# Which rounds do you use for your carry weapons?



## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

Haven't seen a post asking this question yet.. So I figured I would pull the trigger!

I typically use Hornady Critical Defense.. But have heard good things about others. Which do you prefer and why?


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## archer-1 (Feb 4, 2009)

Same round so far


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

Ax handle while in my work truck since they don't allow guns. 

Any other time Critical Defense.


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

G 26, gen 4, 9mm Hornady 147gr XTP


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## MikeH (Jul 14, 2009)

Critical defense in .380, and 9mm, golden sabres in .357 and .45


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## Firefishvideo (Jul 1, 2010)

Do you guys buy those on-line, or have you found a local source....I can't find anything at Academy,Walmart,Jay's,or Mikes!


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## 20simmons sea skiff (Aug 20, 2010)

speer lawman 124 9 mm, 16 shot, new gun will shoot 147 grain blackhills, both will take a 20 rd clip


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## bama99 (Dec 20, 2009)

Firefishvideo said:


> Do you guys buy those on-line, or have you found a local source....I can't find anything at Academy,Walmart,Jay's,or Mikes!


Styx River usually has Critical Defense in stock and at good prices.


I carry Critical Defense in My Diamondback .380 and Walther PPS 9mm....Speer Gold Dot Bonded 124+P in the XDm 3.8 compact.


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## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

Academy seems to have 9mm critical defense in stock every time i go.. $20.99 for a box i believe.


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## Firefishvideo (Jul 1, 2010)

Thanks, I figured I MUST just be unlucky....they must be sold out everytime I go!
I tried everywhere a couple of weeks ago...... I finally just broke down and ordered some from midway.
I'd still like to find/try some Corbon Powerball for my .380 kahr. ......round expands to the same dia. as a .45 fmj.


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## 706Z (Mar 30, 2011)

*Carry Ammo*

380 -Hydro Shock 90gr.
9mm-Ranger T +P 124gr.
40 cal.-Ranger T 180gr. or
Hornady TAP 180 FPD
I also like Georgia Arms 180 +P:thumbup:


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Remington Ultra Home Defense HPs


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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

Hornady TAP


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## MULLET HUNTER (Oct 3, 2007)

Depends on what I'm carrying, gold dots mostly..... Because that is what is issued...


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## armywags (Feb 19, 2012)

Winchester PDX1 +P in all my handguns


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## AUtiger01 (Oct 17, 2007)

Wirelessly posted

Glock 23 .40 165gr Federal HST
S&W 642 .38 135gr +p Speer Gold Dot
Keltec P3AT .380 80gr Corbon DPX


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## Flatspro (Oct 3, 2007)

Wirelessly posted

Hornady +p critical defense


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## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

These look pretty nice... New product for this year.

http://www.hornady.com/store/Critical-DUTY-New/


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## scubapro (Nov 27, 2010)

Depending upon the weapon/caliber carried:

DoubleTap Barnes TAC-XP (10mm Auto)
Winchester Ranger T-series (9mm & 45 ACP)
Speer Gold Dots (45 GAP)
CorBon Pow'Rball (9mm pocket pistol)


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## kenny senter (Mar 20, 2009)

the critical defense was just recently "updated" or "modified" for LEO standards. I dont recall the name of the new round but its something like Critical Enforcer or something of the sort.

google search found it: Critical Duty


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## johnf (Jan 20, 2012)

FrankwT said:


> G 26, gen 4, 9mm Hornady 147gr XTP





Firefishvideo said:


> Do you guys buy those on-line, or have you found a local source....I can't find anything at Academy,Walmart,Jay's,or Mikes!


I use the same 147gr XTP. I reload mine Firefishvideo.


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## DaBreeze (Feb 25, 2012)

Mike's -- 9mm Critical defense 9mm $17.99


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## Gravity3694 (May 10, 2011)

After doing a ridiculous amount of research I use the following:

9mm-147gr Federal HST or 147gr Speer Gold Dot
.45ACP-230gr+P Federal HST (I would of gotten the non +P since +P is overkill that makes follow up shots harder)
.380-90gr Hornady Critical Defense (There isn't any load that satisfies me in .380, so I eventually decided this was the best of the pack)
.38 Special- 130gr+P Winchester PDX1

In case your curious here's what I use in my long-guns.
5.56- MK318 mod 0
12g- Federal 00B with flite control wads


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## realstreet (Dec 8, 2008)

G29SF 10MM Black Talon 200gr STX DP. Backup gun LCP 380 90gr Critical Defense


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## helo_hunter (Oct 2, 2007)

It isn't cheap but this is what I have in my 380, Extreme Shock. Use Critical Defense for the 9 and 40 cals.

