Do you shoot in your CCW carry ammo and practice ammo to match?

W

WildBill45

New member
This is a critical question. Do you actually shoot those very expensive hollow point defensive rounds that you carry, and more importantly have you printed them on target along with your practice ammo to see the differences at various ranges? You wouldn’t want to go to court because you hit someone down the street and not back up your facts that you are trained and your equipment is safe to carry in public … this would not be good. Morally, beyond the legal, how would you sleep if you could have avoided hitting that innocent person if you knew your expensive carry ammo shot 5 inches higher than your practice ammo at 20 yards or at whatever distance in your shooting event ?

What do you carry for concealed carry on the streets versus what you practice with and, how do they shoot on paper in comparison?



Video of my comparison shoot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgBb36MIeP8
 
I have by accident. I shoot anywhere from 7 to 35 yards, and did not noticed any change in accuracy when I shot the sd loads. I went thru several preloaded mags before the discovery. The self defense loads had more pop and hurt the wallet more, not to mention putting me in a bad mood when I realized what happened, hate to waste $. Just from that little test I would say all is good and would not waste the money too often shooting the expensive loads. I normally shoot what I can find, if possible the heavier load ( they seem to shoot better and more accurate). Here lately I have been finding ammo in stores but was buying on the internet. One of these days I hope to get into reloading and that would help solve this problem.:)
 
Not only do folks load and carry untested ammo, they carry untested guns !

Especially those little pocket blasters like the KelTecs and Rugers. It hurts to shoot them, so let's just skip that part of training is what they say.

Hard to believe, even harder to understand.
 
I carry 129gr Winchester Ranger T +p+.
I mostly shoot Tula and WWB 115 gr (-p-?). Whatever's available and cheap.

I've shot enough of the Rangers to know there isn't enough difference for me to care about.
Within reasonable "defense" distances, +/- a couple vertical inches from COM isn't that big of a deal.

If my target's small enough or far enough that it would matter, I'm going to be running not shooting.
 
Quite honestly, over the last 15 years, I haven't found that my carry ammo shoots appreciably different than my practice ammo from my carry guns out to 25 yards and the differences at 10 yards are meaningless. In short, the only real difference is felt recoil, mostly because the distances are not substantial enough to matter. Even then, felt recoil becomes pretty moot. I finally had to change the mag base colors to keep from shooting my carry ammo by accident. I did it several times without noticing the difference in recoil over regular ammo. There is a difference, but with the slight stress of doing drills pretty well made me completely not notice it. No doubt under real stress, I won't notice it either.
 
I shoot my carry loads off at least once or twice a year. I don't see much difference within 10 meters between my practice and my carry loads. Out to 25 meters there is a difference buy not enough to bother me. I also rotate my magazines when I rotate carry ammo.
 
I check function, accuracy & point of impact with my carry loads. Once I am comfortable with reliability and aware of how they are different than my hand loads I go back to practice with the hand loads.
Having a lot of experience with the pistol is the most important thing. I can tailor the practice loads to get very close to POI with the carry loads. The difference in how hot the carry loads are is not that important when you don't feel the need to go +p+ for carry.
 
I haven't found that my carry ammo shoots appreciably different than my practice ammo from my carry guns out to 25 yards and the differences at 10 yards are meaningless.
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Same here. I shoot everything I buy, including expensive defense rounds I expect to sit around for a long time, but I don't really notice a difference in accuracy and minimal-if-any difference in felt recoil. So once I'm convinced there's no significant difference, it's back to the cheap FMJ at the range.

The only exception is, I keep 180 gr .357 magnum JHP rounds in my MP340, but I only rarely shoot any magnums at the range, preferring 38 specials the rest of the time. The magnum rounds are pretty damn painful, but I figure if I ever need to shoot them in defense situation, it will be at close distances where I almost can't miss and I'll want one shot to be enough to end the threat. And at least I know what the recoil is like, hurts like hell but won't incapacitate me.
 
Same as many. I shoot 2 boxes or so of my carry ammo through any firearm that enters the rotation. Out to 10 yds I honestly can't see a difference in POI as it relates to POA. Now I haven't tested out to 25 yds, but unless it does a magic bullet type turn I don't see it being a major issue. My standard practice ammo is 115 gr 9mm FMJ, brass of one brand or another, and my carry load is Speer Gold Dot 124 gr +P Short Barrel. Honestly I think checking for function is a much bigger motivator than POI differences.
 
I do. I shoot several boxes worth.

And I also chronograph them so I can load ammo that emulates the round (notice I didn't say "duplicate"). And then I shoot a whole bunch of those.
 
