Occasionally I’ll see someone using cheap, ball ammo for self defense. Sometimes this is borne out of simple frugality. More frequently it is the result of misunderstanding how modern, expanding, hollowpoint ammunition behaves. In this article I hope to convince you otherwise. Bottom line up front: don’t use FMJ ammo for self-defense if (and only if) you have better options available.
Here are three examples of fairly knowledgeable people using FMJ ammo for self defense.
In one instance I was working overseas as a contractor. We were issued Federal Hydra-Shok ammo for our Glock 17s. This was a dozen or so years ago; the Hydra-Shok was dated, but still considered decent ammo. I went to the range with a fellow employee who pulled out his combat-loaded magazines. To my surprise, they were all loaded with ball ammo. I asked him why and he stated, “if I have to shoot through a car or something those hollow points are just going to disintegrate.”
