I don't have a problem with handloading for self defense, although as a practical matter you'd want to be able to say something in court like, "I hand load to the same specifications as the ammo used by my local police department."growlerVII wrote:Not trying to start a "legal" discussion. I hand load for all my guns. In .45acp I've seen good results from the 200g Hornady jhp's. I.e: shot through homemade gel with cow bones mixed in. Simulated tissue damage is amazing! The 230g fmj's are just as bad. When they hit something harder than meat they'll yaw, ricochet, etc. I'd say either one will do. The great thing about .45 is that practice ammo=s/d ammo. Jmho.
As an aside: 230g lrn work pretty good too. They tend to wrap around harder stuff and drag it through tissue, or break apart. And they CHEAP.
The problem with FMJ isn't that they won't hurt a bad guy. My dad shot a Japanese soldier in the abdomen from a few steps away with his 1911 on Iwo Jima. The enemy soldier died, pretty much on the spot. The gun was stoked with GI-issue ball ammo. So the issue isn't that FMJ won't badly wound or kill the bad guy. The issue is whether or not FMJ makes a good responsible SD round, when other people are around. There IS a strong possibility of overpenetration with FMJ. You can argue all you want that isn't the case, but I've seen the exit wounds from ball ammo in virtually any pistol caliber you care to name, in hundreds of patients over the years (most of whom survived being shot, by the way). If your bullet scrubs off a couple hundred FPS passing through the bad guy's body, your 230 grain FMJ could still collect a bystander's aorta or brain at 650 FPS, which is certainly fast enough to kill the innocent party too. If the thought of that doesn't bother you because you feel like you'll have total control over whomever might step into the path of a bullet of yours, not realizing they've entered a free-fire zone, then by all means use FMJ. Personally, I think you'll be sorry.
On the other hand (and this goes, pretty much regardless of caliber), if you want to make sure that you shoot the bad guy, and ONLY the bad guy, then carry JHPs - which in most instances, with a COM shot, are going to stop inside the bad guy's body instead of passing clean through and killing someone you didn't intend to shoot. Also, JHP strikes to the soft tissues of the extremities are far more likely to incapacitate due to than a clean pass through of an FMJ. And believe me......I've seen this stuff up close and personal many many times.....a 200-230 grain JHP in the 800-950 FPS range is just as likely to break a femur or humerus as any FMJ. But unless it's a magnum caliber greater than .4", that JHP isn't likely to make an exit wound.
CAVEAT: if you're shooting .41 magnum or .44 magnum, or even .357 magnum using a bonifide 158 grain hunting load, then not only count on a JHP over penetrating, but also count on a fairly significant exit wound. Also count on the attendant liabilities surround the shooting of innocent bystanders.
But most of us aren't carrying magnum revolvers in calibers ≥ .4". That means, pack JHPs and don't open yourself up to unwanted liabilities. You can't recall a bullet once it has left your muzzle. Ergo, yes, FMJs can be effective against an attacker, but they are a poor choice for SD, unless there simply isn't any alternative. And the truth is, in the United States - even in the anti gun states - you can pretty much count on being able to find JHP ammo in the caliber(s) you need......or JHP bullets if you're going to roll your own.
