Lots of choices your best bet though is something that your gun will cycle the best.For what its worth I either carry Remington Golden Sabers or Federal Expanding FMJ's
I personally like Hornady TAP ammo, but any brand name FACTORY hollow point ammo should work. Most people, myself included, recommend a 200 round trial/ gun break in for anything you may need to use. Handloads are good for practice, but not good for self defense.
Shot placement is the biggest key to effectiveness, so practice up. A fmj to the torso is better than a hollow point to the dirt.
After reading a billion test reports on pistol ammo, I like Federal’s HST, newer Golden Sabers or anything loaded with Barnes XPB. Stay away from Federal's Hydra Shock, Winchester's SXT and pre 2008 Golden Sabers (before the bonded core).
The beauty of an XD is that it will eat just about anything you try to feed it. I have a .40sc too, and I swear the thing would feed wooden kiddie blocks if I could stuff 'em in the mag.
Roger. Thanks for your posts guys! I was hearing lots of good things from my buddies about the federal hydra shock, can you explain why to stay away from them cody?
The Hydra shocks are what I carry in my XD .40 service on armed sites as my "duty" ammo. The thing that he is likely talking about is their tendency to clog and not expand. The "flying ash trays" or "old cop bullets" are a good choice IMHO but I've heard great things about the gold dots and I will likely make the switch if they shoot good out of my particular weapon. I have shot cedar stumps with them and have indeed found a few that were not fully expanded but that is hardly a legitimate test of how they will preform on a human target. What do you carry for DPS? It's Corbons or gold dots isn't it? I would look into that and try a little bit of everything and carry the one that is the most accurate out of your carry weapon rather than by the test results. I use the test results to get a few different brands together and start shooting until I find the brand that flies the best out of my gun. I carry 180 gr hydra shocks, I like the 180 gr as opposed to the 165s. But they sell allot of 165 gr carry ammo.
Bingo. I don't even think Federal makes them anymore, do they? More than a few labs have shown them to be worthless after hitting denim. But I guess if you're gonna use them, keep the sights above the Jordache... One of the big gun mags did a story about the top 10 pistol cartridges back in 98/99, if I remember correctly. Number 1 was .40 caliber Federal 155gr Hydra Shock, which was shown to be the “best” bullet to stop someone. Something like a 94% chance of incapacitating someone within 10 steps after a center of mass hit. I had just bought a Glock 23 and went right out searching for 155 grain Hydra Shocks (bought 4 boxes). Years later, I re-read the article and something stood out. It was done using bare gelatin.
When it comes down to it, it’s really hard to know what a good bullet would be to top the “perfect” ammunition. I’d feel a lot better if I had the ability to do some testing myself, as I really don’t like getting knowledge through the internet on a test that some so-called scientist did. Everybody is going to have a different opinion on what is good and what is bad, but at the end of the day, you’re the only one that YOU have to convince.
The DPS is/has phased out their Sig 9mm's and .45's. They're carrying the Sig P226 in .357sig.
I tend to like the heavier grain bullets than the lighter ones. No real scientific reason, just feel they are going to penetrate better, especially if they hit some serious bones.
I like Hornady, Federal, Gold Dots, Winchester, Remington.
Frankly, just get what looks good in the weight that you want. I have a personal like for the HST's and Winchester's PDX1's. I kind of like XTP's (aka critical defense) too. : )
The Hydra-shoks are an older design, but I'd rather have them than an fmj.
The differences between all of the newer factory JHP's are probably smaller than we'd all like to think. Just keep shooting till the bad guy stops.
All that "1 shot stops" stuff is just plain junk.
Stay away from exotic rounds or anything frangible. If it sounds too good, it probably is.
Well thanks again for all the posts guys. I'm not a member of the Texas DPS, my dad is a Texas Ranger, and the DPS is my career path (currently serving the end of my Army contract in Iraq as an mp.) But the vast majority of the DPS do carry the Sig p226 in a .357 as mentioned earlier.
Yes sir a 226 in 357 sig I knew that! LOL! I was wondering what kind of ammo they were using. And Cody (that's my name to BTW) they still make the hydra shocks I just bought a 50rnd box a few months ago. And they work on denim just as good as most of the other rounds anyway.
I've haven't had to shoot too many bad guys, so I don't know first hand what works in the real world. But I've seen many recommendations for the HST, so that is what I use. The exception to that is .45 which I've not been able to find in HST, so I'm using the old HydraShoks. I just aim above the jeans.
I have a .40 Steyr. I shoot 165 gr. much more accurately than 180 gr. I don't know why, and it seems a little counter-intuative. But for me it influences my SP ammo selection strongly. Shot placement is a big, big factor.
I haven't shot any bad guys with mine either so I'm going on the test data from a few different places. here's a pretty good site for penetration testing and other fun firearms myth busting. [url]http://www.theboxotruth.com/[/URL]