Question on Defense Ammo

[BUNDY81881]

I heard ammo like Liberty Civil Defense and Hornady Critical Defense are good for short barreled firearms like a Ruger LCP but I have two larger guns that I am wondering would be good for personal defense or for being a good sidearm while hunting and some drunk guy or bigfoot decides to mess with my wife.

I have a Glock 22 and Kimber 1911 5" so need a good idea on .40 S&W and .45 ACP ammo to have for that. Also have a Ruger 7.5" Redhawk so would like to know a good .44 mag cartridge good for any grizzly bears that are immune to pepper spray. :P

Would I want something like Hornady Critical Duty? Or anything else similar that would work?

[micro911]

I have 9mm and 45. I use RA9T and RA45T.

For 44Mag, I use Federal Gold Medal Match 250 grain Full Profile bullet. They are all accurate and perform well for me.

[kcstott]

I use Winchester ranger 230gr JHP for my 45's or Winchester XST's also in 230 gr

these are +P loads.

[Enfield47]

You might want to check out R.I.P. G2 ammo. It's designed to penetrate and break apart to create a huge wound channel. SGAmmo has some in stock for .40 and .45.

[Grunt81]

In theory, lighter faster bullets would perform better out of a short-barreled compact pistol, but I've had and seen decent to good accuracy out of a High Point and Ruger LC9 with 147 grain hand loads, at 50 yards.

All modern self defense JHP ammo will do its job against a bad guy, with minimal performance differences between brands of ammo and non-magnum calibers (at least when comparing 9,40,45). If you want to feel better, buy bonded JHP but I don't. I'm not saying I'd use a .25 ACP, but the most important thing is shot placement and 100% reliable cycling. Get what's available, test it, and be proficient with it.

For bear protection, skip the hollow points. I'd use a hot and heavy flat nose bullet to ensure adequate penetration out of your .44 magnum.

Good Luck.

[J-cat]

I recommend you get street proven ammo like Gold Dot. Mega Shok Ninja Ammo, unless it contains a thermo nuclear warhead, cannot be trusted. Horrific flesh wounds are not enough to overcome adrenaline, poor parenting, and drug use.

So get something good like GD, PDX1, HST, RA[insert caliber]-T, etc.