paper too!

Blume on the first page of this thread rammerjammer posted a link to some ballistics tests Lucky Gunner ran using a M&P 9C. I know ballistics gelatin isn't perfect but it should give one a pretty good idea of how a bullet might behave if used in self defense. I wound up getting some 150 grain HST rounds at Academy they even had a little sticker on the box marked micro. I may get some 147 grain though as I believe they tested well & I can get a 50 round box online for less than what a 25 round box costs in the store.

In case anyone is interested in numbers, these are my measured velocities for factory Federal 124gr HST.

3" barrel - 1079 fps
4.6" barrel - 1164 fps

BTW, this is non +P

I would consider that most American Ammunition makers are producing rounds that work in a range of pistol lengths. Unless someone has personal experience with them in combat I would believe that any of the major manufacturers and likely the newer, smaller makers' round work equally well in any pistols. My Ruger 9#, LCRS and American Compact feed anything.

teuthis said:

I would consider that most American Ammunition makers are producing rounds that work in a range of pistol lengths. Unless someone has personal experience with them in combat I would believe that any of the major manufacturers and likely the newer, smaller makers' round work equally well in any pistols. My Ruger 9#, LCRS and American Compact feed anything.

Click to expand...

The question wasn't about what rounds would work. Just about any quality 9mm round will feed, fire & cycle the pistol. The issue is that with a shorter barrel (3"-3 1/2") the bullet does not have time to build as much velocity. All JHP ammunition is not created equal. Some will not expand as they would from a 4" or longer barrel which could make them less effective & increase the odds of over penetration.

Back in the day, the consensus was that one needed to get most of the available (36-Cal) HP-bullets up to 1100 FPS in order for them to reliably expand. And even then, it could still be "iffy", depending on what it had to travel through.
Folks ain't made out of ballistic gel, water jugs, or wet phone books. Plus, the bad guys that I've had to fight weren't standing out in the open naked while firing at me. The first was crouched at, and firing through, a partially broken widow while wearing a heavy (leather and wool) letterman's jacket. Another time, I was being fired at from around the door way of a sheet rock wall. And just in passing, like I've mentioned before, a lot of bad stuff happens in and around automobiles.

Necessary momentum, that's what I'm getting at here.
The last time I looked, that has to do with weight, mass, and velocity. Point being, I'd be real careful about giving up either for something as trivial as carry comfort, or how I prefer to dress myself...'cause we live in an unsure world, and ya never know.

But that's just me and how life has taught me to look at it.

DGW

All true, but we are not living back in the day and bullet design has come a long way since Federal 9BP was the state of the art. Back then a hollow point just meant there was a hole in the tip.

It took me a while to let go of the 1100fps lower limit too, but today I have more confidence in HSTs from a sub-compact than I had with 9BPs in a full size pistol.