I am putting in a good word for Black Hills Ammunition, I have had consistent good results across a wide variety of calibers and many decades.

I will disagree here... just on ratio.

For my use (and I suspect a lot of others), you want to put a fair amount of SD ammo through your handgun, just to confirm there won't be any feed issues. So, initially, you will want a decent amount.
Once that's determined, if you are buying ammo (not reloading), I'd say a box of JHP for a case of FMJ. That allows you to shoot and train with the cheaper stuff, while occasionally replenishing the SD ammo.

Think of it like an automobile. Once you determine what oil you will use (the SD ammo), you then spend money on gasoline (the FMJ). You can try different brands of gas, it doesn't make a ton of difference, your car will just keep going. But every so often you change the oil (which costs more per unit, but not used in such high quantity), and you stick to that brand and that weight (just as you should stick to your preferred JHP defensive ammo).

I've got Speer Gold Dot LE FMJ, came across a deal April of 2020 (got a full case for $399!). I keep it stored in an airtight can, and after making sure it would run in my gun of choice, I rarely shoot any. I keep a couple mags full, and around the time I will have shot maybe a case of the cheap range stuff, I probably will shoot those mags off, and reload with more.

If you're a normal civilian shooter, you (like me) will likely never need a full case of good SD ammo over the course of your lifetime. But it's not unusual to shoot at least a case of FMJ in a year.

That makes sense, so maybe 95% plinking S&B with a couple hundred rounds of defense ammo. Shoot 120 a year and keep 80 for carry/defense. That does make sense as its extraordinarily rare to use a firearm in defense.

I probably wouldn't even shoot that much JHP, if we're being honest here

You have been one of my favorite people since joining here! I appreciate the honesty, something we need more of in this World!

I see Phil carries Buffalo Bore in his 642.
If I had some, I wouldn’t mind carrying it in my 642.
But Shooting it?
Not too sure about that!

__________________
NRA LIFE MEMBER

I can't speak to their .357 but their .38 was not as hot as I expected it might be. Grant it, their outdoorsman caused ejector issues for my 686 so I stopped using them. Shot true, and was not nearly as bad on recoil as you might suspect though.

Thinking about trying Speer Gold Dot 135 grain short barrel. They had great expansion, and FBI sweet spot for penetration in LuckyGunner gel test.

Thanks

This is a great site, I find the posters here are both knowledgeable and respectful. I've gleaned a lot of info from them. There's very little of the latest hot thing, and lots of a century's worth of applied knowledge and experience.

What are you slinging your 9mm through? If it's not a 3rd Gen S&W, you need to go pick one of those gems up. Even with today's elevated prices, a used 5906 in nice condition is good value... you won't find another pistol with stainless frame and slide anywhere near the price.

I agree with using a more inexpensive ammo for practice but I always unload AT LEAST one magazine of my EDC ammo. I use a Glock-27 modified to shoot 257SIG.

Ammo has come a long way since I started shooting in the late 50's.

When I was a teenager, the Remington Bronze Point and the Super-X ammo were my go to ammo for my deer hunting ammo as well as Norma, if I could find it.

Today there is "Zillions" of special bullets and Huge fps loads to use for your "normal" 800 yard shots, with the custom rifles of today.

SD ammo and bullets have also opened many doors, to find "Super Duper"
SD ammo that will work, even out of barrels less than 2" in length !!

The only problem is finding it.

To each their own, and I mean no offense.

But once you've confirmed that your defensive ammo runs, I just don't see the point of shooting it off frequently. At short-range distances, you're not going to see a difference in point of impact vs range loads, and if you run a decent full-power FMJ load you're not going to see significant recoil changes either.

Maybe if you get wet or dirty (or otherwise compromise the ammo, potentially), go ahead and use em up and load some more. But just my opinion, in most cases it's just burning money.

This thread got me to thinking about my SD ammo.

Here is a piture of my "New" 9mm SD ammo.

Holly cow...........
it is now over six (6) years old.

Wife carries that in her G43 and G17)

I load for all my guns, so my handloads would be preferred. If we're talking about rimfire, my preference would be CCI. If my only option turned out the be factory Remington, I'd go fishing instead.

This does tend to be good advice...

I like S&B, and it's what I consider to be "best of show" for range use. But that's going to be handgun, 9mm mostly.

I've heard that some of the brands I would normally avoid are really preferred in some revolver calibers, for example. And some brands I respect and wouldn't have issue with, are not so good in some of the wheelguns.

Now, if you're gathering ammo right now- take that with a big grain of salt, and consider yourself lucky to find affordable ammo at all.

If you come across an unknown brand, do some research- we're seeing a lot of stuff that normally doesn't come out over here, because we're importing anything that goes bang.

Just because it's unknown, doesn't make it bad. Mesko for example- it's Polish. I think it's what their military uses. If so, and if it's a military caliber (9mm, 556, 7.62x39 etc), I assume it's pretty high quality. A lot of these central European countries don't make a bunch of recreational ammo, they make stuff "for real", and we're getting some of their surplus in exchange for cold hard US dollars.
Same thing with Belom- I understand it's the Serbian M&P stuff.

Not only available, but affordable. Looking at buying a CZ-75 being sold on here because S&B 9mm is solid stuff and only 300$ for 1,000 rounds. For 1,000 rounds of their .357 its a little over double that and harder to find. Plus the idea of Czech Ammo in a Czech gun just seems right. Although the shiny CZ-75B I want is around 1500$ so I'd have to eat the upfront cost, but may end up being worth it for the reasons you mentioned.

Well after a lot of research 🧐 I went with a bullet I’ve fired in .38 special already and now trusting their .357 in Gold Dot Short Barrel 135 grain.

It came down to Gold Dot Short Barrel and Hornady Critical Defense FTX. I liked the expansion better with Gold Dot, and shot them better in .38 so I want to go with them for .357 magnum now.

Bought 3 boxes of 20. One to practice/sight with, one to load up my revolver and night block with two speed loaders (18 rounds) and one box untouched for my travel Pelican. Don’t anticipate needing any more than that unless heaven forbid I have to use it.

Now I can go back to stockpiling my S&B for range days and have the 60 defense rounds until I need them or they expire. Here’s to hoping neither of those things happen in the roaring 2020’s!