Home defense question

[Bushwack44]

For a home defense pistol (i..e: a 1911, CZ, Beretta, Sig, etc), should all rounds be JHP or all but the first round? As infrequent a pistol will fail to cycle a round, a "know-it-all" mentioned failure for a pistol to cycle the first round is greatly minimized if the first round is conventional and the remaining rounds are JHP (this is with the pistol already having cycled many JHP at a range). This practice is based on the force a JHP goes into the barrel (via the feed ramp).

IMO, if the first (conventional) round is already in the chamber, what does it matter? Better yet, why not have the first round in the barrel a JHP (along with the remaining rounds in the magazine).

Curious if anyone using a pistol for home defense uses the practice of the first round being conventional.

[scbauer]

Just make sure you practice at the range with whatever you have loaded at home. If you put hundreds of rounds down range and have no issues, you shouldn’t have issues at home. If you do have issues at the range, change ammo or guns until you don’t.

Personally, I would choose HP for home defense so you’re less likely to fly through drywall and hit something that isn’t your target.

[axel4488]

Never had an issue feeding JHP of any kind through my CZ or Shield.

[hardcore4sure]

For a home defense pistol (i..e: a 1911, CZ, Beretta, Sig, etc), should all rounds be JHP or all but the first round? As infrequent a pistol will fail to cycle a round, a "know-it-all" mentioned failure for a pistol to cycle the first round is greatly minimized if the first round is conventional and the remaining rounds are JHP (this is with the pistol already having cycled many JHP at a range). This practice is based on the force a JHP goes into the barrel (via the feed ramp).

IMO, if the first (conventional) round is already in the chamber, what does it matter? Better yet, why not have the first round in the barrel a JHP (along with the remaining rounds in the magazine).

Curious if anyone using a pistol for home defense uses the practice of the first round being conventional.

Sounds like your "know it all" don't know much at all!
If you were to (only god knows why you would) stagger rounds from HP to FMJ' the round in the chamber should be the HP. With that being said, any decent pistol should have NO issues feeding FMJ or HP rounds. In my opinion you should practice with at the very least 100 rounds of what ever your choice of defense ammo, without malfunction and to verify POA & POI (point of aim/ point of impact).

Just to cover your basis, practice malfunction clearing drills by randomly loading a dummy round/snap cap in mags before range trips. So you get used to clearing a dud/jam and getting your weapon back to operational status. I always recommend a HP or Frangible type round over FMJ for home defense.

[Starslinger]

What hardcore4sure said. Your gun of choice should cycle HP just fine and you should practice with enough HP ammo to confirm this.

[Oldmandan]

Ball ammo will over penetrate walls, you don’t want that...

[enorbit3]

HD pistol = mag full of JHP.

Don't do any of that mix and match

[PaperTarget]

Function check that the pistol works and doesn't fail to feed with the exact rounds you are planning to have. This requires going to a range with live fire. This means that when you chamber the first round and all subsequent rounds, it should feed without fail.

I've had older pistols that would have trouble cycling some hollow point rounds. I had a choice to have the feedramp worked or find other ammo. I just used ammunition with a smaller hollow point and more ogive.

[unusedusername]

The issues with pistols feeding JHP ammo was mostly in guns designed before the mid 1980s. Nearly all modern guns have it figured out.

By "designed before", I mean that specific incantation of the design. The feedramp on a modern 1911 is quite different from those on 1911s made in 1912.

[flavor]

Training! Tap, roll, rack if round doesn't fire. Or if youre that concerned then get a revolver.

[Verdha603]

Unless your shooting a semi-auto Curio and Relic chances are your handgun will cycle JHP's just fine.

You can have the handgun prove it to you by going to the range and putting a couple boxes of your JHP of choice into the paper target to assuage your concerns. It won't be cheap, but a couple boxes of JHP's at the range is a small price to pay for the peace of mind of keeping it loaded with them when you actually need it.

[johnthomas]

Any gun I carry or have at home for self defense has some sort of hollow point defense rounds. When I go to the range to practice, my carry remains loaded with defense ammo. I shoot range ammo for practice and at least one mag of defense ammo on the range trip. I also swap out my carry gun once in a while, depending on where I go. One week, I carried a different gun every day. I live in NV so our CCW doesn't limit what or how many guns you can carry. When I drive back to CA, which is very rare, I bring two guns I bought while I lived in CA and have them locked in a container.

[DB>]

Go to the range and TEST. If your gun doesn't feed JHP properly:

a) try different ammo
b) get your gun fixed
c) get a different gun (probably not needed, but it's a good excuse to get another gun!)

Usually a little feed ramp cleanup will solve any feeding problems, FWIW. I've had to do it on quite a few guns I've bought, it's not that difficult to polish a feed ramp if you have a dremel, polishing "bits", and some very fine compounds. Most FTF seems to be because the tip of a HP bullet hangs up on small burrs or imperfections as it's pushed into the ramp, smooth out the burrs, the round slides home w/o issue.

After "adjustment", back to the range to test. Repeat until you have 100% confidence in cycling with the ammo you intend to use for HD. PERIOD. And then familiarize yourself with malfunction clearing, just because Murphy might come by at the worst time.

That "know it all" doesn't seem to know how guns are supposed to work, IMO...

[The War Wagon]

PRACTICING with HD rounds (JHP's) is important, even if it's ALSO expensive.

I wouldn't be doing mag dumps with 'em all day long, but a magful maybe every 3rd or 4th range trip ain't a bad idea. And any NEW ammo you pick up, try a magful ASAP, and see how they do.

With a 1911, I DO look for JHP's with rounder profiles - Golden Sabres, the old Cor-Bon 200gr. "flying ashtrays," & Hydra-Shoks all have a rounder profile that feed quite well (as do my old Black Talons, I might add... ). Other rounds, you might hafta experiment with.

And if all else fails, a good throat job from a competent 'smitty won't hurt either.

[plumbum]

So what I’m hearing is that you need to buy a revolver...?