The main thing, however, is that it’s just far cheaper to manufacture FMJ ammo. It also has an easier time working in almost any gun you put it in. The upside of this is that, in theory, it has an easier time retaining its lethality after passing through a barrier among other things. When passing through soft tissue and other stuff, the bullet retains the majority of its shape.
Full Metal JacketĪ full metal jacket round, as we talked about in our Basic Bullet Guide, is a soft lead bullet that’s been encased in a harder metal. Or if you’re ready…check out our Ammo & Reloading Definitive Guide for our favorite ammo picks for common calibers. What I want to do today is talk about both rounds and touch on the misconceptions of both. That’s not to say there aren’t all kinds of misconceptions about hollow points as well. While a full metal jacket round will still drop a bad guy, a hollow point will do it just a little bit better. So Why Do We Use Hollow Points Then? Ballistics Gel Testing, Lucky Gunner Stories of people “shrugging off” FMJ rounds because they “just passed right through” are rare and often exaggerated. However, the USA never ratified that section of the treaty…and the US Army just recently adopted hollow point ammo along with the new Sig Sauer M17 pistol.īut I digress, the FMJ is still a bullet and will still punch a hole in your average bad guy. That same treaty also bans the dropping of grenades from hot air balloons, mind you, so some of the stuff might be outdated in the grand scheme of things. This is due to an international treaty that was signed many years ago that forbids the use of expanding rounds. Most NATO militaries use only FMJ rounds. That’s not to say that FMJ rounds are useless for defense. 9mm 115 gr Federal FMJ vs 124 gr Federal Hydrashok, Top
It’s also due to the fact that, from a “put the attacker down” point of view, FMJ rounds aren’t exactly ideal. This is mainly due to the fact that FMJ rounds are significantly cheaper than your average hollow point. There’s an unwritten rule of firearm ammunition: use hollow points for your carry/home defense guns and use full-metal jacket (FMJ) for practice. But that doesn’t mean what you shoot isn’t important. If you don’t hit your target it won’t matter if you were using the Golden Gun and firing depleted uranium rounds – you still missed.
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