Home Defense Ammo

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balvarez4882

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Hey guys I am new here and I’m looking for advice on a good home defense round. My primary weapon for this is a G22. I specifically mean home defense, not personal defense. For outside the house I have some PDX1s, but I’m looking for a good round for the house, that if fired I don’t have to worry as much about it being lethal when traveling through the walls. Something along the concept of the Federal Guard Dog ammo, does anyone have any experience with this? Most of the reviews I have read about this ammo comment on its low penetration and since the rounds are designed for low penetration that really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

I’m not really concerned with the penetration of a single round, because the chances of me shooting an intruder only one time is very slim. Shoot until the threat is down; my concern is my family in the other rooms.

Thanks for any help and advice in advance.
 
Just about any commonly available firearm can easily penetrate the interior walls of most modern homes. Even loadings traditionally recommended for reduced penetration such as birdshot or frangible ammunition like Glaser will still penetrate multiple sheets of drywall.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot4.htm

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot14_4.htm

Because of this, the best way to compensate for the possibility of overpenetration is not an adjustment in ammunition, but rather an adjustment in tactics. Make a plan with your family so as to position them in areas where they will be at the lowest risk. Also, if at all possible, try to position yourself at angles which will minimize the risk of overpenetration to other members of your family. Simple things like shooting down from the top of a staircase or taking a knee before shooting can, under the right circumstances, change the trajectory of a bullet enough to minimize the risk to others.

The PDX1 ammunition that you already have is excellent personal defense ammo. Because no other ammunition can be guaranteed not to overpenetrate, I see no reason to use anything different than what you already have.
 
I like the concept of the Guard Dog ammo, expanding fmj is what I think they call it. It flattens out when hit, which increases the diameter as well spreads the energy over a flat surface dissipating more energy. Also since its not a hollow there is no chance of the point getting plugged and it turning into a standard fmj. I'm just not sure how well concept and reality come together with this one.
 
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I live out in the country and don't have to worry about punching a hole in a neighbor. A 12ga with #1 or 00 buck is what I usually have handy. My Marlin 336 with 170 grain hollow points cast in ir cooled wheel weight I know would suffice at 2200fps as well ...plus the little marlin is quite compact.

When over penetration was a concern, I have had the shotgun stoked with #4 buck. My clip draw 340PD is light enough to ride at 4:30 in my chonies as a back up gun. My wife laughed when I got back from turning the dogs loose on someone who was trying to steal some property...said with me carrying a lever action, and backup revolver in the boxers, and a pair of slippers that I looked like a gay cowboy.
 
Here in my area all the houses are brick so I am not nearly as concerned with a round leaving my house and entering a neighbor's as I am it penetrating the interior walls. My house is pretty well designed in a way that if I fired down the hallway or towards any of the entrance ways into my home, that the round would be no where near the bedrooms. I'm just trying to be as safe as I can be. Realistically no one is going to be able to sneak into my house without alarming my 75lb Pitbull and my 80lb Lab/Boxer and they will probably deter most intruders from actually coming in, as well as alarm me to an intruders possible presence.

I had just heard about the Guard Dog type of ammo and was curious about other/similar round technologies that may be out there.
 
I keep glaser in the first 3 rounds in my magazine and then its critical defense by hornady. over penetration can be a problem but so can under penetration. I'll use my 1st 3 rounds to help me get to a better position where me or the intruder are not pointing towards any of my family. but hopefully my first couple shots will drop em and itll be over.
 
I keep glaser in the first 3 rounds in my magazine and then its critical defense by hornady. over penetration can be a problem but so can under penetration. I'll use my 1st 3 rounds to help me get to a better position where me or the intruder are not pointing towards any of my family. but hopefully my first couple shots will drop em and itll be over.
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Thanks, I'll look into those. I haven't noticed those in any of the shops around here, where do you get those from?
 
Don't make too many assumptions about Glasers. Notice in the first link that I posted in post #2, that the 9mm Glaser still penetrated six sheets of drywall which would be equivalent to about three interior walls.
 
Don't make too many assumptions about Glasers. Notice in the first link that I posted in post #2, that the 9mm Glaser still penetrated six sheets of drywall which would be equivalent to about three interior walls.
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That, and feed reliability in autos is hit or miss from what I've heard from acquaintances. Some autos run perfectly on them, others don't. So it is advisable to do extensive testing but at roughly $2 a pop out the door, that can get a little expensive. So if you require 100 trouble free rounds through each magazine and you keep 3 loaded mags, that's $600 just in testing :eek: .
 
@balvarez you can order them online if any local stores dont have any. cor-bon makes them so i think they are pretty reliable. (but then again i carry a glock so every round is reliable:D) i have only shot 3 rounds of it so far since it is about 18$ for 6.
 
