What is the difference between HP and JHP for self defense?

Well, it's not really about JHP or HP it's about which cartridge performs best in your firearm. There are several aspects to how a bullet is designed. In some firearms, a FMJ will perform best. Totally ignore how many come in the box.

To better answer your question as to which round will perform best for you we will need to know which firearm you have and in which caliber.

We want bullets to expand when they hit the target (hunting or defense). That means we make them out of a soft lead alloy. Unfortunately that soft lead rubs off easily inside the barrel (like chalk on a blackboard) which leads to decreased accuracy and makes it harder to clean the gun. Making the bullet softer or pushing it faster exacerbates this problem. We can make the bullets out of a harder alloy but that means less expansion on target (irrelevant for target ammo) and reduces barrel leading. Our other choice is to wrap a harder metal (usually copper) jacket around the bullet. This isolates the soft lead from the interior of the barrel and prevents barrel leading while letting us make the bullet as soft as we want or to drive it as fast as we want. Modern jacketed or semi-jacketed bullets are best for defensive purposes because they use soft lead that is usually pre-cut to allow for even more expansion on target.

JHP stands for jacketed hollow point. Obviously HP stands for hollow point.
When JHP first came out, it was given the J to differentiate between it and the cast lead hollow points.
Today there are also plated hollow point bullets such as the Gold Dot.
I'm hard pressed to find a defense load that I don't like.

In 2019 I believe the terms are pretty much interchangeable. I can't recall seeing a non jacketed HP bullet in a long, long time. Unless you're talking about very rounds with very low muzzle velocity a non jacketed HP will probably way over expand and not give enough penetration. More details are needed, are you talking about a 9mm, 357 mag or 44 special handgun. It matters. But in almost every case I'd shoot JHP for personal defense.

OP

tigerland said:

It looks like HP cartridges come about 20 to 25 to a box where JHP seems to come 50 to a box. Is there, and I'm guessing there is, a difference in performance between the two rounds? I'm guessing HP is the better cartridge to use for self defense?

Click to expand...

I'm gunna agree with jmr40

jmr40 said:

In 2019 I believe the terms are pretty much interchangeable. I can't recall seeing a non jacketed HP bullet in a long, long time.

Click to expand...

I'll also add that the boxes of 25 tend to be the higher price premium defense rounds where as the 50 boxes tend to be more average performing.

Of those more average performing and more cost effective 50 count boxes, some, like the WWB Self defense HP/JHP (what ever it's labled) perform pretty darn well.



With 4 posts I was going to welcome the new new but the OP joined in 2010....???

As has been said, very little if any difference. Most commercial ammo produced for SD, is probably gonna be jacketed, either bonded or cup and core. SD ammo is designed to expand more and at lower velocities than hunting type ammo, exception would be ammo for small varmints.

Accuracy, functionality and reliability should be the priority over expansion, but once that is obtained, than one wants a balance between expansion and penetration. Too much of either can be a detriment.

The number of rounds in the box doesn't have anything to do with it.

HP just means hollow point. That means usually a lead bullet with a hollowpoint end. This style bullet is typical of revolver rounds such as 38 special. They bullets are designed to expand at low velocities for the most part.

JHP is a hollow point with a (usually) copper jacket. This is the typical type bullet for semi automatics. The copper jacket improves feeding.

As for terminal performance, that will vary based on caliber, velocity, bullet design, and numerous other factors. A non-jacketed 44 magnum lead hollowpoint is probably better than a 380 JHP, and it has nothing to do with the jacketing on the bullet.

Defense ammo for civilian use is packaged in 20 round boxes. Duty ammo for LEO use is packaged in 50 round boxes.

Guess what? It's the same ammo, but the 50 round boxes have a much lower cost per round.

c1ogden said:

We want bullets to expand when they hit the target (hunting or defense). That means we make them out of a soft lead alloy. Unfortunately that soft lead rubs off easily inside the barrel (like chalk on a blackboard) which leads to decreased accuracy and makes it harder to clean the gun. Making the bullet softer or pushing it faster exacerbates this problem. We can make the bullets out of a harder alloy but that means less expansion on target (irrelevant for target ammo) and reduces barrel leading. Our other choice is to wrap a harder metal (usually copper) jacket around the bullet. This isolates the soft lead from the interior of the barrel and prevents barrel leading while letting us make the bullet as soft as we want or to drive it as fast as we want. Modern jacketed or semi-jacketed bullets are best for defensive purposes because they use soft lead that is usually pre-cut to allow for even more expansion on target.

Click to expand...

Sorry but this is just bad information. Properly sized lead bullets don't lead the bore.

Hollow point is a more generic term and could include bullets of any material - cast lead, plated, jacketed, and potentially any other material bullets could be made from including pure copper, zinc, etc.

JHP is a jacketed hollow point. It’s just s more specific description. A HP bullet could be a JHP. The most common type of HP bullets is JHP bullets. When marketing a bullet you could describe it as HP and the assumption would be it’s jacketed unless specific identified otherwise.

tigerland said:

Hello, and please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I was wondering what the difference is between Hollow Point and Jacketed Hollow Point for self-defense. It looks like HP cartridges come about 20 to 25 to a box where JHP seems to come 50 to a box. Is there, and I'm guessing there is, a difference in performance between the two rounds? I'm guessing HP is the better cartridge to use for self defense? Any insights, knowledge, experience and help is greatly appreciated. I'm still new to shooting and the difference isn't readily apparent to me.

Click to expand...

