Les Jones: Defensive Ammo: Regular, Premium, or Supreme?

October 16, 2007

Guns > Defensive Ammo: Regular, Premium, or Supreme?

Interesting thread on The High Road. What kind of ammo do you use in your guns intended for self-defense? The answers range from the cheapest Winchester White Box (WWB) to the most expensive rounds of Federal Hydra-Shok and CorBon.

With any ammunition for defense you want to shoot enough of it that you're sure it shoots to point of aim and that it functions reliably in your gun. For semi-automatics, many people consider 200 rounds to be a minimum before trusting their ammo. The super premium ammo costs about a dollar per round. How many people can afford to spend $200 to verify that a particular brand of ammo works with their gun? If you have multiple carry guns, multiply their number by $200. Suddenly the people shooting the cheap stuff seem like they've got a point.

I use mid-priced Remnington (158 grain SWCLHP* in .38 Special and 125 grain SJHP** in .357 Magnum) that in today's wildly inflated prices costs about $25 per 50 round box, or about fifty cents per round. WWB costs half that and the super premium stuff costs twice that.***

I'd hesitate to use WWB in a defensive gun. One reason it's so cheap is that it's never inspected by human eyes. I've seen pictures of some cock-eyed WWB cartridges with banged-up brass that made it to the store.

Which ammo do you use for self-defense?

* Semi-wadcutter lead hollowpoint. The 158 grain variety of which in .38 Special is known as the FBI Load because the FBI used it for years. It has an extremely good reputation.
**Semi-jacketed hollowpoint
***The .38 Special Winchester White Box I bought at Wal-Mart the other week cost 28 cents per round. For comparison, a pack of Ramen noodles at Wal-Mart costs 12 cents. For the price of a 50 round box of WWB .38 Special ammo you could eat Ramen for lunch and dinner for a month.

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Comments

I thought the Treasury Load (or "Q-load") was the 110gr +P+?

Posted by: Tam at October 16, 2007

I think you're right. The synonym I was looking for was probably the "Chicago Load." Fixed.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 16, 2007

I use WWB in my 357, 125gr SJHP. I target shoot with it, not competitively, and therefore I know what to expect from it. I've not had a bad round in years. And I inspect it before its loaded into my cylinder or speed loaders. If someone can afford to put a hundred rounds of Corbon down range each month then more power to them. Perhaps life is different with semi-autos. But I use what I practice with. To me that's more important then any theoretical advantage more expensive ammo may bring.

Posted by: MichaelG at October 16, 2007

Federal Hydra-Shoks in the 9mm, .38 special, and .357 Magnum carry guns; Speer Gold Dots in the .380 ACP.

Boils down to price - I could get a box of the Hydra-Shoks for ~ $20/box of 50 (I think it's up to $25-$27 now) and $15/box of 20 Gold Dots.

I try to cycle through it about 1X a year. It's 'spensive, but worth every penny...

Posted by: Jay G at October 16, 2007

I load my own.

Posted by: countertop at October 16, 2007

Jay, I usually see Hydra-Shoks for $18 or so a box around here, but I checked online and you're right, they're about $25 or so, which is about the same as the Remington stuff.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 16, 2007

When I took my CCW course the instructor told us to use the ammo our local PD used. They use Remington Golden Saber JHP and that is what I use. His point was that if you went before the jury you didn't want the DA claiming you used "excessively deadly ammunition" (i.e. hydrashock, etc) and by using what the police use you disable this line of attack. Just my two cents but it made sense to me.

Posted by: Dana at October 24, 2007