Forums / Gun Discussion / ammo for 9mm

-What gun?...barrel length and platform (design) can be very important in determining whether 'brand x' is going to be a good choice. The most critical thing to find out is if it will run 100% in your gun. I'd fire a bare minimum of 50 (200 is MUCH better) rounds of your selected ammo through your gun and mags before proclaiming it good to go.

-What do you want it to do? FBI demands at least 12" (up to 18" is fine) of penetration in calibrated ballistics gel from their handgun ammo. ICE/USBP have a taste for lighter bullets and more shallow penetration. If you have some unusual requirements (penetration of certain barriers, etc.), then you may have to be more picky.

-In 9mm, assuming it runs perfectly in your gun, I'd be happy with any standard pressure Gold Dot JHP for most applications. +p, etc. may enhance performance in certain situations, but nothing is going to make a handgun a deathray. Handguns are handy and concealable, but not powerful. 115, 124 or 147 Gold Dot gives you 3 options that readily commercially available.

When you've made your choice, buy at least 100 more rounds and focus on training. If a superwhizbang round comes out a month later, I doubt it would be stupendous enough to switch.

see if you can track down some federal HST, its hard to find sometimes. Also I like corbon DPX or winchester ranger SXT