JHP is a subset of HP. All JHP's are Hollow Points. There are some HP's that are not Jackted, though. There are some old-school cast lead hollow points with no jacket, and I've even seen a few polycoated ones. At the other end of the spectrum, there are monometal hollowpoints, such as all-copper Barnes bullets.

There are also hollow points that are not technically jacketed, even though they have a lead core with an exposed cavity at the nose and copper on the bearing surfaces and base. Speer Gold Dots are not technically jacketed, IIUC, because they use a heavy plating process to form the copper coating around the lead core, rather than inserting a lead core into a pre-formed jacket/cup.

To further confuse things, just because something truly is a jacketed hollow point does not mean that the manufacturer or retailer is required to abbreviate them as JHP's. A pickup truck is a kind of vehicle. There are other kinds of vehicles. But if someone calls/markets a pickup truck using the term "vehicle," that doesn't mean it's not a truck.

In short, you will have to look at the product description to see whether something being sold as "HP" is jacketed or has some other construction.

c1ogden said:

We want bullets to expand when they hit the target (hunting or defense). That means we make them out of a soft lead alloy. Unfortunately that soft lead rubs off easily inside the barrel (like chalk on a blackboard) which leads to decreased accuracy and makes it harder to clean the gun. Making the bullet softer or pushing it faster exacerbates this problem. We can make the bullets out of a harder alloy but that means less expansion on target (irrelevant for target ammo) and reduces barrel leading. Our other choice is to wrap a harder metal (usually copper) jacket around the bullet. This isolates the soft lead from the interior of the barrel and prevents barrel leading while letting us make the bullet as soft as we want or to drive it as fast as we want. Modern jacketed or semi-jacketed bullets are best for defensive purposes because they use soft lead that is usually pre-cut to allow for even more expansion on target.

Click to expand...

Hmm. Jacketing does prevent leading, but it is also used in modern JHP designs to control the amount of expansion and ensure weight retention. Relatively few, if any, uncoated lead bullets could pass the FBI testing protocols... manufacturers just about have to use copper or another harder-than-lead metal to get the right mix of expansion and retention from the lead core.

Some hollow point rifle rounds are not meant to expand. These are made for match shooting and generally are boat tail bullets.

P5 Guy said:

Some hollow point rifle rounds are not meant to expand. These are made for match shooting

Click to expand...

Or have very thin (but very concentric) jackets and no control on expansion or fragmentation. The focus is not on terminal ballistics (what happens inside the target), but on internal (what happens inside the chamber and barrel) and external (what happens in flight) ballistics.

Texas10mm said:

Sorry but this is just bad information. Properly sized lead bullets don't lead the bore.

Click to expand...

Agreed, sizing is important. Other factors are hardness and velocity. All need to be correct for the specific load..

Even flame temp of the powder can have an effect on what bullets lead versus not.

.......and then there are SJHPs.

"Sorry but this is just bad information."


No, its not, but you are entitled to your opinion.

jmr40 said:

In 2019 I believe the terms are pretty much interchangeable. I can't recall seeing a non jacketed HP bullet in a long, long time. Unless you're talking about very rounds with very low muzzle velocity a non jacketed HP will probably way over expand and not give enough penetration. More details are needed, are you talking about a 9mm, 357 mag or 44 special handgun. It matters. But in almost every case I'd shoot JHP for personal defense.

Click to expand...

The 158gr .38 Special LSWC-HP "FBI" load and the Federal 200gr. 44 Special LSWC-HP are two.

P5 Guy said:

Some hollow point rifle rounds are not meant to expand. These are made for match shooting and generally are boat tail bullets.

Click to expand...

They're designed for maximum consistency of the bullet's base.

Unless the HP designation is used for 22 rimfire.....they are all lead.

tigerland said:

Hello, and please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I was wondering what the difference is between Hollow Point and Jacketed Hollow Point for self-defense. It looks like HP cartridges come about 20 to 25 to a box where JHP seems to come 50 to a box. Is there, and I'm guessing there is, a difference in performance between the two rounds? I'm guessing HP is the better cartridge to use for self defense? Any insights, knowledge, experience and help is greatly appreciated. I'm still new to shooting and the difference isn't readily apparent to me.


Thanks!

Click to expand...

HP will be lead or copper with hollow cavity while JHP will be composed of at least two metals (usually copper & lead) bonded or unbonded also with cavity. None of this is relevant if you have 9mm or another caliber for which Federal Syntech Defense ammo is available. It's especially useful in very small handguns (usually 9x19) where feeding issues can come up. It works and it is pretty affordable.

c1ogden said:

"Sorry but this is just bad information."


No, its not, but you are entitled to your opinion.

Click to expand...

All I shoot in my pistols is lead. I have no problems with accuracy nor leading. Elmer Keith used 16:1 alloy during his work that lead up the .44 Mag. He didn't have any accuracy problems or leading either.

A properly fit bullet doesn't cause the problems listed. That's a fact, not an opinion.

There is enough input here regarding HP and JHP bullets without my 2 cents.

I just wanted to say that just because ammo comes in a 25 round box and costs more per round it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better ammunition for your firearm(s).

I have guns that love the expensive ammo and I have guns that love the cheaper ammo. I am speaking in regards to accuracy and functionality. I have an S&W model Pro that just loves Remington JHP Walmart bulk ammo. It’s actually kind of weird because my other revolvers do not perform well with that ammo at all.

Don’t let price or hype fool you.

Deanimator said:

The 158gr .38 Special LSWC-HP "FBI" load and the Federal 200gr. 44 Special LSWC-HP are two.

Click to expand...

They also make that load in .45 Colt.