Ammo for home defense in apartment complex

[slacker]

I have been doing some reading about different types of ammunition for personal defense, and stumbled across some articles and forum posts about frangible ammunition for situations where over penetration can cause serious problems.

I live in an apartment complex that seems to have pretty thin drywall walls, and while I pray that I will never have to use my firearm in the apartment I like having the option in case a situation does come up.

From what I have seen there are almost as many kinds of ammunition as there are guns!

One popular type I have found is Glaser Blue Safety Slug
73103 - 9mm Luger +P, Glaser Safety Slug Handgun Cartridge, Blue, 80 Grain, 1650 Feet Per Second, 484 Muzzle Energy, 6 Pack

I have also come across Mag-Safe and a few other manufactures.

What 9mm round would provide decent stopping power and a reduced risk of over penetration in an apartment?

Here are a couple of articles that got me thinking about this topic


Accidental Gunshots Vex LAPD - Los Angeles Times (near the bottom it talks about an apartment incident)

XD Accidental Discharge - XDTalk Forums - Your HS2000/SA-XD Information Source!

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Boston-Officers-Accidental-Discharge-Pierces-Girls-Bed/1$29231

 

[indyjoe]

I HATE the term ACCIDENTAL discharge. They are almost always NEGLIGENT. And almost always caused by putting the bugger hook and the bang switch when it Shouldn't be there. I've had a negligent discharge, due to using a crappy holster.

I didn't buy specific ammo because I liven in an Apartment complex. How is missing a bad guy and shooting through your wall different than being outside and missing a bad guy and shooting INTO a house? Also the price of these safety slugs is often too much to make you really want to function test a sufficient number in your pistol. It would cost $100 to just test 50 rounds (the minimum I do of a carry round.)

Make sure you practice indexing your trigger finger along the frame, any time you are not on target. This will do more good than magic ammo. IMHO of course.

 

[rmcrob]

This is from my reading, not from experience. I've purchased jacketed hollow point 9mm cartridges for home defense. Word is that they will expand and not overpenetrate like a full metal jacket will, at handgun velocities. That will not, of course, help you when you miss the target.

I just got some +P+ JHP stuff from Cheaper Than Dirt. It was cheaper than dirt.

 

[slacker]

That is a very good point about using ammo outside and having it go into a building / car / whatever else. never really thought about that. Just seems like something should be different in a home setting.

Maybe I will just pick up some Gold Dots and a few other JHP rounds for testing and make whichever performs best my primary personal defense round

 

[cosermann]

I'd ask myself if I were more worried about being dead or about a bullet penetrating a wall.

Generally, frangible ammo designed not to penetrate walls doesn't penetrate flesh very well either; thus, having inadequate ability to rapidly incapacitate a threat.

Glaser blue generally penetrates 5-7 inches in ballistic gel, while the Glaser silver penetrates 8-10 inches.

Neither penetrates the 12" minimum of the FBI protocol.

You could do just as well at "in apartment" distances with an inexpensive shotgun loaded with #12 or #6 shot respectively. Neither of which should be recommended for personal defense, BTW.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/images/Wound%20Profiles/357%20Magnum%20Glaser.jpg

Save the bird shot for fragile little birds.

I don't think any PD is using Glasers anymore, BTW. There's a reason for that.

Also, don't assume the Glaser WON'T go through a couple of walls. I've seen tests where it did. It actually went through walls better than flesh. So, to top it all off, they're inconsistent performers. When they "work" they don't penetrate enough. When they don't, they penetrate way more than the reason you picked them in the first place! It's a lose/lose situation.

 

[shooter521]

What 9mm round would provide decent stopping power and a reduced risk of over penetration in an apartment?

