What to feed your carry gun is something you should always be thinking about. The ammo industry, just like the gun industry, changes with time. The stuff you are using from five years ago might not be the best defensive ammo available to you now. This brings us to offerings from Federal and Speer that are geared towards compact carry guns.
Federal Hydra-Shok Deep .380 ACP
What makes Federal’s Hydra-Shok super interesting is that it is the first expanding .380 ACP load that consistently penetrates beyond the FBI-recommended 12-inch minimum. So in other words, it penetrates beyond 12 inches in bare gel and through heavy clothing.
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“It’s a completely new bullet design. We didn’t just take a .45 ACP, .40 S&W or 9mm Hydra-Shok Deep bullet and make it smaller. During development, engineers looked at several design elements such as bullet weight, jacket, skiving, profile, and hollow point design elements determine what modifications were necessary for the 380 Auto,” said Federal Handgun Ammunition Product Manager Chris Laack.
“All that data and research drove us to the 99-grain design, which provided the most consistent performance and balanced a number of key factors,” explained Laack. “Basically, we designed built the best performing bullet possible, and then we weighed it. The final number just happened to land on 99 grains.”
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The Hydra-Shok Deep 99-grain ran in a Ruger LCP II without any problems. The LCP II happily eat all of it. I did find it shot pretty much point of aim with the LCP from 7 yards. Expansion of the Hydra-Shok bullet was impressive. For the Ruger and I, this is our new .380 ACP carry load.
Speer GD Carry Gun 9mm
What might work for your full size pistol, might not be as good for your compact carry gun. “The new Gold Dot Carry Gun takes the idea of the G2 duty bullet and applies it to everyday carry-type firearms.” Laack said. “We took the G2 design and that purpose of working through all those barriers and applied it to compact handguns.”
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Instead of a large hollow-point cavity, it has a shallow dish filled with a high-performance elastomer. On impact, the material is forced into engineered internal fissures to start the expansion process. The result is extremely uniform expansion, better separation of the petals, and more consistent penetration across barrier types. Also the exclusive Gold Dot construction eliminates core/jacket separation.
Speer’s 135-grain Gold Dot Carry Gun HP 9mm ran like a champ in a Zev OZ9c. I found the recoil to pleasantly controllable. Double taps were quick and making steel sing all day long. I like the fact that ammo companies are looking at the market and providing consumers what they need.
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