Best 9mm Ammo for Self Defense and Concealed Carry (Top 3)

If you’re reading this article then you’re most likely looking for high quality 9mm ammunition for self defense. This sounds easier than you might think, as there are thousands of different rounds on the market, and the internet is awash with conflicting and downright incorrect information. This article is going to cut through all that nonsense and provided some valuable research on the best 9mm ammo for self defense. Once you understand the mechanics behind the 9mm cartridge, you’ll be able to choose the best round for your needs. Keep reading for more.

If you’ve read any of my other articles, like my 9mm vs 40 S&W, or 9mm vs .357 Sig, you’ll recall that I always point out that there is no magical round that will guarantee a one shot stop, even if you include long guns in that equation.

Your skill with your self defense firearm is what matters the most. This can only be obtained through training, and practice. As such, I recommend you find a reputable trainer for some in person coaching. Alright, now that I’m off of my soap box, let’s take a quick overview of the best 9 mm ammo for self defense.

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Best 9mm Ammo for Self Defense Overview

• 9mm hollow point ammo is always a better choice for self defense than full metal jacket
• Bullet speed and bullet weight are key for determining efficacy
• Over penetration is just as bad as under penetration
• Regardless of ammo chosen you will most likely need to fire 2-4 rounds quickly and accurately
• You must verify your round works in your firearm with a solid testing session

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Now that we’ve covered some of the basic information, let’s go over a few key pieces of information. Once you understand the basics of wound mechanics, you’ll be able to determine for yourself which round meets your needs for self defense, and carry ammo.

We all know that good quality self defense ammunition can be costly. That’s why I recommend doing the majority of your live fire training with quality training ammo. Check out this article where I cover the 5 Best Budget Ammo Brands for Range Training. Trust me, you’ll save a bundle.

Terminal Wound Ballistics in Handguns

There are only two ways any bullet creates injury in humans. The first method is the mechanical crushing and tearing, caused by the bullet passing through human tissue. This is called the permanent wound channel. You will find this type of wounding in both rifle and handgun bullets.

The second method is the temporary displacement, and disruption of soft tissue. This temporary wound cavity is created by high pressures forming a wave behind the bullet. This generally occurs from higher velocity rifle ammunition. Such displacement can cause huge disruption in a human body. This is why rifle rounds are more lethal than handgun calibers. Don’t believe me, check this chart out.

This chart comes from my article where I analyzed 1800 self defense shootings to determine which calibers had the best stopping power. It depicts the percentage of encounters that were resolved with only one round fired. This is defined as the aggressor either fleeing, or stopping his actions due to incapacitation.

It’s easy to see the general trend. Bigger, more powerful rounds work better. This is why shotguns are an excellent choice, as are rifles. Handguns are less effective, in this metric, because they have less overall mass than a shotgun round, and they have much less velocity than a rifle round. This leads us to our next question. What is handgun stopping power?

What is Handgun Stopping Power?

There are only three ways that a violent encounter can be resolved with a firearm. The first is when the aggressor flees due to the fear of death. It might happen by simply brandishing the weapon, or it might happen as a result of being shot by said firearm. These are called a psychological stops.

The second way is due to systematic organ failure, as a result of blood loss. This process can take a few minutes or a few hours. It isn’t a quick process. Anyone who’s been in a gunfight can tell you that a few seconds can feel like a lifetime!

The last method is incapacitating someone via their central nervous system. Most commonly, this is a head or spine hit. This, like the blood loss stop, is a mechanical stop.

If you read my article where I analyzed criminal actions in robberies, and shootings, you’ll know that the psychological stop is most common. Occasionally you’ll see an immediate incapacitation, and rarely you’ll have a video of an aggressor stopping due to blood loss. Blood loss stops often occur minutes or hours later. Also, don’t forget to join the email list below.

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9mm Luger Overview

The 9mm round (9mm parabellum) is one of the most popular rounds, for good reason. It’s been in existence for over a hundred years, and is used by law enforcement agencies and militaries around the world. That being said, just because it’s a popular pistol cartridge doesn’t mean it’s the best to win a gun fight.

I wrote an article a few months ago, where I summarized the data for over 1800 gunfights. In the most general of terms, long guns performed better, and larger handgun calibers tended to perform better as well. Take a look at this video.

