By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters
A lot of people have dedicated ammunition for different purposes. Some is for the range, some is carry ammo, some ammunition is for hunting and so on. Some hunters are known for drilling down even further; some have specific loads for specific species, even specific guns for specific species.
After all, a 130 grain bullet in a .270 Winchester can easily dispatch a deer, but effectively hunting big bears may require something with a little more punch.
Should the same thing be done with defensive ammunition? After all, some people have multiple carry pistols, with the slimmest and smallest reserved for summer carry and larger pistols for carry in the winter months. People tend to wear thicker clothing and as a result, different ammunition than what one normally carries may be preferred.
For instance, some people will carry a slim, uber-compact, single-stack pistol – or even a pocket pistol – of moderate caliber during summer months, but during fall and winter revert to a larger compact or even full-size pistol to carry and often a larger caliber. For instance, it’s not unheard of for some to carry a .380 or compact 9mm during the warm and hot parts of the year, and once colder weather hits, start carrying a 1911 or other .45 because more layers make it easier to conceal a larger pistol.
As to ammunition, more layers of heavier clothing, as some states reach very cold temperatures indeed, may require a greater degree of penetration and more controlled expansion of a round may be needed from a defensive carry round. That way, instead of hitting and expanding upon initial impact, a bullet will hit but not expand until it has passed through several layers of clothing.
A round that begins to expand immediately upon impact may not penetrate far enough into the target in order to disable the threat. On the other hand, a round that over-penetrates may not only pass through the target, but hit bystanders.
Those kind of concerns are exactly why it’s not recommended for the concealed carrier to carry FMJ rounds. Those are also the reasons why law enforcement and other groups test the ballistic performance of ammunition, so it can be discovered – at least to the degree it can in laboratory testing – what rounds are going to perform best in real world conditions.
The FBI learned, to their cost, that mere ballistic gelatin alone is not enough to determine the efficacy of a round, and in the wake of the 1986 Miami shootout, devised a new set of protocols testing penetration and expansion of a bullet in ballistic gelatin after penetrating various barriers, such as drywall, multiple layers of clothing, glass, car doors, etc. The standard that was adopted was 12 to 18 inches of penetration in gelatin past the obstructive barrier.
A carry round should perform to those standards. Though the same loads are likely not available today, some of the results are available around the web; you can see some of them in this blog post on the American Rifleman website. (Federal Hydra-Shok JHP were consistently the top-scoring rounds.)
There are also a few resources for finding modern ammunition subjected to similar testing; Lucky Gunner has done some similar testing on modern rounds. (Federal still does well; Remington, Winchester and Corbon are top performers.)
Granted, these are laboratory tests, under laboratory conditions. Those only tell you how rounds performed under those conditions; it isn’t guaranteed that the rounds in question are going to perform as well if they have to be fired at a person in the real world. However, the right testing conditions – such as firing at ballistic gelatin under multiple layers of clothing, through plywood or drywall, etc – can at least give a person an approximation of how a round will perform in real world conditions.
Ideally, a person should carry ammunition that will perform under any conditions, but the fact is that guns tend to “like” certain loads and not like others. Thus, a person should carry the best-performing round that their gun will reliably and accurately cycle. If that means carrying a round that penetrates less in summer that’s reliable in a summer gun, and a reliable round in a winter gun, then absolutely carry one in summer and one in winter. However, if a person can carry one round that always works year ’round…so much the better.
Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.