Hornady critical defense ammo?

C

coyotewsm

New member
I just a s&w shield in 9mm. I bought a box of hornady critical defense ammo with it just curious what you guys think of it. I wanted to go with a traditional hollow like the hornady xtp which is what I use in 40 but they didn't have any at this gun store.
 
You might not care to hear this. Hornady Critical Duty ammo was basically designed for service pistols and barrier penetration.

The Ammo Quest guy (shootingthebull410) has tested a ton of different 9mm ammo through short-barreled pistols (3"). He found that critical duty shot from a short barrel pistol failed to expand and overpenetrated.

He also tested the Hornady Critical Defense which did fine.

You can see the review on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA7FTjmLiQQ
 
I have shot the 165 gr. .40 through my Glocks Shield and SR with no problems, have shot water jugs with all of them and got decent expansion every time, haven't tried the 9mm but they looked pretty good in the ballistics test that I saw by TN9outdoors on youtube....for what that's worth :D
 
Hornady has the best flash suppression in its powder of any ammo I have ever shot...gold dot, hydra shok, golden sabre, ranger, and a few more I can't remember off the top of my head.

Both the TAP and the critical duty/defense types were like this for me.
 
There are almost as many different defense ammos as there carry guns and you'll get as many different opinions on ammo as you will guns. Hornady is an excellent brand. With every gun being different and different guns liking different ammo I always shoot a couple boxes of my intended carry ammo at the range to make sure it feeds well and shoots accurate with the particular gun.
 
Hornady Critical Defense and Critical Duty are not the same ammunition.

Critical Defense- Designed specifically to run and perform well in smaller CCW style pistols.

Critical Duty- Designed specifically to run and perform well in full size service pistols.

Both do their jobs well, just know that they are different despite similar appearance, packaging, and names. For your shield, assuming that it feeds well (and there's no reason it shouldn't) you want Critical Defense.
 
I just a s&w shield in 9mm. I bought a box of hornady critical defense ammo with it just curious what you guys think of it. I wanted to go with a traditional hollow like the hornady xtp which is what I use in 40 but they didn't have any at this gun store.
Click to expand...

Not impressed with the Hornady offerings, they are notorious for poor, or sporadic expansion, nonetheless shot placement should be the number one concern anyway! I would push you toward Speer Gold Dots, either the 124 gr or 147 gr loads, both are proven, superior loadings.
 
As others have noted, the Critical Defense ammo works particularly well in short barreled firearms. The perceived recoil from these rounds also seems rather mild. I prefer the Federal HST in 9mm, but will buy Hornady when on sale. My LGS had a sale recently where you could get 3 boxes of Hornady ammo for the price of 2.

IMHO, the Hornady XTP bullets, used in the Hornady Custom line offer superior performance over the FTX bullets used in their Critical Defense ammo. In fact, many other manufacturers use the Hornady XTP bullets in the manufacturing of their ammo.

My top three, 1) Federal HST 2) Hornady Custom 3) Speer Gold Dots
 
I like the Federal HST, Hornady Custom(xtp), Defense and Duty

Gold Dots have been inconsistent in their expansion for myself and others.
My personal experience was with the 147's out of a 3.5in bbl Astra. I got inconsistency in the medium i used. Not that it is as closely relative but i also got inconsistency regarding proper expansion using their 50gr. GD HP 22 magnum round, which has been discontinued for several years now. This round gave inconsistent expansion when used on WV turkeys.

That was my experience...others have had similar results. Here is a few...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9UxDu4smlI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCmxakFAFRo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeVtwmHeRZQ

I like all the other rounds you mentioned. My favorite being the Federal HST 147 Standard Pressure HP....if you can find them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3VfWkWMzOI
 
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