9mm practice ammo and home ammo

[Newman]

Going to be purchasing a Ruger SR9C next week and want to know what ammo I should purchase for practicing at the range or if it even matters. Does the specific "grain" matter a lot?

Also, for home protection, which specific round would work best?

Thanks in advance,

Newman

[Jonnin]

it would be nice if your bought ammo is close to your defense ammo, but it really does not matter. Defense ammo is going to have more recoil regardless --- so the usual answer for practice is the cheapest thing you can find, to get more shots downrange for more practice. You may want to avoid steel cased ammo, or not, but I do not care for that stuff and go one grade higher, like PMC or winchester white box or blazer brass.

Defense ammo, I like low flash powder and +p behind a hollow point. Several companies offer defense ammo and all of it is probably equally effective for the most part. Buffalo bore makes a potent load with low flash powder, good products there. I like the bullet design of hornady lately. But that is 2 of 25 or more great choices.

[LawVol]

Don't worry too much about your practice ammo. Buy what's available and affordable. Like Jonnin, I tend to avoid Tula and other steel case stuff.

I usually buy Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 +P 124gr for carry and home defense. Wal-Mart carries it, and Winchester claims that the FBI is using it as their duty round. Speer Gold Dot is also highly thought of.

The critical part in choosing a defensive round is to run a sufficient amount of your chosen ammo through your gun to make sure it functions reliably. I know it's hard to make yourself shoot a bunch of rounds that cost $1 each, but you really need to do it.

[sschrick]

for range work, anything cheap. I usually use brass cased (anything). some firearms are particular about the rounds they run. Some run anything and everything. Bullet weight (for plinking) does not matter. Most FMJ ammo is 115gr for 9mm.

for SD, again, you should try some in your gun. Same note as above.

In my 9mm's, I run Speer Gold Dot Hollow points, 147gr.

Here is a list of recommended 9mm SD rounds:

9mm

Barnes XPB 115gr HP (35515) such as loaded by Cor-Bon (DPX09115)

Winchester Partition Gold 124gr JHP (RA91P)

Winchester Ranger-T 124 gr +P JHP (RA9124TP)

Winchester Ranger Bonded 124 gr +P JHP (RA9BA)

Winchester Ranger-T 127gr JHP +P+ (RA9TA)

Winchester Ranger-T 147gr JHP (RA9T)

Winchester Bonded 147gr JHP (RA9B/Q4364)

Speer Gold Dor 124gr JHP

Speer Gold Dot 124gr JHP +P (53617)

Speer Gold Dot 147gr JHP (53619)

Remington Golden Saber 124 gr +P JHP bonded (GSB9MMD)

Remington Golden Saber 147gr JHP (GS9MMC)

Federal Tactical 124gr JHP (LE9T1)

Federal Tactical 135gr JHP +P (LE9T5)

Federal HST 147gr JHP (P9HST2)

Federal HST 124gr JHP +P (P9HST3)

[Guest rebeldrummer]

Tul ammo is DIRTY i will say that.....but for paper its not really that big of an issue?

i am one of those who likes cleaning his pistols so again, to me, not that big of an issue?

if you are looking for accuracy however, it would not be on your top 10 list

its cheap so you can get more "bang" for your buck (horrible pun i know)

[turkeydad]

Federal 9bple...hands down the best defense round for the money that I have ever found....as far as practice aim surplus has federal estate for 10.95 a box....

[RED333]

The critical part in choosing a defensive round is to run a sufficient amount of your chosen ammo through your gun to make sure it functions reliably. I know it's hard to make yourself shoot a bunch of rounds that cost $1 each, but you really need to do it.

Big plus one on this, for putting rounds down range for practice, cheaper the better.

You need to shoot at least a few 100 rounds to get a GOOD feel of how you shoot.

Unless you are deadnuts at first, then dont worry about practice.

http://ammoseek.com/...&.submit=Search

Not a bad search engine for price per round.

I shoot 20 to 30 rounds a week just for fun, I do get to shoot in my backyard.

Edited July 29, 2012 by RED333

[bubbiesdad]

Don't worry too much about your practice ammo. Buy what's available and affordable. Like Jonnin, I tend to avoid Tula and other steel case stuff.

I usually buy Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 +P 124gr for carry and home defense. Wal-Mart carries it, and Winchester claims that the FBI is using it as their duty round. Speer Gold Dot is also highly thought of.

The critical part in choosing a defensive round is to run a sufficient amount of your chosen ammo through your gun to make sure it functions reliably. I know it's hard to make yourself shoot a bunch of rounds that cost $1 each, but you really need to do it.