This video shows the percentage of shootings where a bad guy was shot, and immediately stopped their actions. We can clearly see that shotguns and rifles are working well, as are 44 magnums (a good thing for Dirty Harry Fans). The general trend is that smaller bullets have a lower chance of stopping someone after one shot. It’s clear 9mm rounds have about a 34% chance of stopping an aggressor with just one shot. Now let’s take a look at the best performing 9mm cartridge.

Best Performing 9mm Ammunition

All of this information is going to come from Lucky Gunner. They have an excellent database for nearly all popular handgun rounds. I highly recommend you check out their website, as they cover the most important things you need to make a good ammo choice. They follow the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) testing protocols and provide high speed video of the rounds shot in ballistic gel tests. They also mimic shooting someone in heavy clothing by covering the gel blocks with garments.

Based on what we know of terminal ballistics, we should favor high energy bullets in 9mm, that expand the widest. It needs to do all of this while still penetrating 12-18 inches (FBI standard) of calibrated ballistics gel. Given these test criteria, I’ve selected three high performing rounds which we’ll discuss in depth below. Check out this chart for a quick overview of the top 3 best 9mm ammunition choices for self defense.

Remington Golden Saber +P 124 gr

The Remington Golden Saber 124 grain +P round has been around for a little while for good reason. It is one of the highest performing rounds in 9mm. Because it’s a lighter bullet (124 gr), it strikes a nice balance between bullet speed and overly deep penetration. It’s average 5 shot velocity is 1162 ft/s, which gives this round 372 ft/lbs of kinetic energy. This is near the top of the range for 9mm ammunition.

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Critically, this round expands to almost double its original diameter, with a measured .66 inch expansion diameter. If you take the energy force in ft/lbs, dividid by the energy, you can develop the amount of terminal pressure the target experiences.

In the case of the Remington Golden Saber, that comes to ft/lbs per inch of expanded diameter. You won’t find this metric in any other literature, as it’s a bit of napkin math I’ve come up with as terminal performance metric. The goal is to determine how much energy the assailant would experience from one round of this ammunition. Next let’s move on to my favorite 124-grain bullet.

Federal HST +P 124 gr

The Federal HST +P 124 gr round is the top performing 9mm self-defense ammo. It has the highest muzzle velocity, at 1172 ft/s. It also features the highest energy at 378 ft/lbs of energy. These factors alone make it your best option in hollow point ammunition. Watch the ballistic gelatin test video, and you’ll see that it actually makes a decent sized temporary expansion cavity, similar to a high speed rifle round.

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Using our napkin math from above, we can see that this round does generate 582 foot pounds per inch of terminal pressure. This is the pressure the target would experience, and it’s the highest of these three rounds. The only down side is this round does tend to penetrate past the 18 inch gel test limit. That is something to consider if you plan on using this round. Now, let’s talk about a little heavier round.

Winchester Ranger T-Series 147 gr

If you look at the Winchester Ranger T- Series 147 gr on paper you might think that it’s sub par, compared to the previous two offerings. That might be true if we only consider the numbers. Remember, high energy rounds generate a lot of force, back into the hand. As you’ll see, this round might be a little easier to shoot. This might make it your best option for lighter, smaller handguns, where less recoil can really matter.

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This 9mm bullet expanded to .74 inches, and all 5 rounds showed the same level of reliable expansion. It develops 289 ft/lbs of energy at 941 ft/s. This is obviously less than the others, but this defensive ammo does expand to an amazing .74 inches. Given these metrics, it generates 389 ft/lbs per inch of terminal pressure.

This is a perfect example of a round performing worse on paper, and yet, it might be the perfect choice for you. If you feel like this round is easier to shoot and generates less felt recoil, then it might be your best 9mm ammo for self defense.

Next, let’s talk about my favorite three handguns, chambered in 9mm. I’ve included choices that are appropriate for duty use, concealed carry, as well as personal defense. Check out the next section for my recommendations.

The Top 3 Handguns in 9mm

This list is by no means exhaustive, as there are thousands of options to choose from. These are three great options in 9mm. They all have tremendous reputations for reliability, and are consistently some of the most purchased 9mm pistols on the market. Follow the links below, or click on the images to learn more about each pistol.

