The Best Self-Defense Rounds for Carry Guns

Guns meant for concealed carry have been a thing for generations, and you can start a fight if you question just exactly what a “carry gun” is or should be.  So, for this article, I’m just going to go over some choice picks for defensive ammo for four different basic classes of carry guns—large 9mms, small 9mms, .380s, and .38 revolvers.

Large 9mms

I don’t think there have ever been more people (private citizens) carrying large 9mm pistols, for a combination of reasons.  There have never been more states with legal permitted or constitutional concealed carry.  9mm is now the most popular handgun cartridge in America.  And appendix carry is hugely popular.  This last is important—I think appendix carry is pertinent, as it’s popular because there is no easier way to conceal a large pistol at your waist, so the average 9mm carry gun has inched up in size over the past few years.

As far as what “large” is, I’ll say anything with a roughly four-inch or longer barrel, and a grip big enough to comfortably get your whole hand on it.  And this size matters for two reasons—that longer barrel will give you more velocity from your ammo, and that longer grip will allow better control while shooting.  Which means ammo for these guns can and likely should be full- or extra power (like +P, although technically that means extra pressure).

The most street-proven 9mm round on the market is Speer’s 124-grain +P Gold Dot (www.speer.com).  It has an advertised velocity of 1250 fps and it will do that out of full-size guns.  It has been basically unchanged since its introduction thirty-plus years ago—because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  The 124-grain bullet is bonded so it won’t shed its jacket going through barriers (glass, car doors, etc.), heavy enough to go through barriers well, but light enough it can be pushed to good velocities to help ensure expansion.  Recoil isn’t too bad in a big gun, availability is good, and the price isn’t too steep.

The above Gold Dot has been the issue ammunition of the NYPD forever (because, again, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).  Lately, heavier bullets have come into fashion, because ammunition manufacturers have figured out how to make those slower, heavy-for-caliber bullets expand reliably.  Hornady’s 135-grain +P Critical Duty load (www.hornady.com) was designed specifically to pass the FBI Ammunition Testing Protocol, and it did so well it was recently adopted by the FBI as their official duty load.  It has an advertised velocity of 1070 fps and is a good balance between bullet weight and velocity.  Recoil isn’t bad at all out of full-size guns.  This bullet doesn’t expand much, but it penetrates barriers very well.

On the heavy side, I don’t know that there’s any load on the market as well regarded as Federal’s 147-grain HST (www.federalpremium.com).  This has an advertised velocity of 1000 fps.  Out of longer barrels (faster) it often expands to .70 caliber, and out of shorter barrels (slower) it weighs enough it still penetrates deeply, while also expanding.

Small 9mms

All of the above ammo—and, heck, all 9mm ammo period—works in small, sub- or micro-compact pistols, but, depending, there might be better choices for you.  

With small 9mm carry guns, not only do you have to deal with smaller/lighter guns that are harder to hold onto (so maybe you want lighter-recoiling ammo), you’ve got shorter barrels which produce slower velocities.  Some companies have entire product lines of ammunition meant to perform specifically at these lower velocities.  The first to mention is Hornady’s Critical Defense ammo.

Hornady’s Critical Duty ammo is meant for full-size duty guns, and passes the FBI’s tough Ammunition Testing Protocol, which involves shooting the ammo through various barriers into ballistic gel blocks and measuring expansion and penetration.  Because cops often half to shoot people in cars.  If you’re simply an average citizen carrying for self-defense, if you have to use your gun chances it’s going to be against a person within spitting distance, and the only barrier between you and them might be thick clothing.  So Hornady’s Critical Defense ammo features bullets that are often lighter in weight and construction that will expand fully but maybe not penetrate as deeply, while having less recoil so they are more controllable in small pistols.  I’ve done a lot of gel tests with their 115-grain 9mm load out of small guns with +/- 3-inch barrels, and the bullet usually penetrates 10-12 inches while expanding to .55-.60 caliber.  All while having minimal recoil.

Fiocchi’s new CovertX line of handgun ammunition (www.fiocchiusa.com) is built for a specific purpose—proper performance out of the shorter barrels usually seen in concealed carry handguns.  “Proper performance” being good penetration and full expansion even out of small guns.  Their 9mm load is a 124-grain bullet at an advertised 1115 fps. When I tested this ammo I used a CANiK Mete MC9 Prime.  This pistol has a 3.64-inch barrel, which is a good average for modern compact/subcompact/micro-compact carry guns.  Out of that barrel the 124-grain bullet headed downrange at 1070 fps.  It penetrated the gel block 14.5-inches and expanded to an average diameter of 0.62.  Which is textbook perfect performance.

