Hornady 135gr. Critical Duty

[Ghost Chili]

Being the type of shooter who is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest , I decided to buy a few boxes of Hornady Critical Duty to run through my R9.  Winter is here in MN and the parkas are pretty much here to stay till April.  With the extra clothing to punch through, I felt it may be a good idea to put aside the HSTs and Gold Dots since they have had issues with clogging the HP cavity and failing to expand.  Supposedly the silicone plug in the Critical Duty eliminates that issue.  That and the middle-weight bullet of 135gr. provides what I feel to be a very good balance between weight and velocity - heavy enough to get decent penetration while being light enough to break the 1000fps mark.  The bullet supposedly has a "locking band" that consists of a thicker ring of jacket that locks the core to it and prevents separation.  Not sure how well that compares to a bonded bullet but it sounds like a good idea.

Unfortunately, my local indoor range prohibits chronographs so I was not able to get a speed reading, but my best group measured just under 2" at 7yds using slow aimed shots.  The ammo prints right on point of aim and there were no failures of any sort out of 40 rounds fired.  Recoil feels the same as the 124gr. HSTs and Gold Dots so I imagine velocity is likely at or slightly above 1000fps.  I think this new load will be my ammo of choice for the winter months at least.  I think I am starting to become like my wife and have different things for the changing seasons.  She has a different wardrobe between winter and spring and I have a different selection of ammo.  If only I can make her understand why I need as many guns as she has pairs of shoes....

[Ghost Chili]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZFZFmBKa0

Pretty good gel test of the +P version.  I imagine the standard pressure would attain slightly less expansion, but might have the same depth of penetration.  Lately, I find myself gravitating towards bullets that tend to expand less and penetrate deeper.  I know I have lots of vital squishy parts within 4" of my skin but that doesn't factor in clothing (especially winter clothing) and big fat guys (or big fat guys who wear a lot of clothing).

[scar2783]

Thanks for the info. Good to know that the CD functions well in the R9. I carry the Critical Defense in mine and it fires perfectly as well.

Mark

[C0untZer0]

The 147gr Winchester Ranger T - RA9T hasn't had issues with clogging or failure to expand that I've ever heard of or seen documented.

Very consistent expansion and penetration in the FBI tests and the 4-denim engineering evaluation tool.

I'm not sure why you have "breaking the 1000 fps  mark" as a criteria for self defense ammo.

I think part of the reason the Hornady gets decent penetration is that the petals fold back  - they don't bloom or unfold the way the Gold Dots do.  If you want to see how a Gold Dot can really mushroom out take a look at TNOUTDOORS test fo the Underwood ammo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMiI8VcPQ3c

No matter how fast the Hornady CD goes - it's just not going to mushroom out like that, the petals fold back to the core and the bullet is not going to get that much bigger than .52".

[Ghost Chili]

I do not make 1000fps an absolute requirement in selecting carry ammo, but it is highly preferable for a round to make or exceed that benchmark for me.  It probably is a mental carryover from the days when I used to carry smaller calibers and velocity was a significant issue - either you got enough to expand the bullet or you didn't.  With the 9mm, it seems the caliber throws a bullet that is both heavy enough and fast enough to allow reliable expansion and penetration in a wider range of of speeds and weights.  Old habits die hard....

Whether Gold Dots, Rangers, HSTs, or Critical Dutys, I think any of these rounds ought to do the job if we do ours.  It's just the tinkerer geek in me that keeps me on the prowl for new shiny things to play with. 

[darkwaterkid]

When Hornady released the 9mm version of Critical Defense a few years ago, it looked like it might be a great option for my R9s. I bought a box, and boy did they cycle smoothly for me... I did have a failure to fire in that first box, but "maybe it was just me". So, I bought a couple hundred rounds for a more thorough test.

When the new batch arrived the FTFs continued; never less than 10%, and often much worse. I pulled the R9s trigger a second time for most of these, and that almost never got the round to fire. Ejecting, rechambering, and then pulling the trigger did generally work, however. The firing pin indentations on the primers looked fairly reasonable to me, perhaps a little on the light side of normal, and my gun didn't have this problem with any other ammo I tried. Conversely, CDs fired reliably in my full-sized pistols.

Around the same time I started reading here that mine was not an isolated case. Other users took it farther than me and followed up with Hornady and Rohrbaugh, and reported that Hornady was having trouble sourcing primers and that some batches were harder than others.

I was (and continue to be) unwilling to roll those dice. I really wanted to like CD, but Hornady's apparent willingness to accept such inconsistency makes it impossible to determine whether a given round will be suitable for a given gun; even if a few boxes to work reliably, how will boxes from the next lot fare?

Is there any reason to believe Critical Duty will be more consistent than Critical Defense?

[tracker]

No.

[Richard S]

About three years ago I purchased some Hornady ammunition in .357 Magnum for my IMI Timber Wolf because it was the only ammunition in that caliber in stock in the store in which I found myself that day. Since then, I have given the ammo to a friend for range practice with his Ruger Redhawk.

[Reinz]

Well if that Ruger didn't light up those CD's, nothing will.