1200 FPS with a 125 gr. JHP from a 1 7/8" barrel is nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately, I don't have nearly as much faith in Hornady's velocity ratings as I do my chronograph. My shooting partner and I tested the 135 gr. +P 9mm Critical Duty and from a 4.5" barrel in my case and it didn't come very close to its velocity spec. But, factory ammo rarely does, then that's exacerbated by ammo makers labeling 9mm as +P which really makes one wonder why? 1110 FPS with a 135 gr. bullet is fairly easily reached with Standard Pressure unless one really doesn't know much about loading factory or handloads and uses a powder that burns too fast. Yeah, their powders, or anyone else's, should yield the lowest flash possible. Today we have powders treated to reduce flash as slow burning as Accurate's version of W296 (Magnum Handgun) with 11FS. As a matter of fact, I'll be shooting 158 gr. XTPs later this afternoon, charged with 11FS where we'll fire then from my SP's S&W 2 1/2" M66-4.The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:29 pmWhen I mentioned the Hornady 125 grain Critical Defense for my .357 Snubbie, I did NOT forget barrel length. At the time that I was researching it as a potential carry round, there was no info on the round from a 2” barrel on Hornady's website, so I phoned them and asked if they had data for that cartridge in a j-frame with a 2” barrel (yes....I know it’s really 1-7/8", but I don’t think 1/8" is going to make a hill of beans' difference), and they said yes, and gave me the figures of 1200 FPS/400 ft-lbs. Shortly after that, Hornady added that information to their website, where it remained until their most recent website redesign, and now they only display data for an 8" barrel, at 1500 fps. The difference represents a velocity loss of 300 FPS over 6" of barrel length for a snubbie, or about 50 FPS/inch....which sounds about right.Rob72 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:09 am.32 is just fine.AdioSS wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:57 am The reasons I picked those 2 are because I already have them & because this is for ankle carry. Weight is a big concern there.
I used to carry a subcompact 9mm IWB (my first pistol), but it became exposed as I was reaching up for something & I got a talking to by my supervisors & HR... I could try that in an ankle rig. The unloaded weight is actually less than the other 2. Then just load enough in the mag until it feels too heavy?
I also have a steel frame J-frame size .357, but it’s a bit heavy for ankle carry.
When off the clock I carry much larger pistolas.People often forget that "Risk Management" is assessing multiple domains of risk, and prioritizing them. I would suspect that loss of your job, after that initial "unmasking" is a statistically significant greater risk than a workplace shooting.
Having tried ankle, years ago, I am not a fan, as I found it more likely to be inadvertently exposed, and slower overall than some other deep-carry, for instance:
https://www.desantisholster.com/pop-up-holster/
But, this assessment is very wardrobe dependent.
People also often forget that .357/.38+P velocity and relative power is generally calculated from a 6" barrel. The only significant advantage of a high power snubbie is either screwing it into someone's ear, or hard into the belly and towards the chest cavity. In this instance you're using a very real temporary wound channel created by muzzle blast. At distance, there is no real ballistic difference between the snubbie and a sub-compact/micro 9mm.
Truly, with either option you have, you're fine, as long as you have significant trigger time. Claude Werner is pretty much the guru of snubs, and he runs them hard and fast. ( https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/ )
I'm saying this as a guy heavily invested, with lots of spent rounds, in 9mm, and who has custom snubs.
Anyway, while I certainly accept that the same cartridge won't come zooming out of my 5" TRR8 at the same velocity as an 8" barrel, I have to put at least a modicum of faith in what I was told by a Hornady representative about the data for 2" barrels. The obvious caveat of course is that this is just 3rd party information until I can actually run it past a chronograph. This guy averaged 1286 FPS/459 ft-lbs from a 2.25" SP101, which isn’t out of line with 1200 FPS from a 2" barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdLusmslMo.
I would not want to attempt long range shots with my M&P340 because the sights are pretty rudimentary, but I’m quite confident in the power it can deliver at close self defense ranges, and I don't believe that it requires the muzzle blast to create a satisfactory temporary wound cavity. At shorter ranges, it will hit just like any other well designed bullet weighing 125 grains and traveling 1200 +/- FPS. IOW, it actually hits a little bit harder than a Hornady 124 grain 9mm +P Critical Duty from a 4" barrel (1175 FPS/380 ft-lbs).....and I sure don’t feel like my 4" barreled Glock 19 is a "belly gun". I’ll concede Werner's training experience, but I don’t think he’s got his ballistics down, if that's what he’s saying about .357 magnum ballistics in a snubnose.
But that’s just me. What do I know?
And at my age, I’m not getting "belly close" to an assailant if I can help it.
It kind of perturbs me that companies like Hornady and Remington add a +P designation on 124 gr. loads at 1175 & 1180 FPS respectively, then neither are likely to reach it. The SPEER 124 gr. Gold Dot +P rated 1220 FPS? you'll be lucky to see more than 1180 FPS from a 4" barrel.
A 5-shot snub in .357 Magnum is very doable provided you can conceal additional ammo/speedloaders. The 125 gr Critical Defense load, if it actually chrono's 1200 FPS is plenty. I mentioned momentum where the lowest level I'd recommend to anyone is .600 Lb-seconds and prefer .6500 Lb-seconds for ny own loads. Skipping the first unnecessary step in converting mass we find this: 125/225218 x 1200 = Momentum in Lb-seconds. Some simply run the Power Factor calculation and that's okay if it works for them, whereas the calc I just gave will allow you to easily find muzzle energy as well. So, here we get .6660 Lb-seconds from the Critical Defense load. Then for ME: ME = Momentum x (Velocity/2), 400 Ft'lbs. Make sure that momentum is relative to energy as it is in this case, and you have a pretty effective defense load.
Not so easy to do with a 3.1" 9mm, but you can get enough momentum to ensure penetration by using a heavier bullet load that expands properly. Here's a link to an article on momentum I recently wrote for the Western Powders blog. http://blog.westernpowders.com/2019/09/ ... allistics/ on previous pages I've written a number of articles on 9mm performance. For the load intended for the S&W Shield I used the Berry's 147 gr. Hybrid HP at 900 FPS. It is technically a well conceived plated bullet and expansion is impressive. Finding a 9mm 147 gr. JHP load that works well, look for one that's designed for short barrels, and test expansion yourself. Also at the Western blog you'll find articles by Charles Schwartz whom authored the book, Quantitative Ammunition Selection. He also has a spreadsheet program that I use and hope to see offered commercially soon. So you don't have BB calibrated 10% ballistic ordnance gel ar 38 degrees? No worries! In 900 tests comparing his mathematical model directly to common defense loads that were shot into the FBI spec gel, and not a substitute, the accuracy rate is 95+ % and in all the years I've studied ballistic or stopping power theories, 95% accuracy is impressive to say the least.
If you have a chrono and want to conduct your own penetration prediction test, let me know and I can run it. You'll need velocity, of course, with the chrono placed just ahead of the water vessel, or just set the first water jug, or preferably water-filled baggie at the same distance you chrono at, 12' for me; recover the expanded bullet, weigh it for mass and if the expansion causes the JHP to petal, measure the 3 greatest diameters and the 3 least between the petals.
Since I mentioned that I'll be testing loads later today, I can give some examples for those interested. You don't have to be in the dark when it comes to getting the best defense ammo you can buy, or make!