A word of advice, don't stock up on Tula, or any other bargain ammo until you try it out to see if your gun will feed it reliably.

[Jamie Jackson]

I reload, so that addresses practice ammo for me. But I have fired thousands of rounds of Winchester white box, Blazer, and even Wolf in my Glock 19 with no complaints.

My preference for carry ammo is Black Hills 124 gr +P in 9mm. They use the Gold Dot 124 gr HP bullet. I've shot over 1000 rounds if it, even chrno'ed some...minimal SD round to round. It's affordable enough to shoot every now and again (which we should with any carry ammo imho), and I personally like the 50 rounds boxes of carry ammo...just a quirk of mine I guess.

That being said, most reputable ammo companies make good self defense rounds. As suggested, purchase a few different rounds and see what you, and your new acquisition, think of them.

Good luck to you.

[gregintenn]

I'll give a little different opinion. I suggest you shoot what you carry, and carry what you shoot. Semi auto handguns, for the most part, are designed to shoot ball ammo.

[RED333]

It's affordable enough to shoot every now and again (which we should with any carry ammo imho), and I personally like the 50 rounds boxes of carry ammo...just a quirk of mine I guess.

+1 on this, I have enough mags to have 50 loaded at all times,

then about every 3 months I buy new box and shoot all 50 of the old rounds and reload the mags.

[kwe45919]

My G26 gets the GDSB hollow 9mm 's for SD.

The other 9mm's get Winn Rangers 127 +p's....

My recent practice ammo has been Agilua 124gr cause I found 1K rounds for $226 shipped to my door. Usually it's the cheapest bulk I can buy (Tula, PMC, Reloaded Georgia Arms) which is usually in the 115gr flavor.....

[gun sane]

Like prag, I reload and am very pleased with the Gun Sane brand. If you can get good enough to place your shots consistently in the vitals--the spinal cord, brain or heart--it won't really matter if it's Winchester, Federal or Zombie Shredder JHPs. Become proficient with your Ruger and choose the ammo that the gun likes and will help you put the bullet where it hurts the most.

Edited July 31, 2012 by gun sane

[Guest dfsixstring]

I have an SR9c and have about 1000 rounds through it- not a single misfed round. I've shot everything from TullAmmo to Hornady Critical Defense.

For practice I go cheap - "but" I clean thoroughly after each trip to the range. Some of this cheap ammo is real dirty.

[10P8TRIOT]

Self-Defense: Federal HST 124gr JHP +P or Federal HST 147gr JHP +P

Practice: RWS 124gr FMJ, Speer Lawman 124gr FMJ, S&B 115gr FMJ, Fiocchi 115gr FMJ, Magtech 115gr FMJ

[Will Carry]

I use Winchester White Box (aka WWB) target ammo 115 gr.. You can get it at the Chinese department store. As far as self defense ammo is concerned the posts above pretty much cover it. I do have some 9mm +P defensive ammo but I do not stress out too much on ballistics. It is much more important to be able to hit your target than whether you have +P+ ammo in your pistol.

[dlm37015]

i use 115 grain fmj reloads loaded with tite group for plinking loads lake city 124 grain for self defensive loads as i too think bullet placement is much more important than the newest wiz bang bullet

[TN-popo]

Semi auto handguns, for the most part, are designed to shoot ball ammo.

Maybe semi auto handgun designs from the early 1900s...and any of those that you might use defensively have been updated (1911s, HiPowers, etc.).

While shot placement is everything (meaning, of course, that FMJ will work), those using 9mm caliber and above are better served with a JHP or DPX for most defense purposes.

The list from post #4 (obtained from Dr. Gary Roberts) is an excellent guide.

As far as 9mm practice ammo (when I have to buy it), it's usually Brown Bear / Silver Bear. In over 10k rounds, I've never had a problem with it.

Edited August 8, 2012 by TN-popo

[piercedan]

Hornady Critical Defense is excellent. Here's a nice YouTube video from a Tennessee boy giving you a decent idea of its capability. [media=]

[/media] The video was done before he started doing gel tests, but it is still informative.

This is the stuff I carry.

Edited August 6, 2012 by piercedan

[SonnyCrockett]

An SR9c will eat anything,mine is jam free since day one,SR9s are IMO one of the best striker fire handguns I ever shot

i prefer 124G reloads in mine for range time

and either HSTs or Ranger Ts for self defense.

[Guest nysos]

Practice - feed it whatever

defense - 147 grain JHP of one of the popular brands/flavors (speer gold dot, winchester ranger, remington golden sabers, hornady critical defense, or federal HST) will all do you just fine