I was a working street officer when the so-called Miami FBI situation took place, as well as the North Hollywood situation. Both these incidents rocked law enforcement to its foundations and gave pause to what we might encounter in our daily patrol functions. There was also the Newhall Incident that was a few years before I started in law enforcement. All of these were tragic incidents that led to a self examination by many departments as to tactics and equipment. The after-action investigations were typical and had the expected results. Blame ran all over the place and many officers were left wondering about not only their department training for these events, but their equipment as well. It would be many more years unfortunately before law enforcement learned from these events and made some serious changes. I could go on and on, but you get the point I hope.
After all is said and done regarding choice of ammunition for a given firearm and with old age rapidly approaching for me I have come to realize that the most powerful ammunition isn't the problem, it's being able to hit what I need to hit. The most effective load or bullet in existence isn't going to help you one bit if you can't hit your adversary who is no doubt shooting at you, or threatening to do so. I don't carry a revolver anymore and my weapon of choice for concealed carry is a 9mm or .380. Now neither one may be the best in ballistic effectiveness, but I shoot them the best and consistently hit what I am shooting at. I am more concerned these days with first strike capabilities and putting a .38 caliber sized hole in the bad guy than if I am using an ultra-powerful load. 9 inches or 16 inches of penetration with double caliber bullet expansion is secondary to hitting my target. Head shots are great "IF" you can make them 100% of the time otherwise you are wasting ammunition. I still train primarily for center mass hits.
The best advice I could give to the OP is shoot whatever ammunition you can find in your home country and select the one you shoot best and most consistently with. Don't worry about three letter alphabet soup loads or loads that have special names attached to them. Use the ammunition you are most proficient with and practice alot with it. If your range allows it, practice moving drills with your chosen ammunition and move to cover or at least concealment. If nothing else a simple post will work for this just practice getting behind it. Good tactics work to your advantage more than ammunition choice. Even going prone can help in a real life shooting situation. Just remember, ammunition selection is just one small piece of the puzzle to survival.
Rick H.
After all is said and done regarding choice of ammunition for a given firearm and with old age rapidly approaching for me I have come to realize that the most powerful ammunition isn't the problem, it's being able to hit what I need to hit. The most effective load or bullet in existence isn't going to help you one bit if you can't hit your adversary who is no doubt shooting at you, or threatening to do so. I don't carry a revolver anymore and my weapon of choice for concealed carry is a 9mm or .380. Now neither one may be the best in ballistic effectiveness, but I shoot them the best and consistently hit what I am shooting at. I am more concerned these days with first strike capabilities and putting a .38 caliber sized hole in the bad guy than if I am using an ultra-powerful load. 9 inches or 16 inches of penetration with double caliber bullet expansion is secondary to hitting my target. Head shots are great "IF" you can make them 100% of the time otherwise you are wasting ammunition. I still train primarily for center mass hits.
The best advice I could give to the OP is shoot whatever ammunition you can find in your home country and select the one you shoot best and most consistently with. Don't worry about three letter alphabet soup loads or loads that have special names attached to them. Use the ammunition you are most proficient with and practice alot with it. If your range allows it, practice moving drills with your chosen ammunition and move to cover or at least concealment. If nothing else a simple post will work for this just practice getting behind it. Good tactics work to your advantage more than ammunition choice. Even going prone can help in a real life shooting situation. Just remember, ammunition selection is just one small piece of the puzzle to survival.
Rick H.
