Hornady Critical Defense reviews

[Thomas83]

Originally Posted by john_bud

Actually, your statement is incorrect. The rounds WILL penetrate hard barriers. Glass, drywall, even 2x4's won't stop them. If you don't believe ... shoot a window glass and see how well it penetrates! Heck, stack up 35 of them in a row and watch them all shatter.

What the rounds DON'T do is penetrate a hard barrier AND still expand reliably. Quality rounds like Gold Dot, Ranger etc, will penetrate a hard barrier AND still reliably expand. CD will hit a barrier, close up and NOT expand. That's the issue.

If you want something that won't endanger people on the other side of a sheet rock wall or window glass, you are pretty much stuck with a Tazer or other NL option.

I stand corrected. This is what I meant ^^ but my apologies on the misinformation, late night staring at the computer doing homework. Thank you.

As far as "designed" it was not designed to expand when hitting these barriers or retain its original weight if it did expand, compared to their newer Critical Duty. At least this is what one of the Hornaday reps explained to me a few weeks ago. Their Critical Duty is a Law Enforcement round for the Civilian market, unlike the LE round the civilian round does not have flash suppressors in the powder. Just another note on the differences.

[Diab0lus]

I was under the impression that Hornady Critical DEFENSE was more of a home defense round and that Hornady Critical DUTY was designed as a Self Defense round. Hence the reason why the Critical Defense was designed to under penetrate. In a HD situation you likely won't intentionally be shooting through barriers like walls, glass, etc. BEFORE the perp and, if/when you do hit the perp, the chance of the projectile passing through him/her and into what lies beyond is minimized.

Am I incorrect?

[Cuda66]

Originally Posted by Diab0lus

I was under the impression that Hornady Critical DEFENSE was more of a home defense round and that Hornady Critical DUTY was designed as a Self Defense round. Hence the reason why the Critical Defense was designed to under penetrate. In a HD situation you likely won't intentionally be shooting through barriers like walls, glass, etc. BEFORE the perp and, if/when you do hit the perp, the chance of the projectile passing through him/her and into what lies beyond is minimized.

Am I incorrect?

You are incorrect.

read this: The Presumptive Hazards of Over-Penetration - M4Carbine.net Forums

And find out why we shouldn't be worried about overpenetration, we should worry about misses. Bear in mind that Critical Def will still blow through walls, and is capable of being dangerous on the other side to those who are not our target.

Also bear in mind that since CritDef is designed not penetrate deeply enough to be an effective stopper, you'll likely have to shoot more. In a dynamic situation, shooting more means missing more.

[treehugger49]

Originally Posted by Cuda66

And how are you going to know that they AREN'T substandard? How do you know that Hornady, after being notified of the issues, didn't hand-cook a batch just for the test?

FWIW, that was not the only time issues like this have happened. There have been several reports of batches of CD having FTF rates due to bad primers. Not just in .38, either.

Personally, I wouldn't base my decision (not even a tiny bit) on a self defense load by what the manufacturer says about it.

Anyway--you asked for a test that showed it to be unacceptible. There you have it.

I'm going to take a somewhat simplistic tact regarding Hornady Critical Defense, having had a bad experience with bad primers in their .380 rounds a couple of years ago.

Out of three magazines (18 rounds) through my LCP, which had several hundred flawless rounds of FMJ through it for break-in, two rounds failed to fire on first strike. Through internet research it became obvious that Hornady had a problem with hard primers in numerous batches of their ammunition. I emailed them several times with a description of my problem and the lot number off the box of my rounds, and I'm still waiting for a response from them.

If a company cares so little as not to respond to the needs of their customers in something as important as a self defense round, I care not to send them my money.

BTW, I have since come to the conclusion that for the .380 a FMJ is probably the better choice for self defense, particularly in cases where heavier clothing is apt to play a part.

[K.O.D.]

Bout a year ago, my LGS/Range put the CD on clearance, as they were upset with the performance of the round and thus were discontinuing it. I bought 4 boxes, 2 of .40 and 2 of .38spl for $10 a box.

I've never had the amount of FTF this **** did. 3 of the first six rounds put through my revolver didn't fire. It was even worse in my .40 Beretta PX4. I finally gave up and brought back the bad rounds and had the range dispose of them.

