Winchester USA Ready Defense
Winchester

Winchester Unveils 3 New Types of USA Ready Defense Handgun Ammo with "Hex-Vent" Technology

Winchester reveals three new ammo offerings perfect for self-defense purposes.

It's the season for new gun and ammo announcements and Winchester isn't holding back on unveiling a bevy of new additions to their lines for 2021. One of the most notable new additions just announced by the company includes three new offerings of self-defense ammo under the "USA Ready" line.

Winchester announced the new ammo during their three-day online "Primed for '21" event and they're all intriguing looking for anyone who concealed carries.

Read on to hear all the details for these new rounds and why they just may become your next choice for your everyday carry gun.

USA Ready Defense

According to Winchester's Ben Frank, USA Ready Defense was an idea that spun off their Ranger One handgun ammo, hollow point, bonded ammo designed specifically for law enforcement purposes. The big difference between this and other forms of hollow point defense ammo is something that Winchester calls "Hex-Vent" technology. The name is obvious when looking at one of the bullets head-on.

He says this technology solves the problem of a hollow point taking on the characteristics of a full metal jacket bullet and possibly over-penetrating a target, always an important consideration for any self-defense scenario.

"We actually have a rigid polymer insert that helps to keep material from plugging up that hollow point," Frank said in an online video. "With this Hex-Vent technology, it moves that material out of the way and allows soft material, tissue to flow around it and get real consistent expansion and reliable performance."

You can see exactly what he's talking about in the video above where Winchester's Dusty Gibson demonstrates the type of penetration and channels produced by the 9mm Luger version of the ammo above. We must admit, it looks great coming out of a Glock 26.

Calibers and Ballistic Data

If you found that intriguing, you're no doubt wondering what calibers this new Ready Defense ammo will be available in and what kind of muzzle velocities you can expect. Winchester is offering this ammo in a 170-grain, .40 Smith & Wesson, a 200-grain, .45 ACP, and a 124-grain, +P 9mm Luger. Three solid and popular calibers that should fit a range of popular self-defense handguns on the market today.

"Really, all of those products were developed around concealed carry," Frank said. "So, they're a little lighter weight bullets, they're faster, that's going to be great out of those shorter barrel pistols."

For the .40 S&W, you'll be looking at a muzzle velocity of 1,160 feet per second delivering around 508-foot pounds of energy at five yards. For the heavier 200-grain .45 ACP, Winchester says it does about 994 fps at five yards, delivering 438-foot pounds of energy. They also gave data for 25 yards, which states a muzzle velocity of 970 fps and 417-foot pounds of energy. The 9mm +P rounds can do about 1,188 fps and 389-foot pounds of energy at five yards and 1,143 fps of velocity at 25 yards delivering about 360-foot pounds of energy. Not bad at all for any of these rounds.

For more information on USA Ready Defense, see the Winchester website. Keep it here at Wide Open Spaces for all the latest guns and ammo announcements in the coming weeks ahead!

For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels

NEXT: THE 5 BEST HOME DEFENSE SHOTGUNS

WATCH