I refer to Seismic High Mass Ammunition, which offers very-heavy-for-caliber rounds in 12ga. shotgun slugs and 9mm. cartridges. Their slogan appears to be "Heavier Hits Harder".
I've often been asked by readers and other acquaintances what I think of ammunition for which better-than-standard and/or super-high performance is claimed. There's the Glaser Safety Slug, the infamous (and discredited) RBCD Performance Plus ammunition, the impressively named R.I.P. rounds from G2, and a host of others. Seismic joins a long line of companies who've claimed that their ammunition is significantly better than the norm for one reason or another.
Unfortunately, all of its predecessors have failed a simple acid test. There are people out there - not just police, who are often budget-constrained, but special forces units, private security firms contracting to governments, and so on - who literally depend for their lives upon the performance of their weapons and ammunition. It's not just the organizations, either: it's their individual members, most of whom earn enough to buy whatever extra gear they want, and who aren't about to waste their own money on something that's all hat and no cattle. To the best of my knowledge, none of these units and their individual members carry any of these "specialty" rounds, because they don't perform better than standard defensive ammunition when push comes to shove. If they did, such purchasers would be all over them. The fact that they're not tells its own story.
Some of these ammo manufacturers have made vague claims about "As used by special forces", or something like that: but if you press them, to pin down exactly which special forces they're talking about, they evade the issue by saying that they're contractually forbidden from identifying them. Yeah, right. You can rest assured that operators "on the ground" would be talking about it to their buddies if they found some hot new technology that really worked. The almost complete absence of such chatter says it all.
If you want to take guesswork out of the equation, the solution is simple. Buy ammunition that's been tested and approved, and is currently issued, by major law enforcement agencies and/or major security organizations. They know what they're doing, and they trust the lives of their members to the ammunition they buy. That's not a bad litmus test for the rest of us, and is why I carry rounds like Federal's HST or Hornady's Critical Duty in my defensive handguns. If I have to go to court over a defensive shooting, no lawyer will be able to allege that I bought super-enhanced-lethality ammo because I wanted to "blow away" his client. No, I'll have used rounds that any police agency might use. That will be a perfectly adequate defense against such claims.
Peter
Unless the manufacturer is using depleted uranium a "heavier for caliber" round is still going to be lead. This means more bullet and less powder because the cartridge case isn't going to be bigger. Less powder means less velocity. Velocity is an important part of the equation with ammunition. If you want a heavier bullet the best choice is to step up in caliber. Don't fal for the hype that comes with "new" things. Often those new things are a step backwards.
ReplyDeleteOne lesson I never forgot from HS Physics!
DeleteP = M * V
Momentum = mass x velocity
Mass and velocity are equally weighted in the equation.
There is an older Federal round that I like, but you shouldn't shoot it in smaller 9mms. I don't know if it is still offered, but since I have hundreds of rounds of it, it doesn't matter to me. The Federal designation is 9BPLE +P+ and it is a hot one, you can definitely tell the difference in recoil between it and a standard 9mm. The story goes that when the Illinois State Police first switched to the S&W 39, they were using fmjs and getting poor stopping power and asked Federal for something better. Supposedly this round garnered a lot of one shot stops. There used to be some video on You Tube showing the improved penetration and expansion with the 9BPLE.
ReplyDeleteIf I’m using a +P+ round, it’s going to be heavier than 115gr. Like Win 127gr and yes you can find 9BPLE in the wild. I seriously doubt reports of a very high speed, light for caliber bullet of cup and core non-bonded construction - getting adequate penetration.
DeleteBack when I had a Glock 21, the first three rounds were Black Talon and the rest were HydraShock based on some Dallas Police buddies recommendations.
ReplyDeleteApparently the trauma surgeons at Parkland had problems with the damage caused by the choice of bullets and had a few choice words for department.
