Having recently gotten in 1200 rounds of Speer Gold Dot carry ammo, a thousand 124-grain +P 9mm and a couple hundred .38 Special Short Barrel, I’m reminded of the importance of having vetted guns for serious business with the ammo they’ll be used with “for real” instead of for practice.
Some guns simply won’t run with certain ammo. A couple of my .22 pistols, a little Ruger LCP-II and a Glock 44, run reliably only with CCI Mini-Mag cartridges. So long as I’m careful to work around their “dietary needs” and “ammo intolerances,” no problem.
There are lots of other things to watch for, and you’ll find several of them in this article I did in 2011 for this blog’s host, Backwoods Home magazine. The advice therein is still current.
USE THE RIGHT GUN!
While I was RO’ing a stage at our local IPSC/USPSA match a shooter fired his first shot and had a malfunction. The gun (Sig P229) did not fully cycle and eject the empty case. He manually cycled the slide and fired another round. Again it fired and did not cycle and eject the round.
I stopped the shooter and told him to unload. The were two holes on the close target but it looked like the bullets tumbled. Luckily I saw the two cases drop on the ground. I picked one up and it was a 9 mm but the front of the case was expanded out. (To 10 mm.)
The shooter has TWO Sig P229’s. One a 9 mm and one a 40 SW. He had loaded the 9 mm magazines into his 40 SW P229.
The best I can figure is that the extractor has held onto the rim of the 9 mm enough to ignite the primer.
Neat looking case. I gave it to the shooter (a good friend) as a reminder to check his guns.
When I function-tested my sidearm with “carry” ammo, on a whim I loaded a couple mags with a random assortment of FMJ and JHP to see if I or the gun noticed a difference.
Neither did. Both felt the same to me, all the rounds hit on-target, and the gun had zero malfunctions with either.
Based on that, I’m pretty confident this combo will work fine if it’s ever needed.
I was at a CCW qualification once when another shooter had a whole 9mm cartridge slide out of the muzzle of a larger caliber pistol. Possibly amusing, but likely not funny. I have found that my Ruger EC9S takes tactical reloads perfectly with my old 147 grain (IIRC) Remington Golden Saber 9mm hollow points, but often will drop rounds with shorter overall length down the magazine well! Not a problem when firing standard practice rounds or Hornady hollow points, but upon tactically reloading them, certainly. I love the little, single-stack 9mm, which is more compact than some .380 pistols. It went promptly through repairs early on at Ruger, getting a new barrel and a repaired safety (at the slide I believe, not the one on the trigger). It only took about a week or less for Ruger to repair it, test-fire it, and get it back to me, though, all done free! For a light, now-reliable pistol with a short barrel it is quite accurate for me to fire in double taps, a good combat feature. I expect to be carefully measuring the OAL of any ammo that I buy for it from now on, though. I believe that the old, reliably-feeding Golden Saber 9mm production has been discontinued, likely because of jacket-shedding issues. The pistol is a special joy to carry, even as a primary piece in dark byways. Being light, it takes very little time to present, and it is one that I naturally grip tightly so as to get consistent performance. I have 3 magazines for it, all strongly reliable, from either the USA or Italy. The 2 safeties, 1 on the slide and 1 on the trigger, I prefer for non-1911 pistols. Even with the early safety malfunction, the pistol fired reliably, it was just stuck on FIRE. The OAL question regarding tactical reloads might be something to look at on all pistols. Any sudden reloading surprise in a crisis could obviously be decidedly disadvantageous.
Steve, Remington Golden Saber 9mm 147 (and 124) are now widely available again. The rounds are being manufactured in Lonoke, Arkansas. Remington has put great effort into maintaining the solvency of their ammo production, as it is a steady money maker. SG Ammo currently has 1000 round cases of 147 grain Golden Saber 9mm at $339. Individual boxes can be found there also, and are also widely available through other vendors
I fairly frequently see the wrong ammo being used in the guns on our public range. With the popularity of 9mm these days, it is usually just the ‘wrong’ 9mm causing problems. Someone trying .380 Auto (9x17mm or 9mm Kurz) in a 9mm Luger (9x19mm or 9mm Parabellum), but I have once or twice seen someone trying to shoot 9mm Makarov (9x18mm) in a 9x19mm gun. I always tell my students to RTFM to make sure they know what ammo is correct for and compatible with (e.g., +P or +P+) their particular firearm. I also tell them to stay away from “gun show reloads” that come in a zip lock bag. We had a case when a snub revolver had a sudden and rapid unintended disassembly with fragmentation and caused some serious damage to the shooter’s hands. He was shooting no-name reloads he got at the local gun show the day before, and one of them had too much powder in it. Regarding eye damage, protective glasses should be worn at all times when around guns, not just when you are shooting them! The amount of flying particles in the air on shooting ranges that can damage vision is kind of amazing…
This article is a good reason for amateur gun carriers to carry a revolver rather than a semi-auto.
The vast majority of us gun carriers are amateurs. We can’t afford to use the highest quality ammo for target practice. We can’t afford to experiment with various makes and models of ammunition to prove that an inexpensive brand of ammo works reliably in our semi-autos. We generally can’t afford to practice enough with our semi-autos to develop the skills to deal with malfunctions.
