Choosing Carry Ammo - A practical, no-nonsense guide

by Jeff Young

When folks pick a carry/self-defense load they often get hung up on tiny differences in penetration or expansion. Don’t. Pick several high-quality loads that fall inside an acceptable performance envelope, then find out which one your pistol likes best.

Proven 9mm options

These loads have performed well in controlled gelatin testing and have a solid track record in real-world use:

• Federal HST 124 gr JHP

• Federal HST 124 gr +P JHP

• Federal HST 147 gr JHP

• Speer Gold Dot 124 gr +P JHP

• Speer Gold Dot 147 gr JHP

• Hornady Critical Duty 135 gr +P (current FBI duty load)

• Barnes 115 gr XPB (all-copper)

• Winchester 147 gr bonded JHP

How to choose (the right way)

1. Buy a box or two of several candidate loads. Test them in your pistol — not someone else’s, not the internet’s.

2. Mechanical reliability first. If a load fails to feed, chamber, fire, or eject reliably it’s not a self-defense option, period.

3. Point-of-aim vs. point-of-impact. On a gun with fixed sights, find the load that groups closest to your point of aim at a set distance. My baseline standard for carry is being able to hold dead-on and consistently hit a 3”×5” target at 20 yards, slow fire, standing, unsupported.

4. “Shootability.” This is the feel of muzzle blast, recoil, and muzzle flip. Some cartridges are just easier to control and let you get follow-up shots faster and more accurately. That matters.

Real example — why testing matters

I ran the Baseline Assessment Drill four times back-to-back using different loads. First pass (cold hands) with 124 gr practice ball: 194/200 (97%). Then:

• Hornady Critical Duty 135 +P — 197/200 (98.5%)

• Federal HST 124 gr (standard) — 195/200 (97.5%)

• Federal HST 124 gr +P — 199/200 (99.5%)

Bottom line

Don’t obsess over marginal terminal-ballistics differences. Pick several reputable loads, test them for reliability, POI, and shootability in your gun, and carry the one you can shoot best with confidence. Need help picking which loads to try or a range drill to evaluate them? Come see us at Lone Pine Tactical — we’ll get you with a handful of loads you purchased to fire on the line and find what your pistol likes.