It might be useful in a subsonic, suppressed role. I can't see much of a use for it otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI increased the weight of my 9mm carry piece to a 10mm carry piece. That extra 1mm made a huge difference in the damage my bullets could do.
ReplyDeleteThe defensive ammo I carry is the same as used by the local police (or the same brand for my revolver). It has the advantage of being both effective and, should I need to use it for real, legally defensible.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got my pistol permit the topic of round selection was discussed in the class. I brought up the notion of aggressive defense attorneys and hollow-points, etc. The instructor offered exactly your suggestion: buy Gold Dots and tell them if its good enough for the FBI, its good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteHe also recommend against any kind of exotic handload for exactly the same reasons you do - proven and tested is hard to beat!
"And is the super ammunition in the room with us now?"
ReplyDeleteWhile I doubt it matters much to military units, law enforcement has to keep in mind the legal side of using unusual ammunition. The fact that they use something nonstandard is going to light up the eyes of any attorney suing on behalf of a shooting victim (be they perp or innocent bystander) in a wrongful death or injury action.
ReplyDeleteShooting and opening a store are surprisingly similar - the three most important items are location, location and location. A .22 FMJ in the right spot will kill. A miss or graze does no good, no matter what the size and shape of the bullet is.
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind, first get trained. Learn how to shoot accurately, then go for speed. Next, practice. I find that I lose my pistol skill relatively quickly as opposed to shooting rifles. And finally, use a pistol that you are accurate with and will carry. Loading it with reliable ammunition is common sense, and I agree that using tested commonly used brands is very sensible.
I'll use FMJ training rounds before putting exotic ammunition in my pistol. In my limited experience, the exotic ammunition has a higher rate of jamming, failure to eject, or just plain failure to go off. The last thing anyone wants to hear when finally having to pull the trigger is 'click'.
Practice and shot placement
ReplyDeleteI used to agree with the average opinion here about use something already in use with fbi or police. However, as I have gotten older my handstrength is decreasing and recoil bothers me more and more as well as the weight on my belt of my pistol and a couple spare magazines.
ReplyDeleteI started looking at stuff like the fn 5.7 with lighter faster bullets for an easier shooting experience given the trend I'm seeing with my strength and grip, but I don't have the money for new guns, magazines and how pricey 5.7 is. my income has decreased as fast as my hand strength has. :)
I almost just gave up and stayed with what I had when I ran accros liberty ammunition and their all copper ammunition. Has very decent performance at self defense ranges and seems very reliable based on all the people that have left reviews around the web.
I shoot 40sw and gained almost 40% (guestimate) ftlbs of energy and dropped the weight of carried bullets by 60% ish.. might not sound like much but it added up to going from 1.06 lbs of lead to .38 lbs of copper. It actually for me makes a difference in carry weight comfort.
specs on the rounds i carry
Weight: 60gr
Velocity: 2000 FPS
Kinetic Energy: 533 FPE
Accuracy: < 1” @ 25 Meters
Rounds: 20 per box
Terminal Effect: 3 ½ “W x 12” D
Compared To Other Top Self-Defense Rounds
- 34 to 39% less felt recoil
- 70 to 95% more velocity
- 5 to 23% more kinetic energy
- Reduced over-penetration
- More stopping power
Most calibers in this stuff was seeing decent gains in performance and weight loss in my opinion. However 9mm performance really seems lackluster based on their published specs. Not less than standard but not a significant gain compared to other calibers.
they pretty much average 2 dollars a round retail accross almost every caliber they sell in this stuff which is to me high but everything is nowdays. I have found that I can get it at midway usa and opticsplanet on sale a couple times a year for about 1.27 a round on sale. I don't see such good pricing on other calibers often if at all but for 40sw it has been repeatable for the last 3 or 4 years.
summary is that I was looking a lighter less recoil weapon based on getting old and having arthritis in my hands. I was able to get some of that on both counts by going to a more modern amunition concept usable in my same platform. I used to use speer gold dot lawman and very much like it.