9mm 124 or 147?

[Allenof5]

What do yall use for self defense 124 or 147?

[Beiruty]

124gr Gold dots +P

[Keith B]

100gr Corbon Pow'RBall. 1475fps and 483 ft/lbs at muzzle. That's getting close to the same kinetic energy as a .357 magnum. Lots of penetration and good expansion. Just make sure you have a pistol that can handle the +P round due to increased pressure. I usually carry the Kahr PM9, so the first video is indicative of the performance I get. Shorter barrel means a little slower velocity, but still good perfomance.

[Scott B.]

147gr Federal HST , +P.

[Right2Carry]

147gr Federal HST , +P.

When I Carry 9MM. I am a proponent of carrying the larger weights in whatever caliber I am carrying.

[Keith B]

Heavier doesn't always mean better. Taking into consideration shot placement and expansion, it's all about energy transfer and penetration. The more ft/lbs of muzzle energy there is, the better chance for good penetration and shock/damage to something vital.

Here is a ballistics chart on 9mm ammo. There is a vast difference in ammo depending on the combination of bullet and powder charge.

http://www.ballistics101.com/9mm.php

[loscar141]

I carry Speer Gold dot 124 grain +p

[WTR]

I'm usually a heavy for caliber guy. However, when the weapon my wife insisted she liked the most is chambered in 9 mm, I did some research. Skeeter Skelton had an article in Shooting Times many years ago that proclaimed the 124 gr bullet a better one shot man stopper than the 147 bullet of the same construction. My wife's magazines are loaded with 124 gr. gold dots.

[philbo]

124 grn +p preferred. Too many of the 147 grn loads are designed as subsonic rounds that won't expand reliably at the speeds actually achieved out of a 4" or less barrel. There has been improvement in some of the 147 grn loads recently, but if I'm picking a 9mm load for a carry gun I'll opt for higher velocity over bullet weight.

[The Wall]

230gr. Look at the original question before you get excited. Actually I only have 115gr. for 9mm. It's what I practice with, so it's what I use. I wouldn't want to get shot with it.

[JALLEN]

Before you fall in love with a particular bullet, usually because you read somewhere that Billy Joe Bob [last name redacted for PERSEC], retired Delta SEAL sniper ace fighter pilot used nothing else, and only a wimp or a pimp would think of using anything else, have a look at your pistol's owners manual to see what the manufacturer suggests.

I had a bunch of 147 gr. rounds for my 226. After all, I had been told that SEALs used those in the Hush Puppies, silenced pistols used to take out guard dogs. Well, I kept having a variety of issues with those in my P7M8. One day, I was perusing the owners manual and guess what? HK says the pistol was designed to fire 124-125 gr. rounds. I started using Speer 124 gr. Gold Dots and had no more problems.

[Excaliber]

Before you fall in love with a particular bullet, usually because you read somewhere that Billy Joe Bob [last name redacted for PERSEC], retired Delta SEAL sniper ace fighter pilot used nothing else, and only a wimp or a pimp would think of using anything else, have a look at your pistol's owners manual to see what the manufacturer suggests.

I had a bunch of 147 gr. rounds for my 226. After all, I had been told that SEALs used those in the Hush Puppies, silenced pistols used to take out guard dogs. Well, I kept having a variety of issues with those in my P7M8. One day, I was perusing the owners manual and guess what? HK says the pistol was designed to fire 124-125 gr. rounds. I started using Speer 124 gr. Gold Dots and had no more problems.

Another good example of "when all else fails, and only as a last resort, read the directions."

[ScottDLS]

147 gr are subsonic. Ideal if using a silencer, since you don't get the supersonic crack downrange. Ideal in subguns. They seem to shoot fine out of my 92FS and sig P226 too,

[ELB]

Winchester 127gr +P+ Ranger or 124gr Gold Dots, whichever I have/can get and have tested in my pistol lately.

Lucky Gunner has a very nice presentation of data they collected shooting a bunch of different rounds in .380ACP, 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. In their words:

We fired five rounds of each self-defense load using short-barreled pistols positioned 10 feet from a Clear Ballistics synthetic gelatin block with a four-layer heavy clothing barrier placed in front of it. The first shot of every test was filmed with a high speed camera, and we took high resolution photos of the gelatin blocks after the first and fifth shots of each load. We measured penetration depth and later, we recovered the fired bullets from the gelatin blocks, measured their diameter, and took additional photos.

Here’s a little more on how and why we set up our test this way...

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-de ... tic-tests/

They ran all the tests with short-barreled semi-autos, as they felt this is more representative of what people are buying and carrying. The longest barrel used was 3.64" in a Kahr chambered for 45.ACP.

The not only give you "the numbers" but they have excellent photographs and videos, and very well done comparison charts. Worth a serious look.