Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Would you ever load hardball for defense?

Probably like most of you, my defensive handguns are loaded with Hydra-shok, HST+P or Critical Defense ammunition. We've all seen what expanding ammo does in soft tissue and I'm thinking that it might be even too good in certain situations. Case in point. We had a case in town last week where a guy was kicking the door to get in and the homeowner shot him in the leg which ended the threat. Nothing further on the news, but I'm thinking what if it could have just been a drunk that thought it was his house or a domestic dispute locking the guy out? A hardball round sure wouldn't be considered less than lethal, but just not as lethal as what some of us are loading. What are your thoughts?

The only reason to carry FMJ is if you are out of JHP.

I have premium hollow point ammo in .32 ACP, but when I carry my Kel-Tec P32, it's loaded with FMJ. In a caliber that weak, your priority has to be penetration, not expansion.

The thought of carrying FMJ as a less lethal alternative to JHP in case you need to wing a bad guy to mitigate damage rather than shoot for vital fight stopping organs with an expanding bullet is stunningly stupid!

I'm not sure what the police carry loaded, but very few perps recover from a police shooting. Their situation is different than a homeowner, but I'm sure there have been situations where they wanted something between a +P hollow point and a stun gun.

It was always such a letdown when Capt. Kirk ordered "Set phasers to stun!"

The answer to that isn't found in handgun or rifle ammo. There are some less lethal shotgun rounds.

How was the homeowner able to shoot the guy in the leg?

Did he shoot through the door? Did he open the door and shoot the quy?

I cannot follow the logic - not enough detail.

In general - my answer is this. I do not want to kill anyone. If I have to use a weapon, I am not going to shoot to wound. I am going to shoot untill the threat is stopped. If in stopping the threat my actions are lethal, then so be it.

So to answer your question - if one has time aim carefully and shoot a "lethal threat" in the leg - then that suggests to me that the threat was probably not lethal in the first place - and a weapon probably should not have been deployed.

Shooting someone in self defense had better be your only resort - and in that case "not as lethal" doesn't enter the equation.

Sure, if it was all I had, & so would anyone else with even a smidgen of a brain......................beats hell out of an empty gun every single time.

MM

So you didn't want to use lethal force, just hurt them a little bit..

If that is your thought process, unload your gun and put it away completely.

If you use a firearm, and make a statement such as that, you have just earned a one way ticket to prison(+/- the giant civil suit). You have just stated that you did not believe the situation warranted deadly force, but you used a deadly weapon anyway.


You have absolutely NO defense in that case. NONE. ZERO.

I often carry non-expanding loads for self defense, but not for the reason you described.

When your town has a gun buy back program take all your guns and turn them in.... you say some really dumb things here, this is no surprise to me

Exactly!

I carry non expanding ammo in numerous guns. For various reasons. Penetrating animals, vehicles, etc.

Some older 1911s simply are most reliable with traditional ball profiles, and I consider reliability of paramount performance. I would rather have a 1911 full of ball ammo that I know is going to run 100% of the time, versus a 1911 that is "pretty" reliable with JHPs. Frankly a good SWC or hard cast flat nose is no slouch in the terminal performance game from my experience.

Worrying about terminal performance is definitely secondary to reliability.

What's crazy is that this nonsense will go 4 pages, minimum. Ask people to actually shoot guns and it's crickets.

Let these guys load whatever they want. They'll probably miss anyway.

^^^This^^^ x10

+1

I still carry .45 ACP ball ammo. Nothing wrong with it at all.

I usually stagger my magazines HP, FMJ, HP, FMJ, HP...

That way if I need to just wing someone I can shoot a round into the dirt until the appropriate bullet is chambered.

Actually a lot of us shoot pretty frequently, but aren't interested in split times or big-name drills. I'm not knocking that; it has its place.