I'm sure plenty of folks use it and trust it, as they should - until they have a reason not to. I had an "interesting" experience with Hornady ammo, and their CS department. Made the switch to Federal HST and haven't looked back.

 

CD is for "Duty" pistols. It needs a long barrel to work as intended. Hornady doesn't specify, but about 4.5 in seems to be the sweet spot for them, and a lot of pistols don't have a 4.5 in barrel.
It might be fine. Many aren't interested in "might" when so many other things could go wrong.
It will dependably send out a round though.

 

I don't think so myself after plenty of Expensive testing. Most have open tips which can and "DO" get clogged with winter clothing and then act precisely like a FMJ round. I plugged my own for ?? years with silicone caulk & then both Hornady came out with CD and my attorney told me Not to carry handloads that I actually preferred to any fact. ammo.

Long story but my attorney told me that the defense lawyer would likely try to say that I was making "Special Extra Deadly" ammo just to go out and want to kill people. He could not be farther than the truth on the last 4 words. I still remember what happened over 40 years ago, Every Day & nothing to brag about :-(
On the extra deadly ammo though, he hit That one right but NOT to go out playing vigilante, just for the best self protection I could make or get "for handguns". I thought THAT was the name of the game, deadliest ammo you could carry BUT the attorneys are there To Convict YOU & some of the juries are downright Stupid ! As with one case I personally know of where the man was convicted of 1st degree murder. However he was charged with using a suppressed .22 rifle from 100+ ft. away. The autopsy showed it was either a .38 or 9mm Plus powder burns around entrance wound behind left ear! From 100+ ft. with a suppressed .22 LR? That Jury convicted him and he's waiting execution on death row now. Has been rotting in there for years now Waiting & Waiting. I'd rather them get it over with myself!

 

It will work fine if you ever need to use it. People put way too much thought into their carry ammo. Any name brand HP should do what you need it to do.

 

the critical duty was designed for full size duty guns and is s barrier blind round meaning it was designed with the fbi’s barrier/gel penetration protocols.. the critical defense version performs well in the glock 43 and is also mild to shoot and accurate. go here to see how it performed with a 3.5” barrel
https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#9mm

 

The Lucky Gunner is 1 of my Fav's. Go there all the time. Valuable information, U'll find it there.

 

I only used Critical Defense 115g and they ran great.
In the end switched defensive ammo to 124 HST's because I found it on sale for cheap

 

I use the CD in my G43. Works just fine.

 

I don't own a 43 but I do carry hornaday critical duty in my Glock26 and my s&w shield 9mm
Absolutely 100% reliable. Imo pretty much any good name brand s.d. ammo will get the job done.

 

I never could really grasped intentionally plugging up a hollow point bullet and expecting it to work. almost all ballistics tests are geared to hoping the hollow point does NOT get plugged by clothing, bone, flesh etc etc.
Having said that they seem to work

 

I've used both in my 43 and never a hiccup. The critical duty is shown to over penetrate a little from the short barrel of the 43, while the critical defense stays inside the FBI's penetration parameters in ballistic gel.

 

I use the duty in my Glock 19 and it works great. Only shot 15 rounds of it. The next 15 rounds hopefully I will never have to discharge as that would mean someone is getting killed.

 

...
Was wanting some onions before I ordered some. ...

White, yellow, red, Vidalia? If you're not looking for anything in particular, Walmart is usually fine for onions. For fresh fruit I recommend a higher end grocery store.

 

Take a look at these tests by luckygunner: https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#standards. As new ammo comes available, they update their testing. They give details about how they test as well as the guns used to produce the results. They may not be the end all tests to end all, but the results are there for you to make a determination as to compare your chosen ammo versus all of the others that were tested.

From the looks of it in the 9mm ammo Hornady Critical Duty doesn't expand well out of a 3.5 inch barrel but many others do.

If you put stock in these results, I would choose a differnet cartridge.

 

My 2 choices in carry ammo are Hornady Critical Defense 115gr
And Federal HST 124gr in my Glock 43......sure they will do their job if I do mine

I carry the HST 147gr in my Walther PPS M2

 

Personally, I'm a Gold Dot guy, but that's just me. If you're curious how well it performs, take a look at the Lucky Gunner ballistic chart. If the results there make you feel comfy, go for it. As an example, I carry 180 gr Gold Dots in my .40 PX4. Thought about trying something hotter and going with the 165 gr version. After 4 layers of denim and entering a block of ballistic gel, they did not expand, and traveled about 26", way over penetrating. My 180 gr GD's penetrating about 14", expanded every time and impressively.

Take a look at your prospective round, then compare the results to the 115 gr Gold Dots. You might be surprised. Check it out, as it's more than opinion, it shows the results in several ways making you an informed purchaser.

 

Funny I watched this last night. Over penetration in 3in barrel.

View: https://youtu.be/iA7FTjmLiQQ

 

Funny I watched this last night. Over penetration in 3in barrel.

View: https://youtu.be/iA7FTjmLiQQ

I don't know who this guy is or what his qualifications as a ballistics expert are but, while he mentioned the FBI protocol calling for a maximum of 18 inches of penetration, he didn't follow it. The protocol calls for the use of four layers of denim. That may have changed things a bit. Who knows. Just keeping it honest. BTW, for me, that level of penetration is preferable.

 

This looked good from it.

View: https://youtu.be/KwsVe1fxXLE

 

I use it in my G19, 26 and 43. It runs great. I'm sure it will get the job done.

 

I keep my 43 & 34 stoked with Barnes Tac-XPD.