There are two big problems here:

1) Any round that penetrates less in building materials, will also penetrate less badguy, as well. Personally, I'd worry about stopping the fight first, and overpenetration second. If ammo X doesn't do the former, I don't care about the latter.
The Box O' Truth #23 - ExtremeShock™ Ammo and the Box O' Truth - Page 1

2) "Trick" ammo like Glaser, MagSafe and Air Freedom are prohibitively expensive, which makes function testing and regular practice with them problematic. Further, because they are of nontraditional weight and construction, there's no cheap ball equivalent available for training purposes.

My advice?
1) Establish "safe" fields of fire within your apartment, which offer the least chance for a round (either a miss or overpenetration) to go someplace where it can do collateral damage.

2) If you do have to shoot, remember Rule 4 (be sure of your target and what is beyond it)

3) Apartment living sucks ass

Good luck...

 

[slacker]

I was sort of scouting out my apartment to get a better sense of what is beyond each of my walls. My front door (and only realistic way in to my 3rd floor apartment) is adjacent to my only shared wall.

Basically my apartment sucks from a defensive standpoint, but hey, its a nice place to live

For now I will stick to some decent "non-trick" ammo for personal defense.

Thanks for all the great replies so far. I really appreciate this forum's knowledge and wisdom!

 

[indyjoe]

3) Apartment living sucks ass

But so does that big mortgage payment.

 

[Crystalship1]

Hmmm......

Well..... there is this stuff: AMM-463 - Ammo 9mm DRT124 Grain 50 Round Box Fine Powder Core Lead Free Accurate and Deadly

More here: Dynamic Research Technologies - lead free frangible ammunition in time proven calibers

YouTube DRT video here: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERAfQiIRUyE[/ame]

The ratings from users are pretty impressive as are the manufacturer's claims.

 

[Disposable Heart]

DRT ammo=exotic ammo. Very expensive and probably as effective as Glaser crap. Thre was a police report where a man unloaded a whole cylinder of Glaser silver into the guy, the guy ran off and made a formal report to the police BEFORE admitting to the hospital.

9mm you say? Easy! If you handload, the sky is the limit. A very fast, but light projectile would be great. I am thinking of maybe a 102gr. Golden Saber going about 1400 fps. Would fragment inside the guy and ruin his day.

Also, any of the Corbon stuff is great, but low penetration stuff like their 90 grain and 115 grain stuff. The 125 is great as a carry load, but could penetrate due to weight. The Corbon stuff is loaded with Sierra Powerjackets, a bullet design from when bullets didnt go that fast, so they open quick and have weak jacketing (Noslers on the other hand, open up, then fold back into a bullet and keep going if you get them fast enough).

147 grain stuff seems to do great on the street, but may be heavy enough on a smaller dude to overpenetrate.

Biggest thing is to not compensate for lack of training with equipment. Train in shot placement, use the appt as concealment. Someone breaks in, have those lights off and make as minimal of a visible target as possible. Just the gun and one eye should be around that corner (slice that pie, I like em Cherry).

 

["ThatGuy"]

what i did for my home protection handgun, i have a clip set up with 3 rounds. The first is an ALS rubber ball round and the other 2 are Federal LE Hollowpoints. In the event of a break-in, I'd give my verbal warning, then if they proceeded, the Rubber (deterant) shot, and if the person kept advancing, then 2 shots.

 

[JohnLloydScharf]

This is from my reading, not from experience. I've purchased jacketed hollow point 9mm cartridges for home defense. Word is that they will expand and not overpenetrate like a full metal jacket will, at handgun velocities. That will not, of course, help you when you miss the target.

I just got some +P+ JHP stuff from Cheaper Than Dirt. It was cheaper than dirt.

If you do some research, you will find they do not expand at close range.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I too live in an apartment.

This my load out

9mm: 147 grain Winchester Ranger SXT JHP
40: 180 grain Magtech JHP
Shotgun: 00 Buck
AK: 123 grain MFS soft points

If I know I do not have a feasible shot I'm not going to shoot.

 

[drgnrobo]

Remington has Ultimate Home defense rounds boasting great stopping power without over penetration of walls.I have some for my 40 cal & comes w/ 5 extra rds instead of 20