We get a lot of questions about what 9mm ammunition we recommend for self defense. The short answer is 124gr. +P JHP from Federal, Remington, or Winchester.

These rounds tend to function reliably and meet the FBI standards for penetration in ballistic gelatin. These rounds are what most modern 9mm handguns are designed to shoot and thus tend to be the most reliable. Regardless of what the marketing department of an ammunition manufacturer will tell you, there just isn’t that much difference between products in real world terminal ballistic performance, so the real issue is what functions the most reliably in your particular gun.