Ammo Reviews from My Gun Culture
Testing your self defense ammo is no easy task, especially if you're bound to an indoor range. Yes, reliability out of your specific gun is paramount, but how do you know if your chosen ammunition performs according to its claims?
We test all sorts of ammunition, not just for velocity, but for expansion performance in challenging scenarios. Will your personal defense ammo still expand after passing through clothing or even tougher barriers? We'll let you know. We do have to confess that it's quite a bit of fun to run ammo through it's paces - and the folks at our range are pretty amused by the process as well.
Ammo Review: Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 Grain Hollow Point
Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 Grain Hollow Point Ammunition It's a good thing these Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 grain self-defense rounds don't have dystychiphobia. That's fear of accidents. I say this because in our testing we had a high-speed wreck. One of our projectiles crashed right into the back of another during the expansion testing phase. We're going to attribute this to our … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 Grain Bonded Hollow Point Ammunition
Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 Grain Bonded Hollow Point Ammunition It's no secret that we're big fans of the .357 Sig cartridge around here. We've had a lot of fun and learned a few things while checking out the Glock 31 Gen 4 and Glock 32 Gen 3. So we jumped on the opportunity to do some testing with Speer's Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 grain bonded hollow point ammunition. We like the .357 Sig … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .45 ACP Ammunition
When it comes to modern personal defense ammo, there's good news and bad news. Good News: There are, at last count, 2,367,912 varieties of quality personal defense ammo on the market. Bad News: There are, at last count, 2,367,912 varieties of quality personal defense ammo on the market. Good News: Most of them are good. Bad News: You can't shop by brand only. Each caliber and brand … [Continue this ammo review]
Buyers Guide: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender Ammunition .357 Magnum 125 Grain
In our recent ammo review, we found the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .357 Magnum 125 grain load to be supremely effective. Velocity was quite respectable, even out of a short barrel snubnose revolver. We measured that at 1,214 feet per second on average, as measures by our Shooting Chrony Beta Master placed 15 feet downrange. More importantly, expansion performance was impressive with some … [Continue this ammo review]
Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm +P Self Defense Ammunition
Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm+P Defender 124 grain personal defense ammunition Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 9mm +P 124 grain personal defense ammunition is a bonded bullet design intended to succeed against the tough FBI ammunition testing protocol. Without going into top secret details (not really), these tests are intended to examine how ammunition performs in a variety of law … [Continue this ammo review]
Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P Short Barrel Self Defense Ammunition
We test a lot of self-defense ammo. It's a great excuse to go to the range and do silly things. What's not silly is the inconsistency of .38 Special ammunition to expand reliably - especially when fired from short barrel revolvers that are so popular for concealed carry. Expensive ammo that should expand properly doesn't always. Part of the reason for that is reduced velocity when said ammo … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .357 Magnum 125 Grain Ammunition
We're in the middle of testing about a half dozen different calibers of Winchester's Elite PDX1 Defender Ammunition - one of which is the .357 Magnum 125 grain load. A classic self defense and law enforcement load in terms of bullet weight and velocity. Since we focus more on personal defense solutions, we elected to test the .357 Magnum Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender load in a snubbie … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Winchester PDX1 Elite Defender .40 S&W 165 Grain
The .40 Smith & Wesson cartridge has been called many things since it was introduced in 1990. Slow & Weak Save your bacon & Walk free Sexy & Winchester Shoot & Wound Sledgehammer & Wallop Shortened & Widened Sluggish & Wimpy Slay & Waste Studious & Well-spoken Oh yeah, and Smith & Wesson… Used by the majority of law … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Speer Gold Dot .30 Carbine
If only the Marines has Speer Gold Dot .30 Carbine ammunition in 1942… In one of those enduring "after the fact" armchair debates, pundits both praise and condemn the performance M1 Carbine with standard .30 Carbine ball ammunition. While the rifle was handy to carry at about 6 pounds, and the operator could carry large amounts of smaller and lighter .30 carbine ammunition, reports … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP +P 185 grain JHP
Recently we added the Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP 185 grain JHP load to our buyers guide. It performed exceptionally well after penetrating tough barriers – like multiple layers of leather and light canvas. But then we found the same load – in a +P version - The Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP +P 185 grain JHP +P comes from the Latin word, Powtium, which loosely translates into “I … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Precious Metal You Can Bank On – Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP 185 grain JHP
“I love gooooooooold!” Goldmember, 2002 and 1975 We’re developing a fondness for it as well. In its jacketed form anyway. As part of our ongoing Will It Expand series, we’ve been testing lots and lots of ammo. Many of those tests have represented somewhat realistic scenarios. Others? Not so much. In any case, it’s been interesting to learn how different premium … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Hornady Critical Defense vs. A Frying Pan
Our potentially life saving Hornady Critical Defense and Critical Duty ammunition tests have already revealed that… Your odds of prevailing in a commercial bakery gun fight are dramatically increased if you are carrying Hornady Critical Defense. While Activia has been shown to modulate bowel activity, it will not prevent Hornady Critical Defense ammo from expanding. Hornady Critical … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: CorBon DPX .357 Sig 125 Grain Ammo
