115 vs 124 grain ammo

[KevinS53190]

I just bought a M & P shield 9mm 2.0 just two weeks ago wondering what ammo is better 115 grain or 124 grain.....I have 117 grain JHP for home defense

 

[Jessie]

Mainly personal preference Kevin. It’s best to get a box of each, 115-124 and 147 grain and see which weight shoots best from your gun.
I use 124 but that’s me and it means little to anyone else.
Welcome aboard and happy 4th!

 

[sparkyvega]

Middlin' to heavies for me...like Jessie said, personal preference.

 

[jbtrucker]

Hope you are able to find ammo to shoot ,115 gr is the cheapest. I bought 124 gr whenever on sale my old 9mm Shield cycles both just fine.

 

[Driswalds]

The best ammo for you is the one the cycles your firearm and you can make consistent hits on target.

 

[ContinentalOp]

Personal preference. Mine is for medium-to-heavy, 124-147. I use 147gr HST for carry and Speer Lawman TMJ for practice. Most important things are that it's reliable and you can shoot it well.

 

[Turq]

I use Winchester 9mm Nato 124 gr on the range. It works fine for me...I bought a bunch of it when it was very reasonably priced.

 

[swsig]

I have over 5,000 rounds through my 1.0 Shield 9, and the most accurate range ammo BY FAR for my Shield is Winchester NATO 124 grain. Best of all, it's inexpensive.

 

[Scharfschuetzer]

Just to muddy the water a bit... There are also 90 grain and 147 grain bullets that at one time were both very popular.

The 90 grain bullets never appealed to me, but I shoot a lot of cast 147 grain bullets sized to .358" in both my 9mm and 38/357 handguns. Groups will usually hover around 2" at 25 yards for 12 shots.

In the end though, the 9mm is probably best suited to either the 115 or 124 grain projectiles for either service or target shooting.

 

[Marshal Tom]

Shoot 115gr most of the time as a practice/training round and 147 HST in all my 9mm's for carry. All of them work fine in my guns.

 

[MyDads38]

I shoot all weights in all my 9's-115, 124 and 147 gr. They all shoot/function fine. I carry 147 gr. Hornady CUSTOM XTP JHP for self defense in my 1.0 Shield 9mm.

 

[Dahak]

Take a mag of your self-defense rounds and shoot from a rest or some other stable point and figure out where they hit (hopefully point of impact = point of aim), then shoot some of the different weights using the same set up and same point of aim, whichever is closest to your SD rounds' point of impact would be the ones I would use for practice.

 

[robertrwalsh]

Pick up one each of 115, 124 and 147 and see what your gun likes and what shoots best to the point of aim. Personally I prefer the 124 but that's just me.

 

[rwsmith]

I prefer 124 grains.......

...and I like to shoot 147 grains. But I just never liked 115 grains. Just like I never shoot 110 grain bullets in my .38/.357s.

 

[mike from st pete]

124 grain for me.

 

[Ziggy2525]

My preference is 147 gr Federal HST for carry ammo and 147 gr Speer Lawman TMJ for range. IME, at the range, there’s a minor difference between POA/POI between different weights, but not enough to matter from a self defense standpoint. Good luck finding 9mm ammo.

 

[rockster`]

115gr practice ammo, 147gr carry ammo.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[RobzGuns]

For me, in my 4" and 3" barreled pistols, 124gr seems to have less perceived snap than 115gr. This less snap equates to less muzzle flip, therefore, better grouping (for me).

Many probably don't notice any appreciable difference between the two, but my 67y/o arthritic wrist does.

 

[sotexas]

I use Freedom Munition 124gr JHP at the range and carry 124gr HST except in my Walther PPS M2 which prefers Barnes Tac XPD 115gr+P or the Black Hills 115gr+P

 

[ajgunner]

I normally load and shoot 115gr coated lead because it is cheaper and they all make the same "DING" when they hit a steel target. This morning when I went shopping for replacement lead, I found a better buy on 125gr. Sooooo, guess what I will be loading and shooting in the near future.