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Before losing all our guns in a tragic boating accident my spouse bought a Ruger LCR chambered in 9mm as a night-stand gun. Not to my taste, but we have separate nightstands so you do you boo. I'd like to pick up some more hollowpoints (to sacrifice to the lake deities), but I've been struggling to determine what's appropriate since the manual only specifies 9mm Luger "manufactured in accordance with US industry standards". I'm not clear on whether that means any factory loaded 9mm Luger round is fine, or if Ruger assumed you'd only feed 115g FMJ into it and the darn thing may fail catastrophically if you decide to feed +P+ high grain ammo into it. I'm more accustomed to striker-fired pistols where the manual specifies whether whether +P, higher grain bullets, etc are OK or not so this is outside my wheelhouse.

TLDR: Ruger LCR chambered in 9mm, never carried, strictly a home defense gun, ammo recommendations please.

What do y'all recommend?

*Before losing all our guns in a tragic boating accident* my spouse bought a Ruger LCR chambered in 9mm as a night-stand gun. Not to my taste, but we have separate nightstands so you do you boo. I'd like to pick up some more hollowpoints (to sacrifice to the lake deities), but I've been struggling to determine what's appropriate since the manual only specifies 9mm Luger "manufactured in accordance with US industry standards". I'm not clear on whether that means *any* factory loaded 9mm Luger round is fine, or if Ruger assumed you'd only feed 115g FMJ into it and the darn thing may fail catastrophically if you decide to feed +P+ high grain ammo into it. I'm more accustomed to striker-fired pistols where the manual *specifies* whether whether +P, higher grain bullets, etc are OK or not so this is outside my wheelhouse. TLDR: Ruger LCR chambered in 9mm, never carried, strictly a home defense gun, ammo recommendations please. What do y'all recommend?

(post is archived)

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Hi . Keep better track of your shit brother and stop losing it in dumb boating accidents. All of my shit stays off the boat so it never goes overboard, and it stays in my house. If anyone ever wants to discuss that, feel free to simply knock on the fucking door. Or kick it in most likely (Heads up - bad choice). That might change tomorrow as I'm eyeing a shipwreck recovery, was glassing it yesterday, and if I pull it off and gain ownership, I'll have to tuck a weapon onboard somewhere. It's tradition.

Federal HST was and is my preferred for most everything, and still is for 9mm and .45. Then someone showed me the stats for .38 (don't ask, bought a mousegun -sue me). Hornady Critical Defense looked like the bomb for .38. I will admit that I don't own a LCR, my stuff is all semi-auto, but check out the rounds fired in the LuckyGunner tests linked below and decide what you don't want to be downrange for if it came flying at ya and let that be your guide. https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/

Like quacken-bog reminds us, make sure you pony up the $cratch to run shitloads of your choice of rounds down range to ensure that you're stuff is running 100%. I'd likely try a box of HST, a box of CD, and a box of Speer Gold Dots. Then buy craploads of whichever you can get a deal on. BTW, the Gold dots have an interesting feature and it's why cops like them.

Can anyone guess what that is?

[–] • 1 pt

Since this is a home defense, stick with JHP 115gr (AT MOST), even consider lower weight such as 100gr so wall penetration is minimized.

Do not use FMJ in your home as it will go through multiple layers of wall and probably won't stop someone with a few hits. Do not use +P, there is no need and the risk of damaging your gun. The heavier the bullet, the more penetration it will have, even through bodies.

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah, I'm absolutely not using FMJ for home defense for the reasons you mentioned.

Thanks for the tips about avoiding higher grains and higher powder loads due to overpenetration. Those have some utility for carry weapons where an assailant might have some cover, but for home defense there is no cover (drywall isnt going to stop jack).

[–] • 0 pt

Had to send mine off to a smith because the belt clip was too tight and it damaged the magazine spring. Now it won't dry fire and it is in the Fleshlight drawer because unless it is paper I am not going to risk a FTF.

[–] • 0 pt

I have actually never had failure to feed with anything but mine are all modified, even semi wadcutters feed.

[–] • 0 pt

You have to run them through to make sure they work with that particular firearm. Luckily all mine run golden sabre. Would suck to buy some that dont feed correctly.

[–] • 1 pt

Yep, we'll absolutely test they function reliably in that weapon. I just want to ensure we dont waste time testing rounds that are unsafe in the firearm or going to overpenetrate so heavily that they aren't safe to fire for home defense.

[–] • 0 pt

I live in the country so dont worry about that, and I dont think heavy rounds penetrate more either in 9mm, but wtf?

[–] • 0 pt

Anything with KE equal to or greater than 357 magnum might be too much. 9, 40, 45 should be fine.