Brick, really?

balvarez4882 said:
Here in my area all the houses are brick so I am not nearly as concerned with a round leaving my house and entering a neighbor's as I am it penetrating the interior walls.
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Depending on how old they are, most brick homes are actually brick veneer. I'm not saying anything about your house in particular, but before counting on it, I would make sure.

Lost Sheep
 
We live in Hurricane country so its pretty standard for them to be real brick around here. That is just another reason that I would like a lower penetrating round for home defense use.
 
cor-bon makes them so i think they are pretty reliable. (but then again i carry a glock so every round is reliable) i have only shot 3 rounds of it so far since it is about 18$ for 6.
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The reliability issues are not because of poor quality control, but because the difference in bullet profile and recoil (due to the extremely light-for-caliber bullets) can cause feeding and extraction issues in some guns. It's generally recommended that at least 50-100 rounds, if not more, of a given loading be tested in a gun before relying upon it for self defense. Given the price of Glasers, 50-100 rounds is going to be rather spendy.
 
I think the laws of physics conspire to make it so that a projectile that has the characteristics that make it able to stop a human attacker also causes it to penetrate drywall, plywood, aluminum siding etc...

I thought about getting a bullet proof door for my kids room, and when I researched it I found that I'd need a new heavy-duty frame and door jam to hold a heavy door like that up. Also thought about replacing the drywall with bullet resistant fiberglass sheets. I figured I would need 2 sheets of the Level II HPSA - which would stop .357 and 9mm +P+ rounds, pretty much everything short of .44 Magnum and rifle rounds. Each sheet is around $1,000 A bullet resistant door was a little over $1,200 when I included the necesary frame. So I was looking at over $3,200 to make my kids room bullet resistant.

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cor-bon makes them so i think they are pretty reliable. (but then again i carry a glock so every round is reliable) i have only shot 3 rounds of it so far since it is about 18$ for 6.
The reliability issues are not because of poor quality control, but because the difference in bullet profile and recoil (due to the extremely light-for-caliber bullets) can cause feeding and extraction issues in some guns.
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And it doesn't seem to matter the model of auto either. I did meet one guy at the range years ago with a Glock (19 IIRC) that was a single shot pistol with Glasers. So he was going to look into getting a Ruger GP100, which is probably a pretty good plan if you are considering "boutique" oddball rounds for defense. Revolvers typically don't care what you shoot out of them (you can shoot potpourri scented toilet paper wads at the bad guy if you really, really wanted to ;)) .

For the price of the ammo alone just for testing, you'd have an excellent excuse to go buy another gun (like a used .38 Special S&W K Frame) if you don't already have one :D . You'd still have to do some reliability testing of course, just not as much.
 
I think you are looking at the wrong factor here.

Have you thought about modifying your Tactics rather than looking for an Gear solution?

Can you setup no-shoot zones within your house to minimize the effects of missed shots?

Can you lay out your house so that attackers are funneled into your "kill zones" and away from your family?

Can you train your family on what to do in case of a break in, get in a closet, hide behind bookshelves, get under beds, etc. That will futher reduce chances of an accidental shooting?

Can you plan to take a knee or go prone and fire upwards so that the trajectory of missed rounds go into a "safe" zone?

Have you practiced any of the things you are planning on doing with your family or are you just planning on "winging it"? (Dry run of course, no live rounds, preferrably with a blue/toy gun)

I think trying to find an acceptable Gear solution (as in special rounds) to this will potentially cause nearly as many problems as it might solve.

SWAT teams intentionally break into peoples homes all the time as part of their jobs and they don't use these specialty rounds.
 
I am familiar with the other tactics and shooting positions to make a safer trajectory, but I wanted to add to them with fancy bullet technologies if there were any
 
.40S&W home protection rounds...

I didn't read all the topic posts, but for home defense, I'd look at a few of these highly rated factory rounds;
Winchester Ranger T bonded 165/155gr JHP, Corbon DPX, Hornady TAP/Critical Defense/Critical Duty, DoubletapAmmo 165gr or 135gr JHP, Speer Gold Dot 165gr JHP, Remington Golden Saber bonded 165gr JHP, MagSafe SWAT, Corbon PowRball, Glaser Safety Slugs.

I disagree with many of the forum members/gun owners who knock frangible or exotic loads(TAP, Glaser, MagSafe, etc). A few brands like LeMas & ExtremeShockUSA are all hype & hot air but those firms shouldn't lower the value of a practical home protection load IMO.
A home owner or armed citizen with no neighbors or bystanders close by isn't dealing with the same standards as a gun owner in a hotel/office bldg/gated community/apt bldg/etc.
A fast, powerful .40 bullet could crack thru a wall or wood. A MagSafe, TAP or Glaser Safety Slug may not.

Clyde
 
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