What self defense load are you using in your AR carbine?

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Why do more people not use some type of bonded soft point than M193? Shouldnt a bonded soft point work better?
 
250 grain .452 Speer Deep Curl. At about 2200 fps.

My house borders Jurassic Park...
:D

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Winchester Elite 60 grain hollowpoints in 223 REM. "Shooting the bull " did extensive testing on them on the web. They scored high.
 
My small AR rifle is set up for the Israeli clone of M262mod0. In the event that I used it for self defense, that's what would be in it. The big AR is set up for Creedmoor Sports' 155gr Scenar load.
 
entropy said:
Either M193, M855, Silver Bear 62 gr. soft point, (came with my son's DPMS, and he didn't want it) or my reloads with 55gr. V-Max or FMJ (which are loaded to M193 levels anyway.) . It's all I have around currently.
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M193 is designed to fragment and does a pretty decent job even out of a short barrel at home defense ranges. I like it.

However not all 55g fmj are the same and may not fragment as desired.

I’m not a fan of M855 at all. Terminal ballistics suck unless you’re shooting helmets.

I imagine most of the ammo marketed as defense or duty ammo will work well as would hunting ammo. But will it work better than m193? Doubtful
 
MarshallDodge said:
I think just about anything that feeds reliably in your AR is good for defense distances.
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There’s actually some truth to this.

I’m an EMT and while the vast of the majority of the shootings that have happened in the districts I’ve worked involve pistols we do occasionally get shootings with rifles and shotguns. The ones that involve AR’s create significantly more trauma than a pistol. Just like larger caliber hunting rifles create more than 5.56/.223’s.

I’ve only had one where I had an idea what it was loaded with (FMJ), but I imagine most are just loaded up with whatever they got from Walmart cheap. It’s not like I can comb through the ballistic evidence while simultaneously treating the patient. PD just sometimes tells us what it was if we ask.

Had one where the guy got shot through the right hip and blew a huge chunk of it off a month ago even after expending some of its energy by traveling through a vehicle. Pistol bullets do travel through vehicles despite what Hollywood shows, but you aren’t getting wounds like that from pistols.

Had another guy in our district several years ago that one of the other shifts got who lost an arm after getting shot with an AR. They had to surgically amputate it.

Still ... it can’t hurt to use something slightly better.
 
In fairness I haven’t found any factory ammo that DOESNT feed reliably through my ARs... so that criteria isn’t always helpful.

For sure ymmv though
 
Surprised how many people use 55 gr FMJs... or even green tip. Depending on the projectile and manufacturer these may not be as consistent as expanding projectiles. On the other hand, it's a rifle cartridge, so even the worst choices should be pretty effective.

Balrog said:
Why do more people not use some type of bonded soft point than M193? Shouldnt a bonded soft point work better?
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Sometimes the fragments can even make a larger wound than an expanding bullet with only one "fragment". But it has to fragment in the first place and it has to do so fast (short "neck length"). I think bonding helps with keeping more integrity through barriers but I don't think it's necessary otherwise. And if anything it would somewhat lessen severity of the wound.
 
Browning said:
There’s actually some truth to this.

I’m an EMT and while the vast of the majority of the shootings that have happened in the districts I’ve worked involve pistols we do occasionally get shootings with rifles and shotguns. The ones that involve AR’s create significantly more trauma than a pistol. Just like larger caliber hunting rifles create more than 5.56/.223’s.

I’ve only had one where I had an idea what it was loaded with (FMJ), but I imagine most are just loaded up with whatever they got from Walmart cheap. It’s not like I can comb through the ballistic evidence while simultaneously treating the patient. PD just sometimes tells us what it was if we ask.

Had one where the guy got shot through the right hip and blew a huge chunk of it off a month ago even after expending some of its energy by traveling through a vehicle. Pistol bullets do travel through vehicles despite what Hollywood shows, but you aren’t getting wounds like that from pistols.

Had another guy in our district several years ago that one of the other shifts got who lost an arm after getting shot with an AR. They had to surgically amputate it.

Still ... it can’t hurt to use something slightly better.
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Yeah, I think it is funny and very telling when someone thinks their .45 is as effective or more so than a 5.56mm carbine. It tells me they don't have much experience shooting anything with either platform.

I read a statistic somewhere that was attributed to the FBI. It said 1 in 5 people shot in the torso with a handgun dies, while 1 in 5 people shot in the torso with a rifle lives. Don't know how accurate that is, but certainly even a small caliber, high velocity rifle round like the 5.56 is orders of magnitude more effective than anything you can put in a common defensive handgun. I've shot several deer with 5.56 and learned to respect the effectiveness of the round, esp with modern ammunition at typical defensive ranges.
 
Hornady 55gr FMJBT, handloaded to 3100 fps.

Federal XM193/Federal American Eagle XM193.

Nosler 60gr Partition SP, handloaded to 3100 fps (barrier blind load to defeat auto glass and sheetmetal).
 
MTMilitiaman said:
I read a statistic somewhere that was attributed to the FBI. It said 1 in 5 people shot in the torso with a handgun dies, while 1 in 5 people shot in the torso with a rifle lives. Don't know how accurate that is, but certainly even a small caliber, high velocity rifle round like the 5.56 is orders of magnitude more effective than anything you can put in a common defensive handgun.
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More depends on shot placement, but on a center of mass gsw that hits vital organs that sounds about right.
 
taliv said:
M193 is designed to fragment and does a pretty decent job even out of a short barrel at home defense ranges. I like it.

However not all 55g fmj are the same and may not fragment as desired.

I’m not a fan of M855 at all. Terminal ballistics suck unless you’re shooting helmets.

I imagine most of the ammo marketed as defense or duty ammo will work well as would hunting ammo. But will it work better than m193? Doubtful
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say M855 sucks. It's not as consistent as M193, but I've seen a lot of dudes dirt napped by M855.
 
Hornady 55 grain TAP out of a 16" barrel. The longest distance inside my house is 60', so it is still moving fast enough to function properly.
 
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