There are far better rounds out there for your money than CD. I keep my guns loaded with various ammo depending on whats available near me. In my Beretta PX4 .40, I have a mix of Gold Dot and PDX1. In my Steyr M9 PDX1. My 2 .38 revolvers Corbon DPX.

[Blak1508]

Just a small update and I wrote hornady and spoke of this topic and they responded that it is true the CD will not meet FBI restrictions , to which we already knew but the CD is just that it's for a critical defense situation more or less a under 15 yards encounter . The Critical duty on the other hand will pass all FBI testing and has . I am still sticking to mY HST or ranger T though here is the email I received

Mr. Vacca,

Thank you for your interest in Hornady products. I appreciate your enthusiasm for our line of CRITICAL DEFENSE personal protection ammunition. However the opponents on the XD forum are correct. Our line of CRITICAL DEFENSE ammunition will not and does not meet the FBI Protocol for barrier penetration. This line of ammunition is designed specifically for close range, immediate threat acquisition and neutralization. We do create a line of ammunition that is designed specifically to meet the criteria of the FBI protocol and it is CRITICAL DUTY ammunition. This line, separate from its sister line is a completely different bullet design capable of adapting to the barrier it encounters i.e. Glass, Sheetmetal, wallboard, plywood, and heavy clothing. It is a longer heavier bullet design that is the first of its kind to maximize the true potential of its design against the brutal FBI testing standards. It is only available in 9mm 135gr. Flexlock, and 40 S&W 175gr. Flexlock. I hope this gives you the material you were looking for in reference to performance of respective product lines.

Kind Regards


Everett Deger - Marketing Communications Manager



3625 Old Potash HWY.
Grand Island, NE 68803
308-382-1390 ext. 266

*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*
This e-mail is a confidential communication and may be legally privileged.
If it is not clear that you are the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that you have received this e-mail in error, and any review, dissemination,
distribution, or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you suspect
that you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender by reply
to this message and then please delete this e-mail. Thank you.

[agalindo]

So you re-enforce everything that's beenposted about how CDefense is not a good carry round. Unless you want to be under prepared that is. Nobody knows what the scenario will be when and if you need to defend yourself. You don't know at what distance or what you might have to shoot though so why choose a round that is limited. It have not advantage over traditional quality HPs but it does have a disadvantage.

[Blak1508]

Yeah basically^ . It def did not make me very enthusiastic to carry it lol

[szhttm]

Guns and Ammo provides their explanation of the difference between Hornady's Critical Defense and Critical Duty ammo:

• Hornady Critical Duty vs. Critical Defense

Good Luck And Be Safe!!!

[Blak1508]

Nice article ! And thanks for sharing it. I went to the range 2 days ago with my buddy who is a statey and they use the federal HST aNd he is issued a Glock 22 40 cal, I asked him about the cop I had talked to on the Delaware Pa state line( there is a gun store basically on the state line) he told me that some local PDs can be issued a XD or a Glock usually in 40 and he said that in no way shape or form would the stand issue ammo be critical defense. So I do not know If the cop or so called cop I talked to was talking out of his ass or maybe he was a security guard saying he was a cop in front of his little boy , which I could understand . Anyway so I had just bought a few hundred rounds of the critical duty for my PPQ 9mm to feed and I let my buddy shoot it and he loved it. It was 135 gr +p. with my gun it shot very accurate and the recoil is snapy but almost a good snap IMO. It was not hard to get back on target to follow up shots. He told me that there has been talks around the barracks About the critical duty but no official talk to changing to it. This was the first time he had even shot it. Another thing now days it is not uncommon for PD's to switch to the 9mm from 40. To some extend even the 45 does not hold that much of an advantage over the 9mm. It makes sense higher cap and lower ammo cost and with ammo developement as advanced as it is today. But yeah on the main point ... No way in hell cops are using the critical defense and personally even after reading that article and the e-mail I received from Hornady in my carry gun for Personal defense or even home defense I am still not going to carry it. After shooting a good bit of the critical duty though I have loaded up a mag of this to be used as my back up mag that I carry with me at all times. I trust this ammo after seeing how accurate I am with it and how well it fed through my gun. It is a long bullet so I can def see some guns having trouble feeding it BTW