any one have good luck with Hornady 45acp self defence ammo

I've shot a few, they all went bang and kicked up dirt at or near the gopher mound I was shooting at, about 50 yards away. My gun seems to shoot low and left, probably me, with the three types of loads I've put through it so far. The Hornady loads did the same.

I think you'll find most JHP rounds will behave like flat-nose FMJ in wood.

No HP ammo will reliably expand in solid objects - they are designed to expand in soft/liquid mediums.

If you're serious about woodpile hunting, you should probably move up to a more appropriate weapon for that.....

grisy11 said:

has any one shot any of them? and if so how did you like them?i shot a box of 20 and i thot that thay are junk.50 feet away and i had a vary hard time hiting a wood pile and when i did a fmj did a lot better then thay did.any input on them?
Thanks
Grisy11

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Set up 5-6 milk jugs full of water side by side, touching each other. Shoot at 7-10yds. away at the center of the end jug. The bullet will end up inside the 3 or 4th jug, with a perfect mushroom. What else could you ask for as a defense round??? Bill...

I have gold dots that hit wood too, they will not expand properly. None will when hitting wood. Also, if you were having problems hitting the woodpile I will put about 99.9999999% odds on it that it was not the ammos fault that was occuring.

I'm still questioning how much they expand. I load 230gn Hornady JHP XTP bullets (the same ones they use in the factory ammo) for my .45ACP 1911. This year I brought the pistol hunting with me to finish off the deer if they were still moving. I ended up shooting one of the deer through the skull while it was dying on the ground. It had a .45 cal entry and exit hole with no expansion. It was admittedly a small deer so I'm still unsure of the bullet's capabilities. It might just have to go through more tissue to expand. Think I'll run a few tests on hogs this year...

I shot a gnat with my .45 ACP JHP load and it didn't expand at all.

I'm still questioning how much they expand. I load 230gn Hornady JHP XTP bullets (the same ones they use in the factory ammo) for my .45ACP 1911. This year I brought the pistol hunting with me to finish off the deer if they were still moving. I ended up shooting one of the deer through the skull while it was dying on the ground. It had a .45 cal entry and exit hole with no expansion. It was admittedly a small deer so I'm still unsure of the bullet's capabilities. It might just have to go through more tissue to expand. Think I'll run a few tests on hogs this year...

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A while back a friend and I tested several different hollowpoints. We came to the conclusion that unless you are being attacked by wet newspaper or water filled milk jugs, the tests were useless.

1KPerDay said:

I shot a gnat with my .45 ACP JHP load and it didn't expand at all.

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Go down to Texas and try it on a really BIG gnat!

Not Hornady, but I only used 2 jugs and a pumpkin. WWB 230gr jhp lodged in back side of pumpkin:







I've also got some Winchester Ranger +P that i want to test next time
JHPs usually dont expand in wood or other hard stuff

chupacabrah said:

Not Hornady, but I only used 2 jugs and a pumpkin. WWB 230gr jhp lodged in back side of pumpkin:







I've also got some Winchester Ranger +P that i want to test next time
JHPs usually dont expand in wood or other hard stuff

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Finally, conclusive tests, for those seeking Halloween specific armament.......

Make sure you aren't downwind of those jugs.

ljnowell said:

A while back a friend and I tested several different hollowpoints. We came to the conclusion that unless you are being attacked by wet newspaper or water filled milk jugs, the tests were useless.

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From the amount of people testing bullets on them, one can only conclude attacks by wet newspaper and water filled milk jugs, must be a severe problem in some areas of the country......

From the amount of people testing bullets on them, one can only conclude attacks by wet newspaper and water filled milk jugs, must be a severe problem in some areas of the country......

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well, living in the snow belt and surviving another winter may depend on our ability to stave off another attack by the zombie snow people.
this years attack is scheduled for January 7th.

Grisy11:

Your bullets didn't expand because they are designed to expand in a fluid medium, like soft tissues, ordnance gelatin and water. A hollowpoint bullet requires inertial force resistance to expand. Soft tissues, ordnance gelatin and water provide this inertial force resistance. Whereas hard objects (wood, bone) subject a bullet to shear force resistance.

Hollowpoint bullets merely deform on impact with a hard object.

Furious George writes:

I ended up shooting one of the deer through the skull while it was dying on the ground. It had a .45 cal entry and exit hole with no expansion.

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Your bullet collided with hard bone tissue just beneath the skin, either clogging the hollowpoint cavity with bone tissue preventing expansion or simply deforming it and damaging it in a manner that prevented expansion. Hollowpoint bullets aren't designed to expand in bone.

ljnowell writes:

A while back a friend and I tested several different hollowpoints. We came to the conclusion that unless you are being attacked by wet newspaper or water filled milk jugs, the tests were useless.

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Wet newspapers and water-filled milk cartons provide a reasonable indication of bullet expansion performance when a bullet penetrates soft tissues because they possess similar inertial force resistance. Penetration performance can be estimated from water-filled milk cartons, but wet newspapers possess too much shear force resistance estimate penetration performance of handgun bullets with any practical degree of accuracy.

I've been shooting Hornady TAP. So far I like them. As far as accuracy goes, they seem just as accurate as any other I've shot. I haven't really experimented with the expansion though.

From the amount of people testing bullets on them, one can only conclude attacks by wet newspaper and water filled milk jugs, must be a severe problem in some areas of the country......

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I feel pretty confident about the milk jugs, but, in the event that we're attacked by wet newspaper I have the .357 ready to go for the extra stopping power.