The Mighty .380s

There really isn’t such a thing as a “full-size” .380 ACP—the closest would maybe be the Beretta 84/85/80X line, or S&W’s 380 EZ Shield, which rationally would be still be considered compact pistols.  So all .380s have short barrels, and are usually light—and ammunition makers have tailored modern defensive ammo for those guns.

I mentioned Fiocchi’s CovertX line above, and their .380 ACP load is purpose-built to perform out of pocket guns. When I gel tested their 95-grain .380 ACP load (advertised velocity of 1015 fps) I used the new S&W Bodyguard 2.0, which in my opinion is the best .380 on the market.  It sports a short 2.75-inch barrel, and out of that barrel the Fiocchi CovertX load produced a velocity of 853 fps.  The bullet penetrated the Clear Ballistics block 11.5-inches (which is pretty typical for a .380) and provided beautiful, full, textbook expansion (which is not).  The bullet expanded to an average diameter of 0.52”, and recoil was very controllable.

Federal offers lots of premium choices in .380, including a Hydra-Shok Deep (for increased penetration) but I think their best is the 99-grain HST, which has an advertised velocity of 935 fps.  This bullet is designed to expand at the slower velocities you get in this caliber.  A few years ago they offered a law enforcement version of this load, with the same bullet pushed (if I remember correctly) close to 1000 fps, and advertised that it could pass the FBI Ammunition Testing Protocol, which is incredible.  Back in the very early nineties, there weren’t any 9mm rounds which could pass that test, which shows how much ammunition tech has improved.

I don’t know if I have a favorite .380 ACP load, but I will say that the Honey Badger .380 from Black Hills (www.black-hills.com) is what is loaded into the 13+1 Beretta 84F .380 I keep near the kitchen coffee maker for family use in case of emergency.  

The Honey Badger is a light-for-caliber 60-grain copper solid bullet with flutes at the tip that cut right through clothing.  This bullet is not a hollowpoint and not designed to expand; rather those flutes are designed to produce temporary wound cavities similar to or better than traditional hollowpoints via hydraulic displacement—people are mostly water, and the flutes of the fast-moving bullet shove that wet tissue out of the way and make the bad guy reevaluate all the bad decisions in his life.  And there’s no hollowpoint to get plugged up going through clothing.

Out of a Taurus Spectrum’s 2.8-inch barrel the Honey Badger load clocked in at a smoking 1104 fps, with noticeably less recoil than all other .380 loads tested—which is why it’s in my kitchen Beretta, a gun that might be used by my better half.  In ballistic gel tests this load penetrates over nine inches even out of barrels shorter than the Spectrum.

Carry Ammo for the .38 Special

The “snubnose” is still a very popular choice in carry guns despite having low capacity, a poor trigger pull, short sight radius, and generally being hard to shoot fast or accurately.  Because it is simple—point it and pull the trigger.  And a five-shot snubby is usually more than enough to solve your problem as a private citizen, which will likely involve someone right in your face.  The number of .38 Special and .38 Special +P loads on the market is huge, so let me just cover two very different offerings:

I’ve got an Airweight (aluminum-framed) five-shot S&W snubbie, and while it is rated for more powerful +P ammo my ammo of choice for it is Hornady’s Critical Defense Lite load.  This features a 90-grain JHP bullet at 1200 fps, and less than that out of snubbies.  This is a low-recoiling load that might not hit as hard, but it is so controllable it allows me to shoot the gun as fast and accurately as physically possible, and my philosophy has always been hits are better than misses, and the more hits the better.

At the opposite end of the spectrum in almost every way is the 158-grain +P lead hollow point load—technically the bullet is a LSWCHP (lead semi-wadcutter hollow point).  Remington (www.remington.com) currently has a version of this with an advertised 890 fps.  Underwood Ammo (www.underwoodammo.com) has a coated soft-cast version of this at 980 fps.  Buffalo Bore (www.buffalobore.com) has a version of this that’ll do 850 fps out of a snubbie’s two-inch barrel and over 900 fps out of a 3-inch barrel. Federal has a non-plus-P version of this they call their Train + Protect Versatile Hollow Point at 830 fps.  

So what’s the big deal with this arguably archaic lead .38 SPL+P load?  Why do so many companies have a version of it?  Because it works.  First, old-timers might refer to it as “the FBI load”, as it is what the FBI carried back in the day when everybody was still toting .38 wheelguns.  Back then, jacketed hollowpoints didn’t reliably expand, especially out of the short barrels of snubbies—bullet technology wasn’t what it is today.  But these soft lead hollow points (with no jacket) did expand reliably.  And the 158-grain weight meant they had enough mass to penetrate very well.  In fact, these old school rounds perform as well as most of the modern loads, and are generally less expensive.  I’ve got a four-inch S&W Model 13, and on the rare occasions I have this wheelgun on hand for self-defense it is stuffed with this load.

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