TexasCHLforum.com

Just curious if anybody has felt the need to carry maybe a spare mag of bonded ammo on them. Like say the Federal Tactical HST bonded. I guess it would be more suitable for shooting through barriers like a car door or windshield.

Mike from Texas wrote:Just curious if anybody has felt the need to carry maybe a spare mag of bonded ammo on them. Like say the Federal Tactical HST bonded. I guess it would be more suitable for shooting through barriers like a car door or windshield.

I use Gold Dots, so yes, all of my defensive ammo is bonded. If your question is more specifically do I feel the need to carry two types of ammo, both bonded and non-bonded, the answer is, of course, no.

My first 6 rounds are Speer Gold Dot HPs, the last five are FMJ and my spare mag is loaded with FMJ. I do it that way because of the possibility of having to deal with barriers. I read about the idea somewhere and it made sense to me. I carry OC spray, a knife and cell phone too. I like to have options.
I hope I never have to use any of it.
Regards, OE

OverEasy wrote:My first 6 rounds are Speer Gold Dot HPs, the last five are FMJ and my spare mag is loaded with FMJ. I do it that way because of the possibility of having to deal with barriers. I read about the idea somewhere and it made sense to me. I carry OC spray, a knife and cell phone too. I like to have options.
I hope I never have to use any of it.
Regards, OE

I carry 2 mags (1 in gun) of JHP, and then one of FMJ. Plus my car mag (33rd) is filled with whatever is left over from the range, I figure if it get's that bad and I have to pull that one out it won't matter whats in it, I have 33 rounds of lead that can fly at the goblin.

I have some Winchester 9mm Bonded, .40SW Bonded. Looking at the Winchester website, I liked the numbers for the bonded ammo better that the "T" series, for the most part. I do, however carry the Winchester T+P in .45 (RA45TP), which is not bonded. I liked the numbers for it just fine, and am a fan of the +P(ow) that the increased muzzle velocity would give me.
as a whole, I think the bonded thing is a great concept, and if Winchester makes a Bonded T+P (I don't even think this is possible, due to the reverse taper design, but I ain't no injun-ear), in .45, well, I reckon I'd buy that, too.

my decision has nuthin to do with barriers, but bullet performance.

Do you feel you would get sufficient expansion on a BG with using bonded ammo or would it minimally expand due to it's design? I really don't know much about the differences of the ammo. I am in need of some more SD ammo and I am a big fan of the Federal HST loads. I was just wanting some input on the bonded vs non bonded.

Mike from Texas wrote:Do you feel you would get sufficient expansion on a BG with using bonded ammo or would it minimally expand due to it's design? I really don't know much about the differences of the ammo. I am in need of some more SD ammo and I am a big fan of the Federal HST loads. I was just wanting some input on the bonded vs non bonded.

It expands just fine. The process of bonding the jacket to the core doesn't intrinsically effect penetration depth or expansion characteristics...It just reduces the potential for jacket separation when penetrating certain types of barriers.

Xander wrote:

Mike from Texas wrote:Do you feel you would get sufficient expansion on a BG with using bonded ammo or would it minimally expand due to it's design? I really don't know much about the differences of the ammo. I am in need of some more SD ammo and I am a big fan of the Federal HST loads. I was just wanting some input on the bonded vs non bonded.

It expands just fine. The process of bonding the jacket to the core doesn't intrinsically effect penetration depth or expansion characteristics...It just reduces the potential for jacket separation when penetrating certain types of barriers.

Then why isn't all ammo bonded if it doesn't affect expansion without passing through a barrier first?

I don't concern myself with bonded/non-bonded ammo. Any JHP bullet from a mainstream manufacturer, Winchester, Federal, Speer and so on, is fine. I carry several different guns and choose the ammo based on it's accuracy and reliability in each gun, not on claims of ballistic supremacy.

Question...

What is bonded ammo? Does it indicated bonded on the box? I carry the Spear Gold Dots, just for reference.

yeah, i'm not sure what "bonded" ammo means either.

I carry federal hydroshock in the mag and 2 spares of FMJ for dealing with barriers.

Bonded just means that the core and the jacket are fused together, supposedly making it better than standard JHP for penetrating obstacles while retaining some expansion. Gold Dots are bonded, I believe. Visually they're just JHPs that have been filled in with a bonding material.

I carry 2 magazines of standard Ranger JHP and 1 magazine of Ranger bonded in the Walther, and 3 magazines of Gold Dots in the Beretta. The standard JHPs seemed more accurate than the bonded in the Walther, so I use the JHP magazine as the primary with bonded as the 2nd magazine, but YMMV. The Gold Dots are just awesome in the Beretta though.

Thanks agbullet2k1.