.45ACP hollowpoints

[mistuhchia]

Are they needed for home defense? or is .45 slow enough that I dont need to worry about over penetration

[J-cat]

45 ACP ball penetrates at least 24" of human. Now, some people are cool with that. You may run into a really fat assailant.

[jermedic]

I only use hallow points for self defense. A 45 slug has a lot of inertia behind it and a FMJ round will be more likely to overpenetrate. Plus hallow points expand and make a bigger hole which is a good thing.

[Sam]

Yes, use them.

[KillZone45]

My pops was telling me a story about how back in the 70's or 80's when they shot FMJ in LAPD that the bullets would go right through the bad guys and lots of times go into homes or never be found lol.

[sa810]

I use hollow point. In cases where the shots miss the intruder I would rather the bullets not over penetrate the walls and decide to go into my neighbors house.

Plus bigger holes in bad guys is a good thing.

[marcus_bervus]

the reason for getting a .45 caliber instead of .22, .38 and 9mm is because of their stopping power.... if your concern for the welfare of the other guy, then get a BASEBALL BAT...

[PutTogether]

I still don't understand the fear of over penetration with handgun rounds. The probability is that you are going to miss the bad guy at least once anyway. Since you didn't hit him - the fear of going through him seems to be a moot point. I'm not saying common sense shouldn't rule here, obviously you don't want to be firing a .308 rifle in your house, but it seems like folks on the internet run into a crippling fear of over penetration.

The purpose of hollowpoints EXPANSION. The purpose of expansion is GREATER DAMAGE, the purpose of greater damage is increased likelihood of STOPPING THE THREAT IMMEDIATELY. The fact that they may not over penetrate is just kind of a bonus - not the main point, or something to be exceedingly worried about.

If your gun feeds good hollow points reliably, use them. If it doesn't, and you can't afford a one that does, or the gunsmith work to make it feed hollow points 99.9999% of the time, use plain ol' ball. If you have to use regular FMJ ammo in a handgun, .45 caliber is the one to do it with. Not just because it is slow, but because it is huge.

(note that i said "may" not penetrate as much above because sometimes hollow points will get filled up with junk when they impact something, and act identical to a FMJ round)

Know your target, know what's behind it, be using a reasonable gun that you have tested to run reliably with the kind of ammo you are going to keep it loaded with, train and practice, and don't stress anymore.

[leelaw]

I'd recommend hollow points in most all handguns destined for self defense.

[11Bforme]

I'm not saying common sense shouldn't rule here, obviously you don't want to be firing a .308 rifle in your house, but it seems like folks on the internet run into a crippling fear of over penetration.

If your going to use as rifle in your house use 7.62 X 51 instead.

[J-cat]

I use hollow point. In cases where the shots miss the intruder I would rather the bullets not over penetrate the walls and decide to go into my neighbors house.

Plus bigger holes in bad guys is a good thing.

FYI, a hollow point behaves just like a FMJ when going through walls. If you miss, either bullet type will go through walls with similar vigor.

[CornFedWB]

Has anyone gotten thier hands on Hornady critical defense? It has a plastic plug in the hollow point to help expansion and prevent "debris" from creating a FMJ scenario. They also have nickel casings. They look great but any site I found them on has a 5 week backorder.

[Fishslayer]

The .45's on zombie duty are loaded with 230gr HP. And penetration has nothing to do with it...

[FeuerFrei]

Corbon Pow`Rball 45 ACP +P, 165 GR, 1225 fps. $25.00/box +-.
I settled on this load for my CCW pistols because it will function 100% in my Kimber Ultra Carry 3" as well as my SA XD45 Tactical equally well.
I tried Hydra Shocks, Golden Sabers, Silver Tips etc. for defense ammo but that little Kimber was not 100% with those, (XD45 eats everything BTW) so the PowRball load is always 100% with it.
Test your pistol with everything until you find one that is 100% reliable.
BTW, do a Google search on it and you'll see it uses the polymer ball to avoid filling up the HP tip with clothing and thus preventing full expansion.
Good luck!

[evidens83]

All of my pistols designated for HD use HPs. If I didn't have any left I wouldn't mind using FMJs.