What is the best hollow point ammunition you can buy?

I have done extensive research over the last several years regarding hollow point ammo and consider myself an amateur expert on the subject. The technologolical advances in engineering these bullets, along with the advances in metallurgy and smokeless powder has somewhat made obsolete many very popular rounds of just 10 years ago. Remember the Black Talon? Winchester long ago stopped defending the bullet because advances allowed them to focus on much better bullets without the media/public scrutiny. The truth is there are much better rounds out there now. One important thing to keep in mind, nothing is perfect. The expansion vs penetration of a round can vary greatly based upon what type of tissue it hits, what it passes through before entering the target, the length of the gun barrel etc...

In order for proper expansion to take place the round should be travelling at aroun 1100 fps when it hits the target, s distance is a factor as well as projectiles slow down over distance. Conversely a point blank shot may well over penetrate regardless of the best expanding bullet being used. So we must settle then for averages. The standard many companies aspire to is the FBI protocol which requires a minimum and maximum penetration and expansion which differ through different types of barriers before entering the standard 20% ballistic gelatin. Of course these protocols include shooting through heavy denim, leather, down feathered clothing along with window glass at specific angles and steel,of specific thicknesses from different distances. These situations which FBI agents may face usually differ from a civilian self defense shooting. As it is unlikely a self defense shooting could be justified shooting at fleeing felons in a car... But nothing is written in stone.

Anyway I choose rounds that have excellent average performance over the widest ranges of velocities. Don't forget, a round which doesn't expand may penetrate deeply enough to cause critical damage, but one that expands too well too quickly may not penetrate deeply enough. A proper balance of expansion and penetration is best. Lighter rounds go faster (all things being equal) and expand greatly but may not penetrate deep enough. Those same rounds fired from a carbine may travel so fast they penetrate deeply before expanding properly and sometimes if a round travels too too fast, the core may separate from the jacket. This may or not be a bad thing depending on the level of penetration and mass of each component after breakup as it can cause twice the destruction duemtomtwomdifferent or more would channels.

As you I am sure you are aware of the main reason hollow points are used in defensive application is to prevent over penetration, i.e not exiting the body and endangering bystanders as well as the expansion to create more damage as a larger projectile as well as dumping or transferring as many ft-lbs of energy to the target.

To answer the question directly, my choice of ammo to use would be bullets in the 124-127 gr size for 9mm which is the mid size. I would use Speer Gold Dot +P. in winter when heavier clothing is used, I tend to switch to Hornady FTX bullets in the Critical Defense brand. They have recently come out with Critical Duty which passed the FBI protocols, but I understand it is a much hotter load and I haven't tried it yet, but I will. I also like the Remington Golden Saber Brass Jacketed rounds in 124 gr.

For my Glock 40 I use Winchester Ranger T, non bonded in 165 gr. I am not a fan of the 180 as I use the baby Glock 27 and find it harder to practice with more than 50 rounds as it starts to hurt the trigger finger.

Other rounds I have heard good things about are the Federal HST, Winchester PDX1( which I belive is a bonded version of the Ranger T (at 2x the price) and the CorBon DPX which is a completely copper projecttile so there is no fragmentation, no jacket to core separation. I have a relatively good article I will reference for you below.

Dont we all.

here is the low down. There are at least 100 cartridges out there that will do. Every one will have slightly different published velocity.

All have been tried on mediums like gelatine, wet newspaper, pine boards, dead hogs and anything else the marketing guy can get the lab to test the bullets on for penetration and expansion.

In the real world... it all goes out the window. Shoot a fat guy, skinny guy, vary the distance, add heavy clothes--- all the testing in the world goes out the window.

Read the data with a grain of salt. Figure out what the local LEO's have issued... Try what catches your eye and make sure it feeds through your firearm and hits near point of aim.

Learn to shoot--- take a training course, shoot some IDPA... the "best" ammo in the world won't do a bit of good if your not prepared- a miss is a miss even with $2 a peice premium ammo

There are roughly a hundred quality hollowpoints on the market and there is no such thing as 'best' when it comes down to it. Hydra shock is old tech to start with so if you're wanting the newest its not it. But the oldest style hp worked back then, will work just as well now.

I use Federal Hydra shock. Whether it's the best or not, I don't know. I am sure the higher priced stuff would be better. Does a ton of damage from my 357 though!

The Barnes bullets seem to have good reviews, also Winchester's PDX have good reviews.

You guys keep aiding a likely felon/felon to be. Read his other questions, he is not right.