*Boar Hunting with Extreme Shock High Performance Ammunition*


by Jeff Quinn

photography by Jeff Quinn & Boge Quinn 
May 7th, 2007 UPDATED November 24th, 2010 

​*UPDATE:*

_*"Beauty and the Beast"*_
_*Mrs. Rachel Klinger of Wise, VA and the 450-pound Russian boar she harvested with one shot using an Extreme Shock 32 H&R 60-grain bullet at 1210 fps.*_​
*These days, shooters have it better than ever when it comes to ammo selection for their favorite weapons. I remember a time when, to get really high performance ammo, you had to roll your own. Today, there are several ammunition makers who specialize in making ammo that rides the cutting edge of performance. One such company with which I have recently became familiar is Extreme Shock Munitions of Clintwood, Virginia. I was contacted by the PR folks for Extreme Shock, and was sent some ammo to try out. Subsequently, I was invited to go on a wild boar hunt in East Tennessee with Jeff Mullins, the head honcho at Extreme Shock. More on the hog hunt later.*
*Extreme Shock makes some very interesting and unusual cartridges, for rifle, pistol, and shotgun. Some are tailored for hunting, while others are very specialized anti-personnel rounds, which are in use world-wide by military types and civilian contractors doing anti-terrorist operations. The criteria for the Extreme Shock ammo is to offer very specific penetration for the job at hand, along with extreme soft tissue disruption. Most of the Extreme Shock ammo is made from a base of powdered tungsten metal, which is very dense, and very tough. This tungsten core is swaged into a conventional bullet jacket. The whole thing is lead free, offers a lowered chance of a ricochet, and seldom exits a target. Extreme Shock makes several different mission-specific rounds. Some offer more penetration, some less. Some are built to offer high performance in a subsonic rifle round, and others are built for a very low chance of hard target penetration, for use in airplanes and such.*
*Our boar hunt was to take place at Caryonah Hunting Lodge near Crossville, Tennessee. Caryonah has hogs with a lot of European wild boar blood, and some are mixed with Razorback and other bloodlines. A couple of weeks before the hunt, Jeff Mullins sent to me some 9mm ammo to bring on the hunt. See, I was thinking of bringing my Freedom Arms .500 Wyoming Express, .480 Puma levergun, or at least my trusted old .45 Ruger Blackhawk, but he wanted me to use a 9mm pistol! Sure, hogs have been killed with lesser cartridges, but usually under slaughter house conditions, and not in the wooded steep hills. However, in the interest of science, to better inform our readers, and being one to never let good judgment get in the way, I agreed. The pistol would be my Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm, which I have come to trust. It holds eighteen cartridges, and I told Jeff that in the event of a big boar getting really mad at me for shooting him with a 9mm, I would save the last round for myself, and the one before that for him. From the Smith’s barrel, the 9mm EPR round clocked 1279 feet-per-second velocity.*
*I met up with Jeff at the Cracker Barrel restaurant just outside of Crossville for some lip-smacking biscuits and gravy before heading out a few miles to Caryonah for the hunt. My Cracker Barrel gravy addiction is one of my character flaws. I have been known to eat it with a spoon. A dash of habanero sauce really brings that stuff to life! Arriving at the lodge, we loaded into a well-used Chevy (it is rude to refer to a man’s truck as "beat up") and headed back into the woods. Like much of Tennessee, the area around Crossville is steep and rocky. I believe that if Tennessee was mashed out flat that it just might be the biggest state in the union. After our guide dropped us off somewhere in the deep woods, it didn’t take long for us to realize that a lighter breakfast would have been better idea. From the tracks and other sign, Caryonah has plenty of hogs, but the brush is pretty thick in places, and finding a track that still has a hog standing in it is a bit harder to do. Within the first hour of hunting, we spotted a few hogs, but they were on the move, and getting close took some work. Several times I would try to work around a ridge to get in front of some good hogs, but they would spot me before I could get through the brush for a decent shot.*
*Running through the woods, jumping logs and streams, I could get within range of a shot, but the hogs offered nothing but a rear raking shot. I wanted to shoot through the shoulder on a big boar, as I was there to test the penetration and power of Extreme Shock’s 9mm EPR round. I didn’t want to shoot one between the eyes, and I didn’t want to slip one in at an angle from behind the shoulder. Both would have certainly been lethal, but I wanted to see if that 9mm could really break down a boar’s shoulder after traveling through that thick coarse hair, tough hide, and shoulder muscle. Jeff Mullins assured me that it would, but I wanted to prove it to myself before I would believe it. It proved to be an interesting morning. I ran a lot more than I thought that I could pursuing hogs, and fell flat on my face once when my legs just gave out. Thankfully, nobody was there to witness that sight. Spotting several hogs at the edge of a small pond (that is a "tank" to you Texas types), I eased down through the brush to get into position for a possible shot. They spotted me and headed off up a ridge. While wondering what I could do to work my way above them, from my left comes a lone Russian cross boar heading towards a small opening in the brush. Waiting for him to present a shot, he finally offered me a piece of shoulder through an opening. He was only about thirty yards away, but I was above him, and shot lower than I had intended. He didn’t fall, but was definitely hit. He started off up the ridge, and I slowly followed, hoping that he would lay down. I thought that the shot was good, and wanted to do the job with one shot if I could. However, I decided to give him another. That second shot hit a small sapling that jumped between me and the boar. Saplings tend to do that in Tennessee. The next shot hit the shoulder, and the hog went down hard. During the autopsy, it was apparent that the first shot had entered forward of the shoulder and traversed about thirteen inches of meat, shredding the jugular in the process. Had I left him alone, he would have soon expired from that first shot, but you never know. We found a small piece of bullet jacket poking through the hair. The rest of the bullet disintegrated in the boar. The shot to the shoulder broke the shoulder bone. Boning out the boar at home, the shoulder bone looked as if it had been hit with a bullet from a high-powered rifle, yet the shoulder was not ruined as it would have been with a high velocity rifle round. I was impressed. I could poke my finger through the shoulder blade. The bone was not merely cracked, but the bone in the bullet’s path had simply disappeared.*
*The boar proved to be a tasty one, as have the other wild boars that I have killed. Unlike domestic hogs, these Russian-blood hogs have huge thick meaty ribs. There is less fat than on a farm-raised hog, but there was plenty present to make some very good bratwurst. The guide estimated the boar to go a bit over 300 pounds, and after packaging up the ribs and loins, I had a lot of boned-out meat to grind.*
*This was my first experience with Extreme Shock ammo, but I plan to do a lot of testing in the future, of both their pistol and rifle cartridges. They also have a very unique shotgun slug cartridge that promises low recoil and excellent performance, called their CTJ round, which stands for "Come to Jesus".*
*Extreme Shock ammunition is not cheap, but for the performance offered, is a good value. I never scrimp on ammo for my carry guns, and try to use the very best available. If ever in a situation where you might need your defensive weapon, you will most certainly need it quickly, and any handgun is a compromise. It should be loaded with the best ammunition that you can find. Your life depends upon it.*
*Check out the full line of Extreme Shock ammo at: www.extremeshockusa.net/.*
*While this was my first hunt at Caryonah Lodge, it won’t be my last. They have a first class operation, and offer a real hunt and great service. Check them out at www.caryonah.com.*
*Jeff Quinn*​


