AMMO Applications and Self Defense Effectiveness

[markjaey]

Thanks Lucas. Never liked snake oil and I'm in sales!

Originally Posted by lharrell79

I just looked at brownells site, and i'm not sure wth they got going on with all those different categories. Tactical category? What defines a bullet as tactical? At any rate, the suggestions given above are all good.

FMJ's = deep penetration, and smaller hole
JHP's = less penetration, and bigger hole
Quality JHP's = good penetration, and big hole

It's not rocket science. For SD pick a quality JHP, that YOU can shoot accurately, and is reliable in YOUR gun. All the rest is just snake oil and marketing fluff.

Lucas

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by markjaey

The Brownells site lists ammo by application (i.e., law enforcement, training, self defense, etc.). The implication is that certain ammo is better suited to a particular task. Perhaps based on cost. Perhaps based on stopping effectiveness. Perhaps based on accuracy. I'm wondering, for home defense needs, why wouldn't, or why would, a training type ammo be as effective as a law enforcement type ammo or, a self defense type ammo? What are the difference to be considered when evaluating these rounds for a given neede?

Well you certainly can, but it will cost you a lot more. Consider to get really good with your handgun, you are going to have to shoot somewhere around5K rds a year w/ an instructor along the way for osme of those rounds. Then to maintain those skills, you are going to have to shoot at least 100rds a month & that is a bare min IMO. At factory SD/HD JHP loads, you'll be broke.
It doesn't really matter that you train w/ the best, say 180gr JHP @ 900fps, as long as your practice ammo has a simm recoil & point of impact. SO most train w/ cheaper FMJ of the same weight as their def ammo choice.
SHould you just tick to FMJ? Sure, you could, but then you are handicapping yourself in a gunfight. You want the target to receive as much damage as possible for a quicker end to the fight. It's why we practice & train, to deliver the bullets effectively. Then handicapping yourself w/ FMJ is like not practicing IMO. So as noted, choose a brand name JHP, shoot at least 1 full mag form each carry mag to make sure it runs the gun. Then shoot FMJ for practice. Once a year, it's a good idea to throw a magazine of your def load downrange to make sure nothing has changed in you or your gun. Most will burn off their carry ammo once a year to play it safe. HD ammo, it can last along time inside the enviro of a home, but stillprudent to run a mag annually to make sure nothing has changed in the gun.

[lharrell79]

Originally Posted by fredj338

Well you certainly can, but it will cost you a lot more. Consider to get really good with your handgun, you are going to have to shoot somewhere around5K rds a year w/ an instructor along the way for osme of those rounds. Then to maintain those skills, you are going to have to shoot at least 100rds a month & that is a bare min IMO. At factory SD/HD JHP loads, you'll be broke.
It doesn't really matter that you train w/ the best, say 180gr JHP @ 900fps, as long as your practice ammo has a simm recoil & point of impact. SO most train w/ cheaper FMJ of the same weight as their def ammo choice.
SHould you just tick to FMJ? Sure, you could, but then you are handicapping yourself in a gunfight. You want the target to receive as much damage as possible for a quicker end to the fight. It's why we practice & train, to deliver the bullets effectively. Then handicapping yourself w/ FMJ is like not practicing IMO. So as noted, choose a brand name JHP, shoot at least 1 full mag form each carry mag to make sure it runs the gun. Then shoot FMJ for practice. Once a year, it's a good idea to throw a magazine of your def load downrange to make sure nothing has changed in you or your gun. Most will burn off their carry ammo once a year to play it safe. HD ammo, it can last along time inside the enviro of a home, but stillprudent to run a mag annually to make sure nothing has changed in the gun.

Great advice. Mark, I practice with FMJ, and the JHP's that I carry for SD. In my XD45, I use Aguila FMJ's. They're cheap, clean, accurate, and feel identical to Speer Gold Dot HP's. For SD, I use Speer Gold Dot's. They're clean, accurate, reliable, and have reliable expansion as well. Plus, they can be bought in 50 round boxes.

During a range session, i'll usually shoot about 200 rounds of Aguila FMJ, and then finish with 10-20 rounds of Speer GD's.

HTH, Lucas

[markjaey]

I think they're just trying to confuse newbs like me. With the help of my friends @ XDT I should be fine!

Originally Posted by lharrell79

I just looked at brownells site, and i'm not sure wth they got going on with all those different categories. Tactical category? What defines a bullet as tactical? At any rate, the suggestions given above are all good.

FMJ's = deep penetration, and smaller hole
JHP's = less penetration, and bigger hole
Quality JHP's = good penetration, and big hole

It's not rocket science. For SD pick a quality JHP, that YOU can shoot accurately, and is reliable in YOUR gun. All the rest is just snake oil and marketing fluff.

Lucas

[markjaey]

This is great advice. Shooting range rounds and SD rounds makes sense. Finding range rounds with similar characteristics as my SD rounds is a smart approach. When looking for range rounds and SD with similar performance characteristics I'm guessing that similar ballistics like: weight and speed are important. Are there other considerations?

Originally Posted by fredj338

Well you certainly can, but it will cost you a lot more. Consider to get really good with your handgun, you are going to have to shoot somewhere around5K rds a year w/ an instructor along the way for osme of those rounds. Then to maintain those skills, you are going to have to shoot at least 100rds a month & that is a bare min IMO. At factory SD/HD JHP loads, you'll be broke.
It doesn't really matter that you train w/ the best, say 180gr JHP @ 900fps, as long as your practice ammo has a simm recoil & point of impact. SO most train w/ cheaper FMJ of the same weight as their def ammo choice.
SHould you just tick to FMJ? Sure, you could, but then you are handicapping yourself in a gunfight. You want the target to receive as much damage as possible for a quicker end to the fight. It's why we practice & train, to deliver the bullets effectively. Then handicapping yourself w/ FMJ is like not practicing IMO. So as noted, choose a brand name JHP, shoot at least 1 full mag form each carry mag to make sure it runs the gun. Then shoot FMJ for practice. Once a year, it's a good idea to throw a magazine of your def load downrange to make sure nothing has changed in you or your gun. Most will burn off their carry ammo once a year to play it safe. HD ammo, it can last along time inside the enviro of a home, but stillprudent to run a mag annually to make sure nothing has changed in the gun.

Originally Posted by lharrell79

Great advice. Mark, I practice with FMJ, and the JHP's that I carry for SD. In my XD45, I use Aguila FMJ's. They're cheap, clean, accurate, and feel identical to Speer Gold Dot HP's. For SD, I use Speer Gold Dot's. They're clean, accurate, reliable, and have reliable expansion as well. Plus, they can be bought in 50 round boxes.

During a range session, i'll usually shoot about 200 rounds of Aguila FMJ, and then finish with 10-20 rounds of Speer GD's.

HTH, Lucas

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by markjaey

This is great advice. Shooting range rounds and SD rounds makes sense. Finding range rounds with similar characteristics as my SD rounds is a smart approach. When looking for range rounds and SD with similar performance characteristics I'm guessing that similar ballistics like: weight and speed are important. Are there other considerations?

Other than reliability, nope. If they print to the same POA as your SD ammo, that is very useful too.