Self-Defense Ammo

Guns Magazine, March, 2001 by Charles E. Petty

The Performance Factor: Choose Your Defensive Ammo Based On More Than Just Marketing Hype

How do you decide which ammunition is right for you? Here are the key points to consider when choosing the ammo to load in your handgun.

Reliability

Regardless of who made it, or how good it might be, if ammunition is not reliable (obviously assuming that the gun is) remove it instantly from the list of possibilities and move on to another brand.

Shootability

This is one of the personal parts of the equation. If you cannot shoot the gun as well or better with the proposed defense load than you do with what you shoot for fun, it should be excluded. The person who carries an 11-oz. .357 Mag. and only shoots it with .38 target loads is going to get a painful surprise from a 125 gr. magnum load.

It is possible to train yourself to manage those recoil levels without instant flinch, but it takes time. We are better defended with a moderate load that we can shoot with great accuracy than the most powerful thing we can find.

Accuracy

Accuracy and shootability are often interconnected, but there can be differences in pure accuracy with different loads. As part of the selection process, this needs to be considered, but it is not usually the primary criteria. Defensive guns should not be judged by target pistol standards. The most important factor in combat accuracy is the shooter, not the gun or ammo.

Bullet Design

You may be surprised that this comes close to the bottom of the list, but among today's premium loads, we would be unable to say with any confidence that one is better than another. And if we did enough comparative work for a genuine statistical analysis of bullet performance, it wouldn't be a surprise if we found no clear best. Why? Because they are all good.

Power

This is the absolute last thing to think about. What difference does it make if we miss a target with all the power in the world because we have a built-in reflex that makes us try to get away from something painful? Even the best self-defense ammo in the world can't do its job if you can't hit the target with it.