Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Self defense Bullets?

Any suggestions for a self defense bullet for my 1-9 twist AR? SHTF bullet. Thanks, Ken

Our department uses 64 gr powerpoints

55 grain FMJ seem to work ok.

SHTF bullet can mean many things.... damn hard to answer that. Fall back to 55 fmj typically.... But do you need to penetrate? Penetrate vehicles/construction etc?? Or do you need it to not kill the kids in the next room or the neighbors in tghe next house? 55 soft point.....

I'll personally grab what i have layring around, anything from 77 bthp down to 55 ball or Barnes tsx 62s......

unless you need penetration, I'd go 55 bulk cheap softpoints.

Kinda brings up the question, why 1/9 twist when a 1/8 or 1/7 will handle a wider array of bullets?

If I was stuck with a 1/9 twist, I'd look at the 60 gr Nosler Partitions or Barnes 55 gr TSX.

Federal 62 gn. TBBC for factory loads, 45 gn TSX if You roll Your own.

Gunner

Sierra 69 gr BTMHP and Ramshot Tac

I wouldn't really consider myself "stuck" with a 1:9 barrel. There are plenty of good, expanding bullets in the 55-64gr range. The main reason that the military went to the heavier bullet is that they can't use an expanding bullet so they went with a heavier mass one.

The next big thing we will see is green bullets, mark my words, lead is out. This leads to either lighter bullets or longer bullets. I stand by my decision to dump my 1/9 twist guns and go with a minumim of 1/8.

Life is full of choices and a 1/9 twist will work with some bullets but a 1/8 or 1/7 will work with all. You decide.

Interesting reading here, especially the first paragraph.
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=19881

7 was my favorite for many years, but I don't shoot light bullets and certainly had/have no use for the 40ish grainers... 7 would shoot most 52s just fine...

my set aside for that coming rainy day includes several AR rifles with a 1:9 twist barrel, and many thousands of LC mil surp 55 grain FMJ. I don't feel under gunned, or the need to spend mega thousands of bucks on specialty SP bullets.

are you asking about "in your house" self defense bullets? In my poor opinion it kind of depends on where you live. Take your AR out to the range with some 64 grain WW power points along with some sheetrock, some 2 x 4's and make some fake walls, you can set up several fake walls back to back with 1 x 1 squares of sheetrock, try shooting thru the walls, then add some siding material, etc. Then figure where you neighbors house might be and where you might be pulling the trigger. On the other hand if you live on a farm forget it the 64 grain WW powerpoints while never producing pinpoint accuracy out of my guns (one was a Rock River 1-9 now gone) would definitely send an armed intruder that was threatening your life or the life of a loved one into the happy hunting ground. If you live in a neighborhood, buy and use a shotgun instead.

Seeing this is replied to a post that refers to green bullets coming, whtas a specialty SP bullet? BTW I figure if I'm staying where I"m at I can continue to reload... if folks come after me or its on the run.... and I have to shoot someone, then there is my next supply of ammo and guns and so on. No need to have10K rounds stashed away...

I worry about that as well and agree! If you have a fire in your house and you have 5000 rounds of 223 stashed in the house, when it starts popping the fire dudes are going to back off real quick...good bye house.

I'm just offering an opinion, you don't have to agree with me. I figure if we're gonna talk about shtf now, then we might as well explore all options and make changes while we can.

There are better options than M193 and M855 but they did make good practice rounds when bought by the case load for cheap. If I'm gonna bet my life on something though, I want it to be the best. I have no rules to follow on ammo choices.

I know a guy who was shot in the chest with a Remingto Golden Saber bullet in 40 cal at PBR, the bullet bounced around and made a mess of things but he was still walking around. Knew of a kid that shot himself in the chest with a 22LR and walked a mile or so back to the house. Knew another kid who shot himself in the leg with a 22lr while quick drawing his pistol and never told his parents about it.

Another interesting read.
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=26905

Not saying I want to stand in front of any bullet but people don't always just fall down and give up when shot...

Choose wisely.

1. There are exceptions to every rule.
2. Shoot him as many times as needed. Not just until he's dead, but until HE knows he's dead. With the price of premium .223 bullets, you can have an awful lot of M193. Besides, the chances of a real SHTF situation are pretty close to zero.

That's certainly one option but at the price of M193 or even XM193, I can reload cheaper and do.

1000 77 gr SMK's = $200
1000 CCI #41 primers = $40
3.5# of TAC = $50

1000 rds of XM193 = $299

Oh but then there's that 1/9 thingy...

Choose wisely.

For a self defense, in the house, bullet I would look for a 50 grain Vmax. I want it to dump its energy as fast as possible. I have kids and neighbors that I would worry about. So I don't want it to penetrate and keep going.

Now for a SHTF scenario I would go with a TSX or Partition. I would want a caliber that will expand and penetrate. And either of these would bring home meat if called upon.

I always liked the advise of my training officer... "Kid, shoot 'em until they go down or catch on fire!"