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10 Great Defense Loads for the 9 mm

After extensive gel and barrier testing, I made the switch from JHP's to Black Hills Honey Badger 125 grain Subsonic for my EDC 9mm's (3" barrels) and the 60 grain in .380 (2.75" barrel). These rounds were reengineered by Black Hills and Lehigh working together specifically for these shorter barreled pistols. The 9mm 100 grain +P loads were just too hot and over penetrated. Too many failures to expand from the very popular JHP's I was carrying and accuracy improved across the board. Do your own testing and pick what your gun works best with. All my EDC 9mm's and my .380 out performed what I was carrying previously but, your results may dictate another choice. Will test a couple boxes of Punch for each EDC when it's available at a decent price. Always looking for a better round when my life is on the line.

Edit to correct auto-correct and to add last sentence.
 
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Lock n' Load said:
After extensive gel and barrier testing, I made the switch from JHP's to Black Hills Honey Badger 125 grain Subsonic for my EDC 9mm's (3" barrels) and the 60 grain in .380 (2.75" barrel). These rounds were reengineered by Black Hills and Lehigh working together specifically for these shorter barreled pistols. The 9mm 100 grain +P loads were just too hot and over penetrated. Too many failures to expand from the very popular JHP's I was carrying and accuracy improved across the board. Do your own testing and pick what your gun works best with. All my EDC 9mm's and my .380 out performed what I was carrying previously but, your results may dictate another choice. Will test a couple boxes of Punch for each EDC when it's available at a decent price. Always looking for a better round when my life is on the line.

Edit to correct auto-correct and to add last sentence.
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The only problem with gel tests and the honey Badger type rounds?

Gel was only designed to measure two things; expansion and penetration. Using gel to measure anything else—like temporary cavity (“cavitation”) damage—is misusing the medium.

Which is why I look askance at any gel test for those rounds that try to use those factors as “proof” of the round’s effectiveness.

ETA:

Carry what you like—I’m not saying you shouldn’t carry them. But I am saying you might want to look deeper into the testing process, and what gel is and isn’t capable of measuring.
 
Thanks Hans! I'll check on it, although I was impressed with the barriers I tested (bare gel, denim, plywood, auto glass, and auto sheet metal) as far as penetration is concerned. If it weren't for the the JHP failures to expand at the rate they did (20%-40% in 5 round groups with over penetration), I probably wouldn't have switched.

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KLGunner said:
Have you ran any Honey Badger rounds personally? I have and compared to normal JHP’s I prefer the Honey Badger rounds. However my personal all time favorite round is Federal HST all the way.
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I haven’t, and I see no need to.

I don’t buy the hype with them; they just seem to be very the latest iteration of the “game changer” round that turns out to be more marketing than performance.

Don’t see them doing anything that a proven JHP won’t do better.

As I’ve said elsewhere—if these were anywhere near as good as advertised, you’d see serious professionals using them; LE, .mil...but they aren’t. I suspect there’s a pretty good reason for it.
 
HansGruber said:
I haven’t, and I see no need to.

I don’t buy the hype with them; they just seem to be very the latest iteration of the “game changer” round that turns out to be more marketing than performance.

Don’t see them doing anything that a proven JHP won’t do better.

As I’ve said elsewhere—if these were anywhere near as good as advertised, you’d see serious professionals using them; LE, .mil...but they aren’t. I suspect there’s a pretty good reason for it.
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Relatively new to the market is one reason for them not being in some of those places. Military is strictly prohibited from using anything but ball ammunition so they aren’t allowed there. Most police forces are made to use a JHP or a ball ammo due to policies. Also police are encouraged to shoot to disarm not kill so again won’t find them here ether.

That being said let me tell you a little about this particular round. The Honey Badger round produced by Black Hills Ammunition. This round is a frangible round much like the R.I.P round without the legal headache behind it. Each tip of the Honey Badger round breaks off creating its own unique wound track as it spins and tumbles through the body. Underneath those tabs is a core that mushrooms out much like a JHP. They are a lighter weight bullet allowing them to use those tabs on the front of the round to guild them straight through the air till they hit their intended target. The Honey Badger round gives a total of 7 distinct wound tracks and helps you eliminate the threat more effectively then a non frangible JHP. Now I’m not gonna try to sale you on these rounds by any means. Your a smart person and have your own taste. However as far as this round goes don’t knock it till you try it.
 
The honeyBadger look very similar to the Underwood Xtreme Defender ammo i use.
328B0AE1-B26E-4C70-9470-617781DC668F.jpeg
 
KLGunner said:
Actually quite different let me get a picture of the Honey Badger rounds I have for ya. View attachment 17141This one isn’t as clear as I’d personally like it to be. I’ll take a better picture in the morning for ya.

View attachment 17142
Instead I’ll just narrow one from their website.
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The 2 are near identical except the HB has a notch in the side strakes
 
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