Frangible Bullets

[jonny4523]

Has anyone ever used these for self-defense? I saw a company who made and sold these at the past gun show. Here is their website.
http://www.frangiblebullets.com/

I guess it lessons the chance that they will go through walls into a childs bedroom or hit pedestrians that might be behind the BG. It basically eliminates any bullets from passing through. They are also lead free. They showed a video at the gun show of their .223 round hitting a grape and exploding. I can see this being advantages because it almost assures that 99.9% of the energy is transferred to the BG and might be a little more ideal for in-the-home protection, especially if you have kids sleeping in the room adjacent to your own.

What do you guys think? Have you used them? Would you trust them? General opinions?

[John4538]

sounds great for grapes at any rate.

sorry, couldn't stop myself.

A number of training schools are now reguiring only frangible bullets during their training courses simply for the lead elimination and cleanup.

[orrminator]

This is what the Box o Truth had to say about these types of bullets:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot23.htm

He even referred to this forum and used and XD to do the test.

[JD McDorce]

Great for range use, particularly indoor ranges, since the projectiles are lead free (primers are still an area to be cautious of) and they are friendier to steel targets and backstops.

IMHO the jury is still out with regard to self-defense purposes. Since the density of the copper/tin composite is lower than that of lead, the result is typically lower mass / higher velocity rounds than the typical lead core jacketed hollow point rounds that dominate the SD ammunition market. I have not seen enough credible data to date to convince me that it is a viable alternative to JHPs (terminal effect ).

[DJEE13]

Check out this link on frangible bullets:
Car and frangible ammo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siusjQ_GCag&feature=email

It was Sinterfire frangible they have 4 videos on youtube. I have tried it and it worked well.

[agalindo]

The thing is you don't want the bullet to break apart as soon as it touches something because you won't get any penetration, you need to have at least 12inches. Frangible bullets are Mall Ninja ammo, they look good on grapes, other types of fruit, clay, and water jugs but they are not reliable Bad Guy stoppers.

[Bree]

Originally Posted by agalindo

The thing is you don't want the bullet to break apart as soon as it touches something because you won't get any penetration, you need to have at least 12inches. Frangible bullets are Mall Ninja ammo, they look good on grapes, other types of fruit, clay, and water jugs but they are not reliable Bad Guy stoppers.

+1
Big difference between blowing up watermelons and stopping a human being intent on killing you. I put my faith in more traditional ammo. I would not bet my life on any of the frangibles.

[GW45ACP]

From the reading I've done on frangible bullets for self-defense, I've concluded that the traditional HydroShok, HST, Golden Sabres, etc, are still a better choice for me. Most ammo suitable for self-defense has the potential to under or over penetrate both BG's and walls in your home.

Also, with today's brand of less-sensitive-to-pain drugged up BG's, I would be concerned that just tranferring energy without significant bullet penetration may not do enough damage to actually stop an attack.

More testing and documented self-defense cases would be required before I would be willing to switch to frangibles.

[vafish]

The problem with any of the frangible or prefragmented rounds is that they give very shallow penetration in soft targets. They also don't pass through barriers very well.

They produce some extremely fast stops given an unobstructed shot to the chest, but get an arm or some other barrier in the way and they fail miserably.

So you are taking you chances when using them. A more traditional JHP design is a better all around choice.

[jonny4523]

Wow, old topic relived! Right on!