Hello to all and Merry Christmas. I’d like to pick your brains about defense ammo choice in the 239 .40cal. I’ve just acquired one in Two Tone and although I’ve not even shot it yet I’m already looking for carry ammo since I’ll be putting this into my carry rotation. Thanks in advance for your replies. Oh, in my plastic subcompact 9mm I carry Hornady 135gr Critical Duty Flex Lock.

HST, Gold Dot, Critical Defense/duty. Honestly any decent quality defensive ammo will do you fine and I’d never rely on its reputation alone as they can all fail. Biggest thing is make sure whatever you choose runs in your given gun so budget 40 or 50 rounds of it just to test/get a feel etc.

Me personally. I like 165 grain HST in .40 cal. and have / do run it in a P239.

In .40, I'm carrying Gold Dot G2 180gr. It's run like clockwork through my P239 (as well as P229 and through G27 when it's not "wearing" a G33 barrel) for several hundred rounds each.

Echoing Chris, make sure it "works." Best terminal ballistics in the world won't matter if you're stuck fixing a FTF or similar.

When I had my P239 .40, I carried Winchester Ranger T, 180 grain because that’s what my agency issued for our Glock 23’s. Right before I retired we switched to HST 180’s, but I had sold the P239 by then.
I wouldn’t get too much wrapped over the axle so to speak about trying to find the best defensive ammo in any caliber these days as they all work well so to speak. As others pointed out, just make sure your choice feeds in your pistol and work on your shot placement.

I've run the same as jer830 above, I'm a fan of Winchester Ranger ammo. Mine fed it without issue, though honestly it feeds about anything I give it.

Personal experiences on the forum are of course most valuable. You can learn a lot from YouTube researchers named TNOutdoors9 and LuckyGunner.

https://www.youtube.com/playli...raBHTodW16BwfvlhkIqY

Of importance is sight registration. Bullet weight affects recoil impulse which affects pistol motion in your hands and thereby appears to change the POI wrt POA. 180 g vs. 155 g may slightly differ in POI.

Been carrying Speer 180gr GDHP forever, feeds 100%, shoots more accurate than i'm capable of. Other than replacing the dead NS's and slapping on a pair of Hogue G-Mascus chain links it's as stock as when i got it.

quote:

Of importance is sight registration. Bullet weight affects recoil impulse which affects pistol motion in your hands and thereby appears to change the POI wrt POA. 180 g vs. 155 g may slightly differ in POI

Bingo.
I use Critical Duty 175’s in my g27 since it’s consistently POA/POI, and been 100% reliable for years.

I have used mostly Gold Dot.

It will eat anything you feed it.

Buy a couple of boxes of each and see what you shoot best and stick with that.

Thank you all for your input. I too am a fan of Winchester Ranger 180gr of which I’m well stocked since I haven’t been shooting my other 40’s much. I do shoot the Hornady 135gr flex in 9mm short barrels that I have so I may pick up the 175gr flex and some Gold Dot, try all 3 and see how i do. Thanks again to all.

180 Gold Dot was our duty load in .40, so that is what I have stacked up for few .40s I still have.

I personally like 165gr in .40, but not enough to offset the price I got all the Gold Dot for.

My 239 isn't my favorite pistol, but it would be one of the last ones I parted with willingly. Good shooter and I carried it for years in plain clothes.

When we first got issued Glock 35’s (and, I had to give up my 1911…) we issued Cor Bon 135. It did fine in a few shootings. Not as well through cars.

We switched to Gold Dot 180 gr and stayed with it through the change to Glock 22’s. Until I retired. It did fine also.

Picked up a couple boxes of the short barrel .40 Gold Dots. Run them in the 239 and 229.