You’ve got to love the “errornet” and all the myths that abound. A good one has to do with selecting premium defensive ammunition.
The big bang theory
About the only thing you want guaranteed in your choice is the fact that it will go bang each and every time you pull the trigger and that goes for every single round in your magazines. End of story, the blog would end here if we could all just agree that most of the premium defense round produce today will do a damn good job as long as you do yours. I took part in a conversation where the folks were arguing over which brand was better and were quick to site various internet forums as the best place to confirm their own opinion.
Choke yourself
Good lord, at that point about the only thing you can do is to literally start choking yourself as I feel like it is the better alternative than to participating in the absurdity of “mine is better” commentary. And that was just an argument about one specific caliber, imagine if they were also arguing about which caliber and which brand were the “best”. Welcome to my world, where often times folks mean well and are doing the best they can, but I also feel like they are not focusing on the ball.
Practical torture test
To focus on the ball would mean to acknowledge their is a hierarchy or a priority scale. The single most important action that must happen first assuming you are justified in using lethal force is the round must be reliable. I mean reliable under perfect and not so perfection conditions. Have you shot the crap out of your gun, failed to clean it then attempted to fire your meat rounds? That too me would be a good function test. Have you predetermined what your standard loadout is and attempted to fire that entire loadout as fast and as safe as humanly possible. You might be surprised by these unconventional conditions, but they probably are better than quoting some obscure fact you dug up on a website.
The buck stops with you
Our modern service pistols we see are pretty darn reliable. I have seen them all fail at one point or another, but given the amount of firearms, ammunition and students we see each year you have got to expect some problems. Before you get all wrapped up in how much expansion your particular flavor of round is quoted as achieving realize that was under near perfect testing conditions. I’m not saying you shouldn’t value these observations, but they should be the sole reason you are picking a round for self defense. Give some thought to the importance of reliability and then realize the only way you are going to determine whether it is reliable in your case is to test it yourself.
Put to the test
You can find plenty of information on the internet, but is it applicable to you and your conditions? Did they test using the same weapon, magazines, maintenance interval, lubrication and finally brand of ammunition. I would guess probably not, which is why I would strongly encourage you to do so yourself. Yes, it costs money and yes it might not be convenient, but the information you take away is priceless. We have students in our Concealed Carry Tactics class shoot the final test using their defensive ammunition of choice. By that part in the class, the guns are filthy so by doing so it will at least give them some valuable information about the reliability of the gun and ammunition.
After all, the next most important factor when looking to perform ballistic negotiations is accuracy. Yours and the round, but that is a story for another time.