We’re getting to be big fans of the Barnes X bullet projectiles. Made entirely from copper, the projectile features a gaping hollow point that just looks like it wants to clog up like a garbage disposal stuffed with Justin Bieber CD’s. But they don’t. Clog that is. The CorBon DPX bullets like to expand within reasonable parameters. This week, we tested the CorBon DPX .357 Sig 125 grain … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Federal Premium .357 Sig 125 Grain JHP Personal Defense
For some unknown reason, we’re kind of nuts about the the .357 Sig round. Perhaps it’s a carry over from the old original Star Trek days. “I need more velocity Scotty!” Anyway, we’ve tried most of the commonly available .357 Sig personal defense rounds out of both a Glock 32 Gen 3 and a Glock 31 Gen 4 and observed generally good results. The vast majority of .357 Sig rounds we’ve … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Federal’s Guard Dog .45 ACP Ammo Is No Chihuahua
We’re putting a Springfield Armory TRP Armory Kote 1911 through it’s paces for a future story and have run 13 different types of .45 ACP ammo through it so far. On a whim, we picked up some Federal Guard Dog .45 ACP to try out. Not having shot this particular ammo before, we weren’t sure what to expect. In short, this was the pleasant surprise of the day. Here’s why: Federal … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Hornady Critical Defense vs. Butt Modulating Yogurt
Admit it. You’ve already got the Activia jingle going in your head. Or at least you’re wondering why a perennial hottie like Jamie Lee Curtis is now hawking butt modulating yogurt. Or what happens when bullets strike Bifidus Regularis bacteria – gajillions of them? Or whether ammunition has occasional irregularity? Or whether prune flavored yogurt has a messier ballistic … [Continue this ammo review]
American Eagle .223 Ammo – Reloaders Bargain
We picked up a supply of American Eagle (by Federal) .223 ammo recently to test for reliability. And reloadability. We were looking for some decent plinking .223 ammo for the DPMS A3 Lite that wouldn’t break the bank – and that had brass cases acceptable for reloading. We’ve had decent success with some of the less expensive steel-cased ammo, and there is certainly a convenience … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Hornady Critical Duty vs. A Huge Pile of B.S.
Today we hope to answer many pressing questions: What happens when you shoot a bullet at a huge pile of B.S.?If the B.S. is laid on really thick, will it clog up a hollowpoint bullet and prevent it from expanding? Is shooting at a pile of B.S. kind of like squashing a pregnant spider? Does it just create millions of little piles of B.S.? You guessed it! It’s time for another episode … [Continue this ammo review]
Hornady Critical Duty 9mm +P 135 grain Flexlock
We’ve been doing lots and lots of shooting with both Hornady Critical Defense and more recently Hornady Critical Duty. Our supply of the relatively new Hornady Critical Duty 9mm +P 135 grain Flexlock arrived this week so we took it out for some testing. The first observation – and we’ve seen this consistently with Hornady ammo – is that Hornady tends to be conservative on the … [Continue this ammo review]
Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special +P 100 grain Ammunition
We’ve been testing a lot of Hornady Critical Defense ammunition and with rare exception, we’ve observed excellent results. Critical Defense is designed with a polymer plug in the hollow point cavity which aids with bullet expansion – even after the round penetrates barriers that would clog a normal hollow point round. We’ve shot it through leather, clothing, rocks, grape jelly, … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Buffalo Bore .380 Auto +P Barnes TAC-XP
Dang. We’re starting to become fans of this Buffalo Bore stuff. We were pleasantly surprised with the results of our test with an uber-velocity, light weight 9mm load. Now we’ve been pleasantly surprised with, of all things, a .380 ACP load. We recently tried a similar load from Doubletap Ammunition and were a bit perplexed by the lower than expected velocity out of a Ruger LCP. So we … [Continue this ammo review]
Speer Gold Dot 9mm +P Bonded Hollow Point Ammunition
With all the ammo testing we do here, we keep coming back to Speer Gold Dots. Is it the newest? No. Does it contain exotic metals called something-illium? No. Does it play tricks with hyper-velocity? No. It just works. We find it expands reliably after penetrating all sorts of barriers. Just as importantly, the 124 grain weight in the 9mm load helps it to also penetrate to adequate depth … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Review: Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 95 grain Barnes TAC-XP
They say you can blow up a tank with a marshmallow if you can get it moving fast enough. While we’re still waiting on a civilian legal marshmallow rail gun, we’re taking a baby step in that direction by testing this load. With all the shooting of random things we’ve done over the years, we’ve been less than impressed with the high velocity, low projectile weight theory. Light bullets at … [Continue this ammo review]
CorBon 9mm +P 115 grain JHP
The CorBon 9mm +P 115 grain load advertises extra punch and by our experience – delivers. Factory rated at 1,350 feet per second, we clocked it at an average of 1,301 feet per second, 15 feet from the muzzle, out of a Glock 17 Gen 4. We’ve also found expansion to be excellent through a variety of mediums. We recommend it. 4 Nuns! Available here. … [Continue this ammo review]
Ammo Test: Will Your Short Barrel 9mm Penetrate Heavy Clothing?
Of course, penetration is only part of the battle. Will your 9mm ammo actually expand after penetrating heavy clothing? On this episode of Will It Expand, we aim to find out! As we couldn’t find any heavily dressed bad guy volunteers, we resurrected the boots, stuffed them full of old shirts, and placed them in front of our high-fallutin’ wetpack bullet catcher setup. That gives us a … [Continue this ammo review]
One Nun with a gun. This product needs a good ruler smack on the knuckles.
Two Nuns. Not bad but a little 'correction' for its own good would make it just fine.
Three Nuns a shooting. This is good, solid, and generally respectable stuff worthy of commendation.
Four Nuns with guns. Our highest rating. After all, who in their right mind would challenge 4 armed nuns?
