Self-Defense Ammo

Guns Magazine, March, 2001 by Charles E. Petty

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!

The Secret To The Zip

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.