Those of us who are amateurs can generally do nicely with 5 or 6 rounds and without unloading.
When considering all the factors weighing for and against revolvers and semi-autos, most of us will conclude we are better off with a revolver. Soldiers and cops will often conclude that they are better off with semi-autos.
I respectfully disagree. There are a lot of generalities cited that don’t necessarily match reality.
While the vast majority of us who carry guns are indeed “amateurs” and not “professionals,” a good semi-auto will fire and cycle most ammunition of the correct caliber. Some are picky, sure, but I hear that most often with either: a. cheap semi-autos, or b. “race guns” (a.k.a. high-end, usually custom, target/competition pistols).
Pair that with the cost of the guns: a good semi-auto is often (but not universally) cheaper than a good revolver, leaving more in the budget for quality ammunition and some experimentation.
The ergonomics of semi-autos are often (but again, not universally) better than similar revolvers, as well, making them easier and more comfortable for new shooters and “amateurs” to learn to use, and use safely. Mechanical safeties (e.g. trigger and grip safeties and external switches), as well, are commonly available on semi-autos but rare on revolvers.
Statistically, most self-defense situations end with three shots or less fired (usually zero fired), so as far as ammunition capacity, revolvers are generally fine. But IF more are required, I for one would rather have a semi-auto that reloads much more quickly and easily — Jerry Miculek notwithstanding, for I am not him!
Bottom line, those of us who committed to carrying guns DID weigh and consider all the factors, based on our personal calculus, and most of us concluded that semi-autos meet our needs better. Your personal calculus is probably different, and that’s fine; NONE of this is intended to disparage revolvers or anyone who chose them. However, the market reflects citizens’ preferences, and most of us for one reason or another choose semi-autos.
(Also, the implication that only soldiers and cops are “professional” enough to want semi-autos is kind of insulting. Most of us “amateurs” have more shooting experience and more rounds sent downrange than a lot of “professional” cops, especially big-city cops who far-too-often only fire their guns during annual re-qualification and only shoot the 50-100 rounds required each year.)
Is there any advantage to +P ammo in a duty gun for self defense? It seems like it would be useful for a shorter barreled carry gun, but is there any reason to shoot +P in a 9mm handgun with a (for instance) 4.3″ barrel? Am I getting more performance with my greater recoil?
Yes. +P is pretty much all I carry in a 9mm anymore.
Re: “Is there any advantage to +P ammo in a duty gun for self defense?”
Legally-speaking, and of course morally as well, you own every shot you fire in any self-defense scenario. I don’t know the figure today, but when I first took CCW training more than a decade ago in my home state at the time, we were taught that every shot fired potentially came with $10,000 in legal fees attached. Which is to say that even if you are cleared criminally, you can still be sued in civil court for a wrongful shooting.
Regarding the use of +P ammunition, over-penetration is an ever-present risk whenever a firearm is used in a crowded or built-up area. Do you really want to risk a pass-through of the target thereby hitting someone or something you did not intend to hit? Because it is a sure thing that the lawyer for the opposition will claim such, whether it is true or not.
+P ammo is also tougher on your hands and forearms, and the handgun itself, especially if you haven’t set it up to handle higher pressure loads. Can you shoot higher-pressure, higher-performance ammunition as well and as accurately as standard pressure loads? For many people, the answer is in the negative. Since it is hits which matter, stick with std. pressure loads whenever possible.
Many old salts in the defensive firearms community say that if you habitually find yourself wanting to shoot +P loads, then you ought to trade up to the next most-powerful cartridge in your handgun class. That, too, is something else to consider.
While helping out with one of the many events at my local gun club, a man was having trouble running his 9-mm. I offered my assistance, which he accepted. Some salesperson had sold him 9-mm “short” aka 380-acp’s for his 9-mm chambered semi-automatic. It would “run” a round or two, probably grabbing the extraction groove, but not consistently. I gave him a couple boxes of proper ammo, and he was able to finish up his training session. I explained to him the difference between the two similar cartridges, and he was angry with the unscrupulous salesperson who sold him the wrong ammo. Glad I could help. Good shooting!
I was recently in the Seattle area. I went to a range my son belongs to. We shot a Glonc 49. I like it, lol.
He gets free rentals so we oped for a Henry lever rifle in .357 and bought a 50 round box of ammo.
I loaded it, aimed and “click”. Ejecting an empty case, I realized we had a problem. Range staff cleared the slug from the barrel.
As we were leaving, we chatted with the staff. They indicated they had been having problems with their lever guns. I pointed out it was not the guns.
Ammo can be a problem in numerous ways!
Some day I will remember to check my typing on this phone before hitting ‘post’. Appologies: Glock 49; we opted for
In the 1960’s, north-east corner of South Australia. A government bounty on dingo scalps. Two rifles, both on the small Martini action, both scopped, both wildcats, Mashburn Bee and K Hornet. Case length similar, neck diameter the same. A ‘friend’ borrowed the Bee and loaded a Hornet round.
“It won’t eject the empty case.” The arms of the extractor/ejector didn’t reach the case rim. Used a cleaning rod to push it out. (No bullet left in the barrel.) Case split lengthwise from shoulder to rim. On that action there’s no way for gasses to come back at the shooter, thank heavens.