Help with defensve round??

[willieboat]

I just bought a new Kahr P9, what would you guys reccomend for a defensive round? Brand and grain weight? thank-you.

[LaP]

I'll open this can of worms up....
124gr. Speer Gold Dot
124gr. Winchester PDX
124gr. Hornady XTP
(I guess I like 124gr. bullets);)

[eklipto101]

+p124gr. Gold Dot
+p124gr. EFMJ by federal

[wyntrout]

+P 124-grain Speer Gold Dots. I prefer the 124-125 grain bullets and the Gold Dots are bonded bullets.

Right now I'm using +P 124-gr Gold Dots by Double Tap in my K9 and Speer 124-gr Gold Dot Short Barrel in my PM9. I don't know if there's a difference in the 9mm Gold Dots, but the .45 version has a wider and shallower cavity to expand about the same as the regular GD's.

DT stopped making that GD +P round after I bought 200.

Wynn:)

[jocko]

I am told kahr tests their guns with 124 grain (something).at 10 yards.. Mind u they do not shoot to sight in the gun via messing with sight adjustments etc. They shoot for a group, which could even be 6' off (shooter error) but if the group is tight, then the gun passes. Normally they put the sights on pretty good for COM shootig but many think kahr or other gun companies actualy sight in the guns, THEY DO NOT. They get damn close but the final part is up to you, if needed...

[Bill K]

To date, being the frugal person that I am and wanting the best bang for the buck, I've been carrying Black Hills (BH) 124 +P. For my PM9 I've switched to BH 115 EXP. In my opinion for 9mm sticking to hollow points and brand names it'd be hard to choose a really bad SD round. Lots of good stuff out there. If it feeds reliably you should feel confident in your final choice. I wouldn't spend to much time nit picking accuracy.

Bill K.

[entoptics]

I've recently been considering the same question, and have done a fair amount of web research, and a bit of chronograph work.

I concur with the above suggestion that any reputable brand's +P JHP offering in 115 or 124 grain will be an excellent choice. Whatever is available from your favorite vendor at a reasonable price will probably be great.

I chose MagTech Guardian Gold for awhile (cheap, powerful, and very accurate), but I recently found several different "backyard" testers who experienced bad fragmentation and jacket separation, so I don't think I'll use it anymore.

Some reasonably priced ($25-$35 per 50) rounds not already mentioned that I came across with "above average" support in interweb reviews...

Winchester Ranger +P (115 or 124)
Hornady Critical defense.
Remington Golden Saber +P 124

Whatever you choose, be sure it's something you can afford to fire at least 100 rounds for reliability testing. Even rounds with excellent reputations overall may not feed well in your particular gun.

+P ammo might also be more frisky than you can shoot well, so be sure to try it out thoroughly before committing. Losing a bit of power to gain shot placement and speed is a worthwhile trade off for many people.

[willieboat]

Thanks for all the input Guy's!

[ripley16]

I concur with all so far. I tend toward 124gr. Currently I have Winchester PDX1 chambered, but any quality, known dependable round will serve well. Hornady TAP is another favorite I seem to shoot especially well.

The only two rounds I had any trouble with are the above mentioned MagTech Guardian Gold and Cor Bon (which had some loose bullet/ setback issues).

[500KV]

This is a Federal HST 124gr shot through some water jugs, according to the poster.

You may either see beauty or horror in the image.
I see the former myself.
Looks to be a good round.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab225/500KV_album/federalhst.jpg