I would like to hear the various opinions of forum members about ammo for self defense carry in various calibers.

Without so much getting into what kind of gun it is or what kind of specific weapon related discussion, but I am talking about rounds and generally what your impressions are.

For me, I have a Sig P238 .380 that I have always wanted to carry mainly because it seems to be small and simple. That said I have honestly never carried it for a variety of reasons.

My main thoughts on .380 are that people bash it for being under power. That said for being in the deep south where winter means it gets down to the 50's a .380 might be ok for convenience, but it's not optimal.

I tried several types of ammo and I found that Black Hills 90 grain JHP works pretty well. That's not based around some gel test but rather that seems like I can load mags of the stuff and never have a problem. That being said, with buffalo bore, corbon, and a few others they don't cycle as well.

That said with regular ball ammo I have never had a single problem with my .380 but when you get into other stuff my gun seems more picky on ammo. With +P ammo it seems like it was blasting too hard to the point where it was changing the cycling rate and hence it wasn't extracting the spent shells like it should sometimes.

Some of those cycling issues are pretty much why I haven't carried the .380. That said with the black hills standard non +P it has been great and opens that gun up to be able to be carried. It's either that or carry ball ammo. All in all though I think a .380 can do the trick if needed.



With 9mm I carry 124 gr. Personally I think with many kinds of ammo it's a voodoo science. Most of it is marketing. Personally I see no reason to run a +P round. Up to a point I am not so sure why people obsess over penetration tests.

The main reason I like 9mm is I think it's more than sufficient. For me the carry package is relatively small and light. The recoil is less. You can have more rounds (if needed) with less weight.



With .40 I tend to go with 180 grain. In recent years I have shied away from .40 mainly because the carry package is slightly larger and there seems to be more recoil. That said I would have 100% confidence in it. If you connect with the target that's pretty much all she wrote.



I have carried a .45 before on numerous occasions but that said the only real reason why I don't is because the overall package of carrying is much bigger and slightly less 'easy' to conceal with what I have. I do carry my .45 in the car though.

It has nothing to do with the round itself. I actually like it a whole lot. I tend to prefer 230 grain JHP.



All that said my impressions on ammo is just what I said earlier. There is entirely too many people making tens of thousands of youtube videos (although they are fun to watch). For me +P doesn't really bring anything extra to a real world scenario. I think the best selection method is to pick stuff that has a good projectile for your needs and that will cycle well in your weapon. At the end of the day what really will save your ass in some kind of bad situation will be your ability to react and keep your head. My opinion is if you start poking holes in a bad guy his attitude is going to change.

All that said I have long been a fan of Black Hills for all my carry needs. Whatever gun I run them in they just seem to be smooth and overall very good ammo.