I watched a video in which Palmetto State Armory announced the introduction of its new PSA Mixtape 158-grain 9mm subsonic ammo. How does this differ from traditional 147-grain subsonic ammo? It is even slower and weaker, designed to stay under 1100 feet per second (FPS) in the longer barrel of a subgun, AR pistol, or pistol caliber carbine.
If you have been around the shooting game as long as I have, 158-grains is a familiar number. When I started out, it was the standard weight of a .38 special lead round nose or semi-wadcutter, bullets used in revolvers for decades. I still have 750 SWCs in an ammo can, just in case I run out of the 125-grain SJHPs in .357 or .38SPL one day in the dark post-SHTF future and need something need to feed my old 4-inch revolver.
The 158-grain revolver bullet faded from prominence because it lacked stopping power. The RN was known as the widow-maker because it failed to stop so many attackers. Reloaders would sometimes load the bullet backwards trying to decrease its ability to slip through the target without leaving a decent wound channel.
I don’t see how a TMJ 158-grain today is going to improve on that performance, leading me to ask, are we trading silence for power? Because I don’t think that is a wise move. A TMJ moving at 1,000 FPS isn’t going to demonstrate any appreciable benefit over the 158-grain RN or SWC moving at 800 FPS.
Hurray for PSA
First, let me state that I am glad to hear Palmetto State Armory is back to producing ammo after they were forced to shut down their line due to a lack of components. We need domestic ammo producers who are not locked into government contracts and can produce ammo for preppers and other civilians. (Of course, if you have a decent stockpile of ammo, you’ll be covered, regardless.)
Second, I appreciate PSA for participating in the recent case that is allowing the sale of suppressors outside the restrictions of the National Firearm Act. I applaud their willingness to stand up for the gun rights of their customers, and I wish more large suppliers would do so. I consider them an industry leader and innovator, so my comments should not be considered a slight or knock on them.
Third, I am a customer under two different identities/email addresses. While I have never purchased a long gun from PSA, I do have one of their uppers. When I was carrying my Glock 48, I purchased one of their Micro Daggers to use as a secondary gun, should the Glock ever get confiscated or fail. I’ve also purchased accessories and thousands of rounds of ammo from them. I know I have 9mm, 5.56, .300 Blackout, .410, 12 gauge, and .22LR in my prepper stash that arrived to my drop-ship address in their neatly wrapped PSA boxes.
In short, I am a fan. But that doesn’t change my perspective on the uselessness of a 158-grain 9mm for a prepper or anyone else buying ammo for serious purposes.
Range Ammo vs Duty Ammo
Here’s what you need to keep in mind: The 158-grain PSA Mixtape is range ammo. It is designed to get the softest pop out of that can on the end of your gun when you train with it, regardless of the barrel length. It is NOT duty ammo. In fact, there is almost no commercial equivalent 158-grain JHP load that you can swap over to when you decide to leave the range and want a loading for the real world.
If real-world training with your suppressed 9mm is important to you, I recommend buying a case of 147-grain FMJs for training and a few hundred rounds loaded with a 147-grain bullet design for personal defense to use off the range.
I don’t have a 9mm suppressor, so I don’t have any 147-grain bullets. I train with 115 FMJs, and I carry either 115-grain Critical Defense or 124-grain Speer Gold Dot. These are faster, lighter bullets designed to be barrier blind and to expand upon impact.
Ammo at the End of the World
Maybe you remember the scene in The Road, where the protagonist whittled wooden bullets to stuff into his revolver chambers to make it look loaded. I don’t think we’ll reach that point. In the case of a disaster of the magnitude portrayed in The Road, be it nuclear or otherwise, we’re probably going to run out of people before we run out of ammo.
If you run low on the good stuff, load your spare magazine with every other round FMJ-JHP-FMJ-JHP because chances are you will need to fire more than one round. Or, carry your gun loaded with the JHPs and carry FMJs in your spare mags. By the time you get to them, you may be fighting to break cover or to keep their heads down, and believe me, no one will know or care if the bullets whizzing over their heads while they hide behind that burnt-out car are FMJs or JHPs.
But let’s say you get to the point where you have no more duty ammo and you have to use your range ammo for anti-personnel purposes. In that case, I’d still want the 115-grain stuff with some zip to it. At the higher speeds, the bullet is likely to tumble, causing more damage than the 158-grain stuff that goes straight through.
I have no doubt that a 158-grain bullet will kill the bad guy, but will it stop him? When the crazed, starving dude that reminds you of a zombie is charging you with his hatchet or a sharpened stick, you want a bullet that will put him down as quickly as possible. While shot placement is key, duty ammo is going to outperform range ammo when everything else is equal. My advice is to stock both.
Any Ammo is Better than No Ammo
Do I expect to get to the point where 750 rounds of fancy pistol ammo is not enough? I hope not! At the very least, I would like to think I would have switched to a rifle by then. But we have to plan for every contingency, even the unlikely ones.
My final conclusion on the 158-grain 9mm subsonic ammo from PSA is to buy it if you have a suppressor and want to train quietly, but only when you are well stocked on the duty ammo. If having a special ammo means you will train twice as much, then load up and train to your heart’s content.
Any ammo is better than no ammo, and I’d rather be able to shoot someone ten times with a .22 as they charge me than jab at them with a spear.
I rely on .300 blackout as my “quiet gun,” and there are many reasons a prepper might need to fire a quiet shot that does not carry for miles. Yet I have three times as much 110 to 125-grain supersonic ammo in .300BO than I have 200 or 220-grain subsonic ammo. There is a time and a place for subsonics, but it is not all-the-time and everywhere. Faster bullets tend to be useful at longer ranges, make more devastating wounds, and stop the attackers more quickly. Stopping the attacker before they can harm you is the objective. Never lose sight of that.
Video of the Day
Here’s the PSA intro video.
