So as with most gear and firearms, two phrases come to mind; "time and place" and "mission dictates the gear".

For me, at home, my 5.56 load of choice is the 77gr SMK. I know it'll penetrate deep enough in soft tissue, and I am confident of its reduced, though not eliminated, risks in the event of a miss. In that scenario, barrier performance isn't my primary, secondary, or tertiary concern.

On the road, where I end up in the middle of nowhere, barrier performance and portability do become a concern. I have seen drivers go nuts, and more than once I have ended up on the Texas border, watching cartel with AKs 500 meters from my position across the border watching me. I have also seen folks not sure about me, eyeballing me with a BA rifle as old as prohibition. My choice on the road is a Lone Star Armory TX15 Pistol chambered in .300BLK, with an 8.3" barrel and a LAW folder. This combination is small enough to fit in a laptop bag, and can make eye socket shots at 100 meters. My load of choice is the 110gr Hornady GMX, a monolithic bullets with reasonable terminal performance and barrier penetration.


For pistol rounds, nothing changes. 99% of the time I carry 9mm, and my choice is the 147gr Federal HST all day, everyday. If I am at home, I am not concerned about barriers, as I previously mentioned. But when I am out about, I am, again as previously mentioned. I understand that pistol rounds, by their very mechanism of wounding potential, will have a higher risk of overpenetration than that of an intermediate rifle round (IE 5.56). The pistol round pokes holes, so it behooves me to have a hole that goes deep enough to disrupt or destroy vital structures. I want that sucker to stay intact, versus fragmentation from a rifle round. The HST bullet isn't a bonded bullet, so it isn't going to take care of barriers the way a Gold Dot, Ranger Bonded, Barnes X, Federal Tactical Bonded, and the like will, but due to a reverse tapered bullet, they still hold their own. I also like the recoil impulse and return to target capability of 147gr bullets.

There are times when I have to go out on the road and I have to carry discretely. For those times I carry an M&P Shield in 9mm with an Apex kit, and stippling by Lone Star Armory. In those instances, my carry load is still the 147gr Federal HST, but the +P variant. Not because I want or need extra velocity, no, 147gr JHPs of quality design work quite well at sub-compact velocities. Its just that I believe that sub-compact handguns run/function better with slightly higher pressure cartridges. There have been some anecdotal studies to support this theory, but nothing concrete.

There are other rare times I carry a J-frame, like a 640-1 or a 49. In those cases, I have decided that barrier performance, while important is so far down the list as to not exist. I load them with either Remington or Federal 148gr TWCs, with reloads being Speer's 135gr+P Gold Dot. Yes, I carry reloads, and I carry them in Safariland speed loaders. I dont care if my reloads are bulbous. Spare magazines are bulbous. The cylinder of a revolver is bulbous. Cry me a river about how bulky speed loaders are, Hank Williams told me "the Mississippi River is a runnin' dry". Its not that I carry the Gold Dot short barrel offerings for terminal performance sake. Would I prefer they have superior terminal performance? Sure! But a JHP is easier to reload than a. wadcutter... for me.


I'm sorry if I rambled on. I cant sleep. Dont get me started on shotguns, time, place, and gun for buck, slugs, and carrying both buck and slugs.