Choosing The Right Compact Pistol Load

It seems like any online or social media chat regarding compact carry pistols reveals widely varying opinions about the “best” option. That also holds true for the ammo you feed that gun, as choices abound nowadays.

For example, Speer offers many loads in several calibers for compact defense pistols in its Gold Dot, Gold Dot Short Barrel and Gold Dot Carry Gun lines. Scrolling through all those cartridges might prompt some shooters to wonder which ammo is right for their pistol. Jim Gilliland, a competition shooter and retired U.S. Army first sergeant, says the decision should boil down to performance.

“It has to be as accurate as possible,” he says. “You are trusting your life and everyone else’s life on the ability you have to affect your target. Right behind that, you want a bullet that has enough power to go deep enough into your target, and you want it designed properly so it opens up completely and has the biggest primary wound channel possible. And a lot of factors go into that.”

Clothing Connection

Gilliland says he typically assesses bullet performance by shooting into ballistics gelatin, but with a critical addition: a layer of clothing.

“You don’t always shoot naked people,” he says with a laugh. “With just a regular hollow-point bullet, a lot of times we found it would cut the clothing inside the hollow point, fill up with material and essentially become a ball round as it travels through. But now, manufacturers have engineered bullets in a way that no matter how much the hollow-point fills up, it still mushrooms out. You’re trying to get all the energy possible and stop that bullet inside the target. That delivers all the energy in the target and opens up as big as possible.”

Some shooters might be tempted to choose a defense round based on metrics such as muzzle velocity. But again, Gilliland says how the bullet performs in your gun is more important.

“Bullet performance is just as if not more important than the actual speed that you’re shooting a bullet,” he says. “How the bullet is constructed matters just as much if not more than speed.” Of course, finding the best performing bullet requires substantial range time, but that’s something Gilliland recommends anyway. When testing his current compact defense pistol choice, the 30 Super Carry, he fired more than 500 rounds through it before carrying the gun. He knew it would perform.

“I would never carry a gun that I didn’t have at least a flawless box of ammo through,” he says. And I will never carry a cartridge that I have not shot. You can shoot whatever you want as practice ammo, but you must shoot your carry ammo. It’s so important. It’s expensive, and I understand that. But you’re trusting your life to this ammo. You can have the absolute greatest bullet ever designed, but if it does not work in your gun, it’s worthless.”

Put In Your Time

Likewise, that range time builds confidence and familiarity with your carry gun—something that’s critical should you have to use it.

“You have to handle your firearm,” Gilliland says. “You have to be comfortable with it. You have to carry it regularly. You have to do drills with it. You must be able to fully understand and use your gun. The more you put your hands on them and use them, the more you practice with them and the more comfortable with them you become, the more you’re going to be comfortable and competent when you actually use it.”