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3 Best 9mm Handguns for Self Defense and Concealed Carry

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These guns have all been around for many years, and have bullet proof reliability. They can handle any +P load that is commercially available. I’ve done reviews on the Heckler and Koch VP9, and the Sig Sauer P365. You can read those for all the data you want.

If you need just one do it all 9mm handgun, then you can’t go wrong with the Glock 19. If you want a great concealed carry gun, then the Sig 365 is your go to. The HK VP9 is best for home defense and other applications where compact 9mm pistols aren’t needed.

Next we’ll cover some practical considerations for those that want to be most effective for home defense, and tactical use. Remember, just because something looks great on paper, doesn’t mean that it’s always best for your personal circumstances.

9mm Ammo Penetration in Houses

If you read my article on handgun average penetration depth through walls, you’ll recall that most folks are often surprised that 9mm pistols actually go as far through walls as high powered rifles do. This is because handgun bullets travel at about half the velocity rifle rounds do.

This means that when rifle rounds hit an object at this speed, the bullet experiences much more pressure. Consequently, it is more likely to break up, compared to a pistol round. You can often recover pistol slugs that have barely any deformation what so ever, if they’re shot into something like wood or drywall. This is what we’re going to cover in the next section.

Handgun Penetration Through Walls: Large Caliber Handguns (9mm-.45)

Right off the bat, we notice that velocities are higher across the board, as is bullet weight. The speciality rounds are still penetrating around 6 inches of dry wall, and the more traditional bullets are averaging between 10-12 inches of dry wall penetration. Keep in mind, 12 inches of dry wall sheeting is 12 walls worth of dry wall. This means that if the bullet hit nothing more serious than drywall, it would go through at least 6 rooms!

Large caliber handgun rounds also penetrate through pine board between 8-12 inches, and are averaging around 6-8 inches for normal, non speciality rounds. Remember that a bullet going through 12 inches of pine board is roughly equivalent to it penetrating 3 studs, shot edgewise. That’s a lot of energy!

If we based our self-defense ammunition selection only off of handgun penetration through walls, we might be forced to choose some odd safety slug rounds, or a .22. Needless to say, those would not be a good choice against a human attacker or attackers. As you’ll see in the next section, most common self-defense situations involve more than one assailant.

Self Defense Scenario Data

Most people have a very unrealistic idea of a self defense scenario. This is mainly due to movies that provide entertainment, and very little factual info. I highly recommend you check out my article on 11 Research Based Concealed Carry Tips.

In this article I examined 30 self defense engagements for key traits to determine exactly how we should be training, and what kind of hardware we need to be carrying. While we can’t review all that information in this section I will highlight some key points.

First, you must be able to shoot quickly and accurately at a man sized target within 3-5 yards. You also need to be able to engage multiple targets, in a self-defense shooting. Many of the videos I examined featured 2 or more assailants. This means you need to pick 9mm ammo that is easy to shoot quickly. You also need to pick a handgun that allows you to carry at least 8 rounds of ammo or more.

We know from the data above that each engagement is likely to result in 2-3 rounds being shot at one target. If there are two assailants, that 6 rounds gone there. We also have data from police shootings that most officers are only 30% accurate in a real world engagement. Don’t believe me check this article out.

That means we need to leave some spare magazine capacity for misses. I don’t care what kind of Jason Bourne, John Wick shooter you are, you are likely to miss with some of your rounds in a real world shooting. The last thing you want is to run dry!

Now that you have some great concrete tips for self defense, and some awesome options for the best 9mm ammo, let’s wrap this article up.

Final Thoughts

We’ve covered a lot of information in this article so let’s take some time to summarize the key points. First, your training, and personal skill with your firearm matter. I highly recommend trying the Tier Three Tactical Pistol Standards, so you can get an accurate snap shot of your current skill level.

Next, you need to maintain that proficiency. You should be doing some live fire training every 2-4 weeks at a minimum. If really want to shoot well, you need to dry fire too. Once this is accomplished, you can then start to worry about the minutia of the best 9mm ammo for self defense.

Shot placement matters, so I recommend you try out several different types of rounds to see what you feel best shooting. Once you make your decision, make sure that it works reliably in your pistol. You need to fire at least 100-200 rounds of your defensive ammo through your gun, without malfunction before you should use it. If you have any questions or comments then put them below. Now get out there and get training!

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