Federal JHP's any grain...

"Let Your Light so Shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)

What is a JHP ?

Jacketted Hollow Point.  That is just fine for home defense.  Take it to those who CHOOSE not to hold a job and take from those that make an honest living.  We all have some sort of job hazard, so does the thief.  Let the light you shine be the muzzle flash. 

Thanks Oscar

Federal's Hydrashock is quite nasty!

"It takes 32 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, but only 3 for a proper trigger pull."

I'd avoid anything with steel cases...they don't feed very well and the lacquer put on the casings can gum an action up if the metal gets real hot.  There are several makers out there, but Wolf out of Russia immediately to mind.

Great tips & thanks Ya'll !

Went and bought the Winchester 230 gr .45 ACP JHP today as it was $27 for a box of 50

The best ammo I know of and the stuff that is in my .45 right now are Aguila IQ 117 grain hollow points.  They way the are designed they will go threw hard objects and separate into three piece on soft targets. 

NOW A WARNING  These are last resort rounds, if you fire these with out hearing protection you will loose some of your hearing and my burst your ear drum.  In my Lama .45 max which has a very short barrel it will produce almost a 12 inch fire ball at night.  And the fire ball is visible during the day.  I bought these rounds for a back up when I was big into hog hunting on foot with my bow. 

Also you should not use hand loads for home defense I was warned by a gun dealer that if you purposely load your ammo hot it is considered a premeditated action and can get you in some legal trouble.

As a police officer I carry a .45 ACP and it's loaded with Speer Gold Dot 185 grain hollow point.  The 230 grain hollow point is another good choice. 

Now for reason we carry Gold Dot.  Our independent studies of all the top ammo showed that the Gold Dot performed most consistently in a variety of circumstances.  One test showed that the Hydrashocks and the old "Black Talons" failed to consistently expand when fired through heavy clothing or intermediate obstacles such as sheetrock and auto glass.  The Gold Dots did the best in the ballistic gell. 

Hope this helps. 

Like Chances' Dept., we also carry Speer Gold Dot as duty ammo. This is the only thing that the City doesn't go low bid on. I mentioned the hydrashock because i've shot it before with success and I didnt think you would be able to find speer ammo. If you can find the Speer Gold Dot in .45 ACP GET IT!

I carry a Sig .357 and it is scary what this thing does to ballistic gel!

"It takes 32 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, but only 3 for a proper trigger pull."

Fishfearme,

It's good to know some departments still have the good sense to let their officers carry a .45acp. 

As far as ammo goes, just about anything mentioned above will do fine.

Does anyone here have any experience with MagSafe ammo?  I have a few packs of it and have shot some stacked phone books as a home test and it seemed to do well but I havent heard anything other than what MagSafe claims.

The Hunt goes on forever, the season never ends. http://www.hossfly.com 979 777 1725

if a person loads a pistol hot to begin with that to choice, i would load min to the mid range of the scale or maybe just under it, that way you get a buffer zone on the firearm and you dont over load the case, and it would be less likely for it to blow up, all your doing is stepping up from the higher end of the factory specs. and not much at that, the hydroshocks are nasty as home defence. nobody in there right mind would shoot threw sheet rock or a window, that bad judgement and improper gun safty. who ever does that needs to be clubed upside the head and shown proper respect for what they got in there hands. you can not hit wat you can not see. but factory ammo is the best choice for home defence ammo. they loaded those rounds like that for a reason.

like the others said, Speer Gold Dot 230g or Federal HST 230g

whatever you choose be sure to test several boxes to make sure it feeds reliably through YOUR gun with YOUR mags

i once read a qoute "shootin straight with a 38 beats givin jive with a forty-five". my favorite pistol of all times is a 1911 .45acp my load is 200gr. lead flat nose @800 fps. because that is what i am most consistant with.my carry gun is a S&W jframe 38. hope i dont ever use it. in all said i like 200gr. bullets of all types in my forty-five.good handling.modest recoil,accurate. thats what is important to me. Go with the gold!