FMJ 911
Regular Member
I usually carry .45 ACP 185-Grain JHP in my Revolver. (Yes, They made Revolvers in .45 ACP)
They work pretty well, and they shoot good!
They work pretty well, and they shoot good!
I usually carry .45 ACP 185-Grain JHP in my Revolver. (Yes, They made Revolvers in .45 ACP)
They work pretty well, and they shoot good!
Gold Dot HP nuff said .40cal
Hydroshock, silver tip, +P.... ok guys help me out I am not a ballistics expert and I get lost in a lot of this stuff I have a simple question for all of you, what do you carry for self defense and why. I am going through all of my ammo right now and am trying to figure out what is the right bullet for me. I have always been a big fan of shooting heavier grain bullets with the philosophy of hit em with the biggest round possible you feel comfortable with to put them down fast, but after a recent trip to the range and shooting some lower grain "self defense ammo" I am thinking about changing my way of thinking. I shot better groups and got back on target faster with the lower grain they really impressed me and I do not think your average want to be slim shady is going to notice a difference between 165 grains and 180. So my question is what grain and type of ammo do you carry for self defense and why. I understand the difference between FMJ and HP and will be carrying HP for self defense
Thanks gang
For a .45? Why not? Probably less risk of overpenetration than some hollowpoints out of a .357 Sig, 10mm, or .357 Magnum, etc.
Ultra-reliable.
I carry FMJ in my everyday-carry .45 as well. RELOADS, at that!
The issue of overpenetration is more and more being recognized as an unnecessary concern. It's overshadowed by a much larger one. Just think how much "overpenetration" one gets with all those rounds that miss. Most handgun bullets don't have a lot of energy left after passing through the full thickness of a human body. All too often there are lots of rounds fired that miss the target and then go off to cause collateral damage. Those that do hit are rarely the cause of a problem unless they go through a hand or something as "thin". That is just about the same thing as a "miss". The bigger issue is getting ENOUGH penetration to reach vital organs. With Rifle Rounds it's a whole different story.
I didn't like any of the answers to this, so I thought I'd add my own.
I think what deepdiver is saying is that some of the +P loads use more powder, but don't necessarily burn any faster-at least not fast enough to finish burning before the bullet leaves the barrel.
Think of it this way (all figures are made up, but the theory is real). Say you have a normal pressure load, we'll call it load A, that burns up completely just before the bullet leaves a 5" barrel. Take load A and put it in a handgun with a 3" barrel and you've got some sparks coming out of the barrel because the bullet is out before the powder is finished burning. No big deal, you just get decreased muzzle veloctiy, which is to be expected.
Now take load A and add more powder to the cartridge to make a +P load, which we'll call A+1. It works great out of a 5" barrel because it's still causing the bullet to accelerate as it exits the barrel
because it's still burning. But fire it out of a 3" barrel and you're wasting even more powder because a good portion is burning past the muzzle. You may have more muzzle velocity with A+1 than with A out of the 3" barrel, but the gain will be minimal, as you're wasting most of the powder.
Now take load A and instead of just shoving more powder into the cartridge and making A+1, you throw out load A and put in a faster burning powder, which we'll call load B. Load B is a +P load, but it burns faster-it burns up completely just before the bullet reaches the end of a 3" barrel. Load B will probably have a more brisk recoil than A+1, but it'll make much better use of the shorter barrel, and give much better velocity gains out of a 3" barrel than with load A+1.
Agreed 100%!!!!! Overpenetration is almost never an issue when shooting humans, center mass with most any handgun. Watch the "ER" shows. Pretty much everytime I've seen someone come in with a center mass gunshot wound, the bullet is almost always still inside them and you know after seeing this over and over again these people most assuradly were shot with a multitude of differnt guns/calibers. Nonetheless the result is the almost always the same. The bullet is still in them and didn't exit. Over penetration is something too many people worry about just like the CC crowd worrying about being the "first one shot".
I just had this discussion with a guy who thinks OC is stupid the other day. He wants the element of surprise.
He thinks I'll be a target. I told him do you really think some punk is going to search me out of the hundreds of customers at Wal-mart before robbing the teller?
People also don't seem to understand the mindset of those engaged in this activity they know it has to be in and out, so if anybody is targeted it won't be people in plain clothes. With the amount of adrenaline in their system their minds are focused on the task at hand, sort of like the tunnel vision syndrome cops get when on a high speed chase, so if anybody is to be a target it would be a cop or a Security Guard but more than likely they won't attack them either unless it is a well planned heist, which most are not.
And to top it off several others I personally know and myself have seen the deterring effect of OC.