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## Firefishvideo (Jul 1, 2010)

johnf said:


> I use the same 147gr XTP. I reload mine Firefishvideo.


 I have several self protection bullet types for reloading, but I am now hesitant to count on them, as I have had several primer failures (Federal) in my last batch of target ammo I loaded. I hope the factory stuff has a higher grade of primers installed....but I don't know.


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## John B. (Oct 2, 2007)

Wirelessly posted

Glock 19, and Diamondback 9mm, hornady critical defense.


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## cone (Sep 15, 2011)

Whatever I carry I make sure it runs in my weapon.


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## Suprman (Jul 11, 2011)

165gr Speer Gold Dot Hollow Points In both primary and backup


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## gator7_5 (Oct 4, 2007)

.357 Mag = Winchester silver tip HP

.40 = Hornady critical defense


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## aboutscubasteve (May 13, 2011)

Depending- I keep my Taurus 9mm close with Federal HydroShock. Surgically accurate with it compared to my .45s. I keep a standard Federal range load in my tactical riot shotgun (Mossberg 500 serise, modified)- unless I am taking it into the field, then the shot loaded will depend on the job.
Honsetly, take it to the range, shoot it- ask the guys there- and make your own call after you have tried a few different brands and types. Make your judgement on how your weapon handles with the ammo, how does it clean up afterwards, and other outside recommendations. Good ammo that shoots cleaner (keeps your weapon form getting sooted up and dirty) and is matched for your weapon (mismatched make / model specific rounds or improperly loaded "reloads" can cause jamming) is worth its weight in gold, especially in a critical moment. I prefer to buy a reputable long established manufacturer rounds- and am willing to spend a few extra cents for it. 
Just one mans opinion....


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## bfisher1970 (Mar 15, 2012)

Winchester PDX-1 .45 ACP in my 1911
Hornady Critical Defense .380 in my Sig P-238


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