Peteperfection said he has only fired 15 rounds of his SD ammo in his carry piece. Regardless of what anyone carries, I hope you shoot a box or two per year of your carry ammo, and as much non-carry ammo as you can budget. 'Will it feed' is just one of the questions. Does it suffer from FTF or FTE? Does it shoot to point of aim? Is it prone to bullet set-back?

Rock_Castle stated we worry too much about SD Ammo, that any name brand hp will do. I don't really think so. Especially considering there's 9mm expanding over double its size, and 9mm that leaves the barrel at .355 and when it is dug out of the tree behind the guy you shot it's still .355. Bullet selection matters. Besides, every time Caliber Wars come up the 9mm Acolytes spout the prophetic message from on high about how modern bullet design makes a 9mm equal to a 44 Magnum. (Yes I'm being a little snarky but Paul Harrell had to do a video addressing the 9mm = 357mag nonsense)

I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I would direct you to luckygunners lab, tnoutdoor9, and ammoquests videos, blog posts, and articles. We all know that gel doesn't equate to human bodies but it does seem to proof itself out in reported shootings.

 

No one needs to stress out over velocity loss out of the shorter barrel of the G43.

A "duty" length barrel is 4 inches. the G43 barrel is 3.39 inches. That's not a big enough difference to worry about.

I've shot the Critical Duty ammo in a Keltec PF9 and the Glock 19. It's accurate and reliable ammo and Hornady spent a lot of time perfecting this ammo.

I carry the 175 grain critical duty in my Glock 23 and it's accurate and consistent and I have confidence in it.

 

fmj ammo is also reliable and accurate.. defense hollowpoints are designed to perform within a specific velocity range.. too little and they fail to expand too much they over expand and in some cases penetration suffers. not saying that the critical duty round is bad in fact it is a great round when used as the manufacturer suggests in full length duty pistols an example of how both perform in a 3.5” s&w compact can be found here

https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#9mm

 

Another option to consider would be 124 Gold Dots, runs great in my 43.

 

. I haven't tried them in 9mm but I do carry them in my 40S&W and my 38special. Good stuff.

 

Ok guys, a well placed shot to the head, do you really think the bad guy will be able to debate the difference in WHICH ammo worked better or killed him quicker...? A simple .22 caliber will put the lights out in one well placed shot. So all this BS about this ammo and that ammo... pointless. I would concentrate more on what performs and functions 100% in YOUR gun, and accurately, more than i would to put in to faith in believing a bunch BS ballistics, especially by some of those youtube tacky-tile youtubers.

You can have the best (YOUTUBE) ballistics in the world, this is better than that, BUT, at the end of the day, can you effectively shoot your gun, hit the bullseye, end the fight...??? I guess you`ll never know until you actually kill another human being. (which 99% of you never will) But if you do have to kill someone, THAT alone, will 100% bring you unwanted consequences that you`ve never dreamed of. And i`m sure your not going to want to check out the wound channel or ask the cops how your bullets performed.

Choose your weapons AND ammo wisely. But learn how to shoot it and this ammo debate will be nothing more than just a debate, full of opinions. If you really want the real facts, go visit your county medical examiner at your county morgue. Depending on where you live, there might be several dead bodies for you to examine that are riddled with bullet holes.

 

Ok guys, a well placed shot to the head, do you really think the bad guy will be able to debate the difference in WHICH ammo worked better or killed him quicker...? A simple .22 caliber will put the lights out in one well placed shot. So all this BS about this ammo and that ammo... pointless.

I believe shooting "center mass" is much preferable than trying to shoot someone in the head, much bigger target. No the bad guy, if killed, won't know the difference in ammo. But, I would feel under armed with a .22 even if it could do the job. I want an advantage, the biggest advantage I can have if it ever comes to a gun fight so I carry a 9mm not a .22. It also carries over to what ammo I select.

Choose your weapons AND ammo wisely. But learn how to shoot it and this ammo debate will be nothing more than just a debate, full of opinions. If you really want the real facts, go visit your county medical examiner at your county morgue. Depending on where you live, there might be several dead bodies for you to examine that are riddled with bullet holes.

Now you say choose your ammo wisely, before it was BS? In my area we see about 3-4 murders a year. I am sure our medical examiner wouldn't know the difference from one brand of ammo to another, because he is part time medical examiner and full time funeral director.

LuckyGunner sells ammo, and they also test ammo. They don't care what brand you buy because they sell all the brands they test. I am not an expert by any means but I have reviewed their test methods and find them to be explained well and transparent in their methods. For me, I will purchase my carry ammo based upon their tests or FBI tests. Others can do as they please. I want every advantage I can get and want to be reasonably certain that the ammo I select will adequately expand and penetrate deep enough, through heavy clothing.

Unfortunately, there is well respected defensive ammo that doesn't always live up to it's hype. The 124 gr version might work great but the 147 gr fails miserably in the same brand. Might work out a full size 4.5-5.0 barrel but doesn't work well out of 3.0-3.5 barrel.

I'm not telling anyone what ammo to buy, just suggesting you might want to look at the test result for the "exact" ammo your thinking about purchasing. Instead of taking someone's recommendation word of mouth so to speak.

 

I settled on 124 Federal HST for carry in my G43. The 124 HST seems to have the best mix of penetration and expansion to me.

 

Same here... flawless accuracy, flawless function in my G43 as well. And i dont see the need to try anything else. If it functions, and you can hit the bulleye`s, nothing more is needed except more training... train everyday.

 

Well you can have onions anytime. Critical duty is great carry ammo with or without onions.

 

I use federal, their HPs are shaped just like FMJ.

 

What about Hornady's Critical Defense load?

 

Go here: https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#9mm
Ammo tested is listed in alpha order. You can compare the data on any of the Critical Defense loads versus the other brands tested.

Make up your own mind.