Especially those little pocket blasters like the KelTecs and Rugers. It hurts to shoot them, so let's just skip that part of training is what they say.
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I can't see where the 380 KelTec is so painful to shoot . Until ammo went out of sight .I used to shoot a lot of Corbon in my KelTec Now I just shoot more ball But the KT isn't all that painful to shoot.

If you buy the 32 its a ***** cat
 
Not only do folks load and carry untested ammo, they carry untested guns !
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This is very unsafe for the shooter and the public! These folks have never experienced real danger or have had to fight to survive ... not knowing where your bullets are going to negligent and dangerous to us all ... please don't do this!

There are some guns that do shoot differently with some loads at shorter ranges ... I have owned a few. I even had the first run of the S&W stainless 9mm, double action, 59 something model keyhole on target. The replacement second run, issue guns by the way, were fine and very reliable. It was good to know this stuff before going out into the world without question.

You should always test your gun, but if injured maybe a friend shooter can at least test shoot it to see if works reliably and is on target ... if not, don't carry it on the street.
 
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Yes.

I usually start my range session with 4-5 mags (60-75 rounds) on one target. When I buy a new box of defensive ammo I shoot it every other mag with Blazer FMJ. I also shoot this between 5,7,10 and 30 yards. I do this because if gives me a better idea of where I'm likely to hit in a real SD encounter with varying distances and shaky hands. The. I usually shoot another few mags worth of 5 round "groups" to satisfy my ego and have something pretty to show off.

Anyway; my current Wincher Ranger HP's hit (on average) and inch or so high and to the right of where blazer hits for me. Over 70 rounds that's about the biggest difference though it gets harder to tell near the end I always shoot HP's first. When shooting quick (1 second interval) double taps the difference is negligible.

IDK why I do it this way. I never really thought much about it. I just do it that way.
 
I shoot mostly my casted reloads in practice, and test my carry ammo to compare poa/poi. From what I've tested there's little difference between the two in the 7-15 yard mark I normally shoot at.

I suppose I could order a HP mold and do 100%, same bullet, primer, crimp, powder. To do anything else would be dishonest, unless you decided to run 150-200 rounds of SD ammo at every range outing.


But for some reason the lawyers among us recommend against carrying reloads so I'll keep on doing what I'm doing.
 
Absolutely! I've found one pistol that didn't like my preferred carry ammo so I had to switch for another type. I think it's critical to train with.

I also have the issue of needing to load and unload my ccw regularly so my ammo gets a little beat up in the process. I replace my carry ammo about every four months and when I do I practice with the old stuff.
 
I shoot my carry ammo (DoubleTap 10mm JHP, in three different bullet weights) exclusively in my 1911. But in my S&W69 (.44mag 5-shot 4-1/4" L-Frame revolver), I shoot only a minimal number of my carry ammo (DoubleTap 240gr JHP), because the recoil is so high ... I shoot .44Special for practice (when I can get it).
 
...your expensive carry ammo shot 5 inches higher than your practice ammo at 20 yards...
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At or around 60 feet I'm going to be running my fat arse off in the opposite direction instead of getting in a gunfight that I *might* win.
By running and moving I'd be hard to hit and that gets better with every step, cover wont be far away in all likelihood.

The only thing that would cause me to stay put and shoot is so that my wife and daughter CAN run.

Otherwise, shooting anyone at 60 feet is going to be hard to defend in court depending on local laws (stand ground, etc)

Just pick a practice round and SD round of similar weight & velocities, the difference shouldn’t be significant.
 
Shot enough of my sd ammo to know that it doesn't shoot noticeably different than my practice ammo. My XD is no tack driver (neither am I by any means) but it hits where I aim it with my 180gr fmj or the 180gr HST's I carry it with.

The not shooting your carry gun thing doesn't really surprise me, I've seen friends (against my urgings and invitations to go shoot), bring a new gun home, clean it, load it and stuff it in a holster, having never pulled the trigger on it. Is it a good idea? Hell no, but when has that ever stopped people?
 
I do when I can. By that I mean if the carry ammo of my choice is available to refresh my supply I will run what I have been carrying through the gun in practice. I know ammo can last perfectly for decades or more, but I don't see what it hurts to freshen up what's in the gun once or twice a year.
For new guns, after at least 100 rounds of "shake down" time, I will shoot at least one box of what I plan to carry.
In both of these practices I haven't noticed enough difference in accuracy, or point of aim between the fmj range fodder, or modern, high tech defensive ammo to matter.
 
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