Cheapest carry ammo you have carried?

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TimSr - “Raising the price of the ammo does not make it more effective.”
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The OP didn't inquire about effectiveness, but since it is related I want to address your statement.

Spending money on research and development and coming up with a hollow point filler that assures the bullet will expand, even going through heavy clothing when others don’t, and building a quality cartridge raises the price of this ammo and makes it more effective.

Me, my wife and daughter all agree that I'm worth more than a wad cutter. But if you and your family are comfortable with wadcutters then by all means go with it.
 
you sure about that?.....

say you are walking down an public alley way at 1:00 am......you trip and hurt your ankle on a pile of construction equipment a crew left there......all of a sudden you see someone coming at you with a large pipe, you cant run away because you hurt your ankle......so you yell at the guy to stop or youll shoot.....he continues to walk towards you......you draw your gun and fire and kill him.

good shot right?....well no.....

turns out the guy was a construction worker working late.......hes mostly deaf and partially blind, so he didnt see or hear you......and he wasnt coming at you with a pipe.....he was carrying construction debris to the pile you just tripped over........

but how could you have known?.....hell, most reasonable people wouldnt be expecting someone to be working so late......and if you see someone walking at you with a pipe, you can assume theyd mean you harm.
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What a goofy, convoluted impossible scenario. A deaf, blind construction worker still on the job at 1:00 AM. :banghead:

To the OP I have carried everything from solid 22 LR rounds, round nose lead, hand loads with SWC bullets in a 38 special to high dollar SD factory loads. Like a poster here on this forum says, that no matter if you are being shot with a hollow point or a FMJ you are still being shot. Put the bullet where it goes and you should be OK. And don't stop with just one.
 
When I was 21 I briefly carried WWB JHP

amlevin said:
If you ever have to shoot in self defense you're either totally in the right or totally in the wrong .
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lol, no

The real world often (usually?) does not work in such black and white absolutes.
 
I prefer Federal HST for autos, but my .38 stays stocked with standard Winchester 125gr SJHP. I'd go with the old 158gr SWCHP if I could find any priced right.
Why? It's a lightweight frame, and I've had the stouter XTP and PDX1 in +P flavors jump crimp and bind it up, if I'm firing fast and point-aimed like I would in a frantic defense situation.
Sometimes it even gets my basic mid-velocity hard-lead 158gr SWC, if I'm carrying it out in the wild, because of the wildlife. I'm not worried about the solid hard lead getting through a gator skull.
 
After emptying my carry gun at the range for a test of actual carry after an interval of xxx usage (gets longer each time until exceeds a year) I come home with it loaded with my reloads. It gets cleaned and re-loaded with my factory carry load when I get home.
 
I have carried WWB JHPs in both 9mm and .45.

Why?

Because at the time it was the most accurate ammunition (In both cases, out of a Glock 17 and Glock 21SF, three shots off the bench touching at 25 yards) that I tested, even beating out finely tuned handloads.

They will work in a pinch :).

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
I carried a CZ52 with Bulgarian surplus steel jacketed FMJ's more than a few times.

It was the only pistol I had, and it was the only ammo I could get.

I think it was maybe $.10 a round at the time or something ridiculous like that.
 
rswartsell said:
Black Hills 148 gr wc .38 spl. sometimes end up in my Colt DS. Doesn't bother me a bit.

Wanna catch one?
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Do you want to catch a .22 pellet from my air rifle? Do you want to catch a .22 short? A paintball to the face?

I'm betting not.

Not wanting to be shot with something in no way means it is a good choice for self defense.
 
True,

But Black Hiis is consistent, and a little cylindrical wadcutter will penetrate better than expected. A surprisingly good choice when compared to the high dollar high tech. Speer Gold Dots are my favorites but people do tend to get carried away with what is actually necessary.

YMMV:D
 
Do you want to catch a .22 pellet from my air rifle? Do you want to catch a .22 short? A paintball to the face?
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I always like "I wouldn't want to get sprayed in the face with cat piss doesn't make a squirt gun so filled a good SD weapon.
but people do tend to get carried away with what is actually necessary.
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Well prognosticator, please enlighten me as to what exactly will be necessary in my future SD scenario.
 
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My own cast 148 grain wadcutters in .38 special have been in my carry gun a few times. I think they cost around $3 per box to load up.

People can argue as they may about the effective nature of the round but it has killed a lot of animals. Back when .38 special was a common police round, it killed a lot of bad guys as well.
 
You know...it occurred to me that when I bought my Colt 1991A1 way back in 1991, I bought and shot a ton of reloads from the LGS. $6 for a boc of 50 .45 ACP. Bring back the empty brass and you got a dollar off. So for a while, I was buying .45 ACP for $5 a box.

And yes...I carried that for a while.
 
Warp said:
Any particular reason you don't opt for objectively-superior JHP bullet design?
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Depends on what you consider "superior". The ER docs and ME's can't really tell much difference in wound tracks.
rswartsell said:
True,

But Black Hiis is consistent, and a little cylindrical wadcutter will penetrate better than expected. A surprisingly good choice when compared to the high dollar high tech. Speer Gold Dots are my favorites but people do tend to get carried away with what is actually necessary.

YMMV:D
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That, and hollowpoints are an iffy proposition in .38SPL snubs anyway. Most ballistic tests show little if any expansion.

The biggest advantage to SD hollowpoints is that they mitigate overpenetration. That's the Only reason I carry them. I quit believing the myth of "superior" performance a long time ago....
 
"The biggest advantage to SD hollowpoints is that they mitigate overpenetration. That's the Only reason I carry them. I quit believing the myth of "superior" performance a long time ago...."
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Did you ever give any thought to the fact that hollow point ammo expands and creates greater resistance in the tissue and thus "mitigates over penetration" IS superior performance? Not to mention the superior performance of creating a bigger permanent wound channel causing a greater chance of exsanguination. And how about the superior performance by Hornady’s development of a hollow point filler that assures that the bullet will expand, even when going through heavy clothing even when other JHPs don’t ?
 
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seeker_two said:
Depends on what you consider "superior". The ER docs and ME's can't really tell much difference in wound tracks.

That, and hollowpoints are an iffy proposition in .38SPL snubs anyway. Most ballistic tests show little if any expansion.

The biggest advantage to SD hollowpoints is that they mitigate overpenetration. That's the Only reason I carry them. I quit believing the myth of "superior" performance a long time ago....
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I consider superior to be superior.

I was directly responding to the post I quoted when I asked that, which was talking about ammo loaded into a Glock 19...has nothing at all to do with a snub .38.

There's no myth here.
 
Whatever the Army issues, didn't cost me a dime :D

ETA That should be "Whatever the Army issued" I've been out a long time
 
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Cheapest carry ammo used and still use is Federal 9mm 115gr JHP +P+ surplus Law Enforcement ammo. Have got it as cheap as $14.98 a box of 50.
 
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