.40 Cal home defense ammo

[surfish95747]

Hey guys, I know this is a topic that has probably been discussed, I couldn't find an answer to my specific question.

Q #1: For all you 4" Service Model XD 40 owners, what is the best home defense (hollow point) ammunition for your gun. I have been looking at the following; Hornady Tap, Harnady XTP, Winchester PTX (?), Remington etc. Thanks guys!

[agalindo]

Any of the ones you mentioned along with the list below will do. You will need to fire some through your gun and see if they work with no malfunctions in loading or ejecting and if you can shoot them accurately. I would recommend you fire at least 40 rounds preferably 100 with no malfunctions.

.40 S&W:
Barnes XPB 140 & 155 gr JHP (copper bullet)
Speer Gold Dot 155 gr JHP
Federal Tactical 165 gr JHP (LE40T3)
Winchester Ranger-T 165 gr JHP (RA40TA)
Winchester Partition Gold 165 gr JHP (RA401P)
Federal HST 180 gr JHP (P40HST1)
Federal Tactical 180 gr JHP (LE40T1)
Remington Golden Saber 180 gr JHP (GS40SWB)
Speer Gold Dot 180 gr JHP
Winchester Ranger-T 180 gr JHP (RA40T)
Winchester 180 gr bonded JHP (Q4355 or S40SWPDB1)

[QBiN]

I use Corbon's 140gr DPX rounds for home-defense. They use the Barnes X-Bullets mentioned first in agalindo's list with a fairly high muzzle velocity for some pretty impressive numbers.

Though, most of the ones previously mentioned will do just fine.

[agalindo]

Don't get caught up in the "muzzle energy thing" All the bullets listed pass FBI/IWBA protocols. In pistol rounds once the round penetrates the required minimum and expands the excess muzzle energy and velocity will not wound via "energy dump-hydorstatic shock" it will just add to recoil and muzzle blast.

[addiction]

for home defense consider finding out what your local LEO's use and copy them, should something happen, in court you can defend the choice pretty easy by referencing the fact that local LEO's chose it, and so you did too.

[jhaines]

I use Winchester PDX1 180gr.

[surfish95747]

Originally Posted by addiction

for home defense consider finding out what your local LEO's use and copy them, should something happen, in court you can defend the choice pretty easy by referencing the fact that local LEO's chose it, and so you did too.

Thats a good idea thanks.

[XD357sig]

Just don't use the +P, waste of money, extra recoil, extra muzzle blast, extra wear on the pistol with no improvement in results. I use Speer Gold Dots in all calibers, but any of the ones in Agalindo's post works fine. I won't use Remington Golden Sabers because of my experience. Bought a case of them, only six out of each ten rounds would fire - that is in three different Sig Arms pistols

[surfish95747]

Originally Posted by agalindo

Any of the ones you mentioned along with the list below will do. You will need to fire some through your gun and see if they work with no malfunctions in loading or ejecting and if you can shoot them accurately. I would recommend you fire at least 40 rounds preferably 100 with no malfunctions.

Thanks, I'll go get some and get to the range. I pick up my gun on the 3rd. Again, stupid 10 day wait period. Has anybody played around with home made ballistics gell? Just for fun?

[agalindo]

Too expensive and time consuming.

Gelatin calibration needs to be performed on each block of 10% Type 250A ordnance gelatin that has been stored for several days at 4 degrees Celsius. To accomplish this (GEL CAL), a 0.177" steel BB is fired into each block at 590 fps +/- 15 fps, with an ideal range of penetration defined as 8.5 cm +/- 1.0 cm of penetration, although up to +/- 1.5 cm is considered acceptable. Duncan MacPherson's book Bullet Penetration has more information on gel calibration.

Common testing includes either an FBI type assessment using at least the six standard FBI tests at 10 feet (bare gel, heavy clothing, sheet steel, wallboard, plywood, auto glass), with the possible addition of the heavy clothing and auto glass tests at 20 yards or a three event IWBA type test using bare gelatin, 4 layer denim, and auto windshield tests all at 10 feet.

Ordnance Gelatin Calibration

To ensure bullet penetration results are accurate ordnance gelatin must be calibrated immediately before use. This is accomplished by firing a .177 caliber steel BB into each and every gelatin block at a chronographed velocity of 590 fps and measuring the penetration depth of the BB. The calibration standard is 8.5 cm of BB penetration. Gelatin that meets this calibration standard is referred to as standard gelatin.

This calibration standard was determined by Martin L. Fackler, M.D., a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps when he was assigned to the U.S. Army Wound Ballistics Laboratory, Letterman Army Institute of Research, Presidio of San Francisco, California. Fackler established a BB penetration calibration range of 8.5 cm ± 0.8 cm that permitted a penetration accuracy of within 10 percent, as compared to results observed in living soft tissue.

Unfortunately many gelatin blocks cast for bullet testing do not meet this stringent calibration standard, and this creates a troubling situation for researchers. Discarding non-standard blocks of gelatin is extremely costly, whereas the use of substandard gelatin does not produce accurate data.

In the early 1990’s, Duncan MacPherson, an engineering consultant and member of the IWBA Board of Directors, performed extensive research about tissue simulants used in wound ballistics studies and published a book, "Bullet Penetration -- Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma." As a result of his research MacPherson developed a method for correction of bullet penetration data measured in non-standard gelatin to the penetration in standard gelatin, with an accuracy of approximately 3 percent. Since 1995, Fackler’s BB penetration calibration range of 7.7 cm - 9.3 cm (8.5 cm ± 0.8 cm) has been considered obsolete.

As you can see in the preceding article about Speer Gold Dot ammunition, the quality of the gelatin we used did not meet the 8.5 cm calibration standard. BB penetration among the various gelatin blocks we used measured from 7.0 cm to 10.6 cm. We used MacPherson’s simplified method to calculate individual bullet penetration corrections ranging from 3/8-inch to almost 1½-inches.

When gelatin is not calibrated it’s impossible to determine the validity of the data. Keep this in mind the next time you read an article in which ordnance gelatin is used to study bullet performance. Look for evidence that the author calibrated his gelatin. If photographs of gelatin blocks with bullets shot into them are published with the article, look for the telltale presence of a BB in each of the blocks used. (The BB should be located about 3-4 inches from the front edge of the block). If the photo shows several gelatin blocks lined up end-to-end every block should have a BB in it. It is common for authors to claim they’ve calibrated their gelatin (usually citing the obsolete specification of 8.5 cm ± 0.8 cm), however it is uncommon for gelatin blocks to meet this exacting calibration standard.
A good researcher/author will publish his ordnance gelatin calibration data (BB velocity and penetration). Unfortunately many authors are unaware of this calibration requirement and simply shoot bullets into a generic "10 percent ordnance gelatin at 39 degrees Fahrenheit," thinking this is good enough.