I’ll apologize up front for the video quality; the Gunwriter Assistant was not available for filming. This meant a camera man was not the only issue; I had to clean the mess up as well. (I thought for a moment about shooting his basketball.)
Remington recently announced a new line of ammunition called Ultimate Defense Compact Handgun. These are loads designed for barrels shorter than four inches (Or even shorter in the case of the .38 Special.) I have to say, I’m not fond of the name; asking for a box of Remington 124 gr. 9mm Luger +P Brass Jacketed Hollow Point Ultimate Defense Compact Handgun ammunition is a bit long winded. I think Golden Saber Short Barrel would have been much better.
However, it looks like this stuff will be as long on performance as it is in name. The 124 grain 9mm load averaged 1048 fps out of Remington’s new R 51 and penetrated 13 inches in 10% ordnance gelatin while expanding to an average of 0.62 inch. With two layers of denim and a section of pork ribs placed over the gel, the terminal performance remained unchanged. I really like Remington’s 124 gr. +P Golden Saber load and this one – at about 30 fps slower – seems to perform very well too.
If you plan to pick up one of the new R 51s or if you carry a compact 9mm handgun, I’d give this stuff serious consideration. You can see my review of the Remington R 51 as well as a column on ammo for short barreled defensive handguns in the June 2014 issue of NRA’s Shooting Illustrated magazine. It should be on newsstands by early May.
Richard,
Hate to be the one to bring this up again, but can you know what kind of a field day the courts are going to have and will use as evidence against the shooter that is intentionally loading and using jacketed hollow points in his handgun, labelled Ultimate Defense? (Even for self defense)
What is becoming of our court system?
Perhaps we need more writers identifying how our courts are handling shootings from honest citizens that use there hollow points with justification, to protect there lives and their family’s.
Prosecutors alway bring up the fact; the shooter was using hollow point bullets…. Why is that???
What other kind of bullet would a person be putting in there handgun? Lead Ball??? LOL…
Hard to put that on a civilian when cops are carrying the same ammo.
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I don’t see how it would matter. Once you decide to use lethal force, you’re already committing attempted murder in self defense. WTF does it matter what I used in something capable of killing someone? It isn’t going to make them more dead or change the intent of my actions. So what if it is “more” lethal? I’ve already made the decision that I will shoot to stop a threat, regardless of what damage is caused to the perpetrator.