AR for HD

[Bobarino]

FWIW, (exactly what you paid for it) i googled a lot and read a lot of ballistics and looked at a lot of gelatin blocks and such and settled on 64 gran soft points for HD. i wasn't super concerned with penetrating walls as it's pretty easy to be accurate with a rifle, especially in a home defense setting. i was more concerned with energy transfer and over penetrating the target. the SP's seem to be able to accomplish what i want it to best.

Bobby

 

[HankB]

For home defense from a 14.5" barrel, while I don't sneer at standard ball ammo, I'd choose any relatively heavy - that is, > 55 grains - softpoint that functioned well in my rifle . . . after all, I'm not limited by military rules of engagement, Hague accords, or anything else of the sort. There are a variety of commercial softpoints available weighing 60 grains or more - Federal even loads 60 grain Nosler Partitions! - and one of these would be my choice.

If I were concerned about lack of penetration, I'd alternate softpoint rounds in the magazine with SS109's, once I'd satisfied myself regarding point of impact and reliability.

But in my neck of the woods, bad guys aren't wearing body armor with ceramic trauma plates yet.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

btw, i have 4 sided brick home for whatever it's worth and have been studying .223/5.56 terminal ballistics so i'm confident with proper ammunition my bullets will not penetrate my drywalls.

As others have already pointed out, anything that will penetrate deep enough to reliably stop an attacker will easily penetrate several interior walls. If it can't penetrate 1" of gypsum powder covered in paper, it isn't going to do you much good against an attacker.

I have a 14.5", I know that even a 55gr fmj will disintegrate when it hits something at 2700 ft/s upto 65ft where i shoot. My house is 65ft from corner to corner. And 75gr upto 22ft i think. And that is at 2700ft/sec. With the soem of the reading that i can get they say that 75gr Hornady TAP 5.56 disintegrates relaibly at 2300ft/sec. If that is the case then i will be able to extend my range and still get bullet fragmentation that will provide me controlled penetration.

Two things to understand about those numbers:

1. Those velocities describe upset in flesh or a similar medium like ballistics gel, not drywall.
2. For M193 and M855, they can fail up to yaw up to 25% of the time even with sufficient velocity. You also need to understand that a phenomenon called "fleet yaw" affects this.

If you haven't read it already, give this thread a read:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=146306

My sidearm is 45 ACP. I think my 45 ACP will even penetrate more than the .223 But i will also start investing with some 230gr JHP Hornady TAPs and study it's balistics characteristics.

I just moved to a new home. Right now we have emergency plan with the pistol. Later we'll integrate the AR.

 

[Al Thompson]

I think this is the best "drywall V. bullets" article I've seen on the net. As the author mentions, boxotruth sort of missed the mark.

http://230grain.com/showthread.php?t=65428