Defensive ammo. What kind?

[Big Frank]

What kind of defensive handgun ammo do you use? What else would you recommend?

Currently my bedside pistol is loaded with 13 year old CORBON Pow'R Ball +Ps. It's time to get some fresh ammo and I don't know what to get. Everything I look at claims it has great performance. I'm looking for terminal ballistics and reliability only and don't care about accuracy. It's a 3" .45 and I know CORBON makes DPX ammo for short barrels but I can't remember who else makes short barrel ammo. Does it really make any difference from standard ammo? Would +P ammo be better or worse in such a short barrel?

[Timothy]

Speer makes short barrel ammo as well.  I carry it in my snubbie.  A bit easier to find here as well.

[MikeBjerum]

+P won't help anything.  Your barrel is short, and the extra powder will burn past the muzzle.

I think you are looking for maximum terminal performance.  What do you think you will gain?  All I see is minor differences between the defensive rounds.  Does the Corbon perform perfectly in your gun?  If so, why go through the pain and uncertainty of choosing and proving a new round?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Timothy]

Not arguing M58 and I defer to your extensive knowledge on the ballistics but can you explain the physics, please?

All I have is the ballistic charts provided by the manufacturer!

[PegLeg45]

I use CORBON +P in both my Commander and my G27. It is the only SD ammo I have ever carried. I have tested many others, but CORBON is the only one with zero malfunctions in my SD pistols.


Unlike in rifles, the velocity variances that come from barrel length are not as big an issue with factory rounds in handguns.  (IMHO)

Many times, ammo test barrels are much longer than what a SD pistol barrel may be (some ammo makers provide this info). I think what M58 is getting at is that unburned powder is unused energy.
I don't know if it is enough of a loss to worry about, though. Think of it like this: If a .45 ACP +P loading is designed to deliver 1150 fps out of a 5" barrel, and you shoot it in a 3" barrel, you will have some loss in velocity due to the bullet exiting the barrel before all the powder completes the push it was designed to do.
That being said, most of what I have read on the subject tends to point out that the loss in velocity isn't enough to be concerned about from a real world perspective, and would still produce more velocity and energy than a standard load with the same weight bullet (that started its journey at a slower pace to begin with).

In several opinions, the bigger concern was the unburned powder creating a larger muzzle flash in potentially close quarters and possibly in low light scenarios.
If muzzle flash is a concern, then there are factory rounds with custom tailored powder burn rates that are calculated to try and consume the powder in the barrel in order to reduce flash.





**These test numbers were interesting in that the gun gave slightly higher velocities than the test barrel in the 3" length.

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/45auto.html

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[MikeBjerum]

Pegleg hit the unburned powder issue.  I shoot .45acp in both 5" and 5.5".  The same loads are faster out of the longer barrel, and when shot in the dark there is still extreme muzzle flash.  The only way I can raise my muzzle velocity is to work with faster burning powders or lighter bullets.

In my J frame I do not have enough velocity difference to even call it a difference going from .38 Special to .38 Special +P.  Only reason I tend to carry +P is that standard is usually hard to find on the shelves.

Think about what you already:  You are throwing 230 grain of lead at over 800 fps; it is expanding to about .650 inch as it hits; you are hitting the bad guy in the chest with a force similar to a hard swung baseball bat, and it is concentrated to a spot smaller than a dime; and you are doing this at a range of about 20".  Good marketing and an abundance of instructors, and wanna be instructors, trying to justify their importance to us have convinced us that minute differences make the difference between life and death.  Bad guys don't like loud noises or leaky holes in their bodies. 

Spend your time and money on practice to maximize the skills that will make even ball ammunition effective in your 1911.  Remember the old saying, I can't remember who said it right now, that we should fear the man who owns only one gun, because he knows how to use it.  I don't fear a person with a big gun with the most modern defensive ammunition sitting in his safe near as much as I fear the person with a Ruger Mark III and practices with it weekly.

[Big Frank]

Thanks guys. My pistol is Mag-na-ported too so a reduced flash round would probably be better at night when I would most likely need a gun. I've never shot it in low light conditions so I don't know how bad it is. The CORBON DPX is only a 160 grain bullet and the Gold Dot short barrel is 230 grains. As usual the lighter faster bullet has more muzzle energy. Federal Guard Dog ammo is 476 foot pounds out of whatever length barrel they use to test it, which is about as high as I've seen except for some super light exotics. Too bad they don't make a short barrel version of that.

[tombogan03884]

I'd go with the stuff specifically made for short barrels.

[alfsauve]

All that said, I'm a Hornady guy.  Got it for my EDCs in 9mm & .357 as well as in .44spl for the wife's gun. 

[PegLeg45]

All that said, I'm a Hornady guy.  Got it for my EDCs in 9mm & .357 as well as in .44spl for the wife's Hun.

If I couldn't get CORBON, I'd probably use a Hornady offering.....the shooting I have done with it has went well...enough so that I am thinking of using Hornady rounds in my Colt Agent snubby.