45 ammo question

[firehunter]

I just picked up the Kimber ultra carry. It has the 3 inch barrel. Any input on what would be the best performing personal protection round for the 3 inch barrel?

Ranger Firehunter,

I carried Federal Hydrashocks in my .45 ACP USP. I never shot anybody so I can't comment on actual performance. In selection of personal defense ammunition my biggest concern would be consistent feeding. Hollow point ammunition has had a reputation for feeding problems in the past. I believe alot of those feed ramp issues have been addressed in the last 20 years with personal defense handguns coming factory with, what used to be, custom gunshop options. Like opened or beveled chamber lips and optimized feed ramps. There was specific ammunition that had more prevalent feed issues from Speer nicknamed Flying Ashtrays. Some searching says it may not be in production anymore, but it was a 200grain .45 +P round with a large cavity.

Here's a link to a chart organized by a color code for barrel lengths / weapon. The chart is an effort to record measured velocity from different lengths of .45 barrels. This comparison may help you to determine if any concerns of expansion, per barrel length, are important.
http://www.w0ipl.net/Vel-45ACP.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another link is a not so scientific pictorial documentation of a forum of shooters recovered bullets after expansion. Some are .45's but not all. Also not all of the pictures seem to be visible for me, the links to them may be broken.
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/sho ... ?p=3500890" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I always see Cor-Bon listed as the final say in PDF ammunition. It's expensive though. No experience with it personally.

VengefulIcebox, thanks for the input and links!