Are you bored of regular 9mm ammo? Do you want to spice things up by firing exotic 9mm ammo? Then you’ve come to the right place. We’re about to expand your horizons by recommending some of the strangest – yet still practical – 9mm ammo your money can buy.
Come along, friendo. Let’s get weird with it.
Top Exotic 9mm Ammo Selections
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Self-Defense
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Pests
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Target Shooting
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Steel Shooting
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Hunting
How We Chose Our Favorite Exotic 9mm
We fire A LOT of 9mm (and other kinds) of ammunition here at Ammo.com. Some of that happens under closely controlled conditions at modern gun ranges. Some of it is more casual – just recyclables set up on a sawhorse in someone’s backyard.
Our top selections have all been subjected to our intense scrutiny. We have assessed our favorite defense and hunting loads’ performance according to ballistic gel testing, and confirmed that they deliver optimal terminal ballistics for their stated applications. Our top picks for target and steel shooting weren’t tested as rigorously. We shot targets with them, and only had positive experiences to report afterward. We can prove that the CCI Pest Control ammo works great, but we don’t think you’d be too impressed by photos of dead vermin. Kind of gross, actually.
But these rounds don’t just work great. Each is also exotic – i.e. loaded with an unusual projectile for the 9mm, be it a monolithic solid, sintered frangible, plastic capsule of lead shot, or something else. In short, the ammo featured in this article (A) works great and (B) is weird.
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Self-Defense
Underwood +P+ 90 Grain Xtreme Defender
Specs
| Case | Nickel-Plated Brass |
|---|---|
| Bullet Type | Xtreme Defender (XD) |
| Bullet Weight | 90 grains |
| Muzzle Velocity | 1,550 fps |
| Muzzle Energy | 480 ft lbs |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Powerful | Too powerful for many 9mm firearms |
| Lead-free | Accelerates wear and tear on firearm |
| Reliable | Not inexpensive |
Wow! That’s a spicy meatball! This is 9mm +P+ ammunition: loaded to generate a higher chamber pressure than SAAMI specifications allow, and therefore too powerful for firearms that aren’t specifically designed to handle its intense power. Do not chamber a +P+ cartridge until you’ve determined whether your firearm can handle it.
So long as it can safely fire 9mm +P+, this ammo by Underwood will turn your pistol into a force to be reckoned with. At close range, the lightweight 90 grain projectile will slam into its target with about one-third as much kinetic energy as an AR-15’s 5.56x45 – almost double the minimum force recommended for personal protection.
This round is “exotic” because of its bullet: the aptly named Xtreme Defender. It is made of solid copper, and therefore exceedingly tough. It also lacks a nose cavity, and therefore cannot become ineffective as a result of clogging up with debris. Instead of undergoing terminal expansion, the Xtreme Defender inflicts a gaping wound cavity by pressurizing soft tissue and blasting it outward in lateral directions and at a higher velocity than the bullet itself traveling.
The Xtreme Defender’s profile is smooth-feeding. So too is this round’s nickel-plated brass case, which prevents corrosion and reduces metal-on-metal friction that could have impaired functionality.
Best Exotic 9mm Ammo for Pests
CCI Pest Control 53 Grain #12 Shot
Specs
| Case | Aluminum |
|---|---|
| Projectile Type | #12 Shot |
| Projectile Weight | 53 Grains |
| Muzzle Velocity | 900 fps |
| Muzzle Energy | N/A |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Low recoil | Not suitable for all firearms |
| Allows some margin for error | Will not cycle semi-autos |
| Kills rats deader than disco | Not reloadable |
Have you ever wished that you could turn your 9mm pistol into an extremely weak shotgun? Then your star must be shining brightly today, because you have just learned about 9mm shotshells by CCI.
This round does not have a bullet. It instead has a plastic capsule filled with 53 grains of #12 shot: approximately 289 pellets, each 0.05” in diameter. The capsule disintegrates on ignition, at which instant a dense spray of lead erupts from the barrel.
It’s not especially powerful. At 900 fps (4” test barrel), the shot column’s collective muzzle energy is roughly equivalent to that of a 22 LR bullet. It will spell lights out for any rat, snake or scorpion it collides with, however, and the shot’s spread makes it easy to kill vermin at ranges up to 5 to 10 yards.
This ammo is not reloadable (its rigid aluminum cases won’t return to their original dimensions after ignition). It’s also unsuitable for pistols with ported barrels or compensators, as those features could deflect shot pellets back at the shooter. And because this ammo’s so weak, it just can’t cycle a semi-auto. So long as you bear those shortcomings in mind, you’ll love these puny Idaho-made 9mm shotshells!
Continue reading Exotic 9mm Ammo: Take a Walk on the Wild Side on Ammo.com
