Hollowpoint or Ball

[Smokewagon]

Does anyone here carry ball ammo in their semi-auto other than at the range? I use hollowpoint for carry for all the reasons that most of us already know, but there must be those who prefer ball. What is your reasoning if so, for ball ammo?

[Mithras61]

I don't carry ball, but my father does. He wants to be able to shoot through things (like walls) if he needs to, and feels ball will do this better than hollow point. I've talked to him about the performance of modern hollow points in such a situation, but he still likes ball better.

He also feels more comfortable in the reliability of ball in his (older) 1911.

[carlson1]

He also feels more comfortable in the reliability of ball in his (older) 1911.

[Thane]

I've carried FMJ in my 1911s before. I'm not overly bothered by it - .45 ACP is a big, (relatively) slow round, and to my thinking less likely to overpenetrate than .40 or 9mm. Even though FMJ doesn't expand, it's still a .45 hole, too, plenty big enough to do damage.

That being said, I normally have 200 grain +P Hornady XTPs loaded (soon to switch to 230 grain XTPs, soon as I get 'em loaded). I'll carry the FMJ when I'm out of my normal carry ammo, but I just prefer the hollowpoint.

In smaller calibers, I'd carry ball ammo if and only if no hollowpoints were available. Yeah, with proper shot placement it'll still work, but I'm just not as comfortable with it.

[KRM45]

Does anyone here carry ball ammo in their semi-auto other than at the range? I use hollowpoint for carry for all the reasons that most of us already know, but there must be those who prefer ball. What is your reasoning if so, for ball ammo?

I carry FMJ in my Keltec p3at. It feeds better, and I want more penetration with the .380.

I actually had the chance to shoot a deer with this gun last fall, and of the two rounds that entered the deer niether exited the chest cavity, so I'm not too worried about over pentration.

[AV8R]

When I was younger, I used a 9mm with mil SMG hard ball exclusively. That was a high-powered round, and felt a lot like a .357 mag when I shot it. The few times I got in a real jam, I was very, very glad I had the SMG rounds, and not HPs.

These days, I mostly stay in the US. I'm not expecting much to happen up here, so I use HPs mostly when I know I'm going to be in crowds. One shot of JHP should be a stopper, and fewer shots mean fewer chances for an accident. Hardball is my preference, still, when I don't have to worry about the background, as when I'm traveling by car or out in the country. It's cheaper, more reliable in most guns, and in .45, stops almost as well as JHP, so they say. The extra penetration with hardball is more likely to be an advantage to me, though, than the (slightly) bigger hole the JHP makes.

That being said, my preference in JHPs is Fed HS, Gold Dots, or anything else handy. In FMJ, Federal, Winchester, or Remington is what I usually wind up with. These loads shoot pretty tight groups in my guns.

[TX Rancher]

I know several folks who carry ball for reliability (feeding) reasons in their 1911's.

Not sure I agree with the worry about shooting through walls...It seems HP don't typically expand when passing through walls, at least dry wall. It just fills the gap and you effectively end up with ball ammo when it exits the wall.

BTW, I use 230G JHP in my 45's

[MoJo]

I carry JHP in all my carry guns . If I was out of JHP then I'd carry FMJ but, as soon as I could I'd change back.

For a civilian, barrier penetration is low on the list of attributes of ammunition.

Regarding the effectiveness of .45 FMJ opposed to 9mm FMJ - - - both are very low on the stopping power charts having very similar percentages.

[Mithras61]

I know several folks who carry ball for reliability (feeding) reasons in their 1911's.

Not sure I agree with the worry about shooting through walls...It seems HP don't typically expand when passing through walls, at least dry wall. It just fills the gap and you effectively end up with ball ammo when it exits the wall.

BTW, I use 230G JHP in my 45's

I hear ya. My father doesn't have dry wall in his home, though. It's mostly old wall board that was put in when the place was built (1929-ish) and looks like someone took about 25 sheets of heavy paper and layered it together with some carpenter's glue. I expect shooting through his wals would be a lot like shooting through a paperback book unless you hit one of the oak 4x4's that the paperboard lies over (and yes, they are "real" 4x4's like they used to use - 4" by 4" not 3.875" or such). I don't have a clue how well either ball or hollowpoint would work, but I suspect expansion wouldn't be part of any equation for any round that made it out of the wall. He may well carry ball because it would work as well in that situation, and it costs less as well as being more reliable. I've only had one conversation with him about his loads, and he was a little reticent about discussing it with me.

[BadCo45ACP]

what conditions would require the use of a .380 to shoot a deer?

[Venus Pax]

I use hollow points in both of my carry guns. The only time I didn't was when both were in the shop and I had to lug a HiPoint around.

[AV8R]

For a civilian, barrier penetration is low on the list of attributes of ammunition.

Regarding the effectiveness of .45 FMJ opposed to 9mm FMJ - - - both are very low on the stopping power charts having very similar percentages.

Thanks for keeping us old guys up-to-date on the latest and greatest news from the gun world. Some of us geezers had no idea that hardball performs so poorly, especially in .45. By the way, where can we get some of those "stopping power charts", so we will have something to smack the bad guys with after we shoot up all of our ammo?