Over on TTAG’s Rumble channel we’ll be doing regular “The Truth About…” videos. I promise with better audio quality than the first one, The Truth About Hollow Points, embedded below. The Truth About…buying a silencer, GLOCKs, barrel length and accuracy, CCW holders, subsonic ammunition, the AR-15, machine gun ownership, etc. Don’t hesitate to email us or comment below with topic requests.

Episode 1: The Truth About Hollow Points. Looking for hollow point ammo to call your own? It’s at Brownells.

[On some mobile browsers the Rumble video embed may not work. Click HERE to watch the video if you see an error bar above.]

 

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28 COMMENTS

  3. I find it interesting that the Gun Writers went from describing bullets as either hollow points or soft points to using the term “expanding bullets” which was a clever ploy to promote the myth that modern soft point and hollow point bullets always expand. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Whether or not a bullet actually expands can get very complex as the variables are many including the distance to the target which results in less and less velocity as the distance increases.

    Expansion involves what type of clothing is being worn as hollow points are notorious for filling up their nose cavities with cloth which often causes them either not to expand at all or not expand as they were designed to expand.

    Expansion involves the angle the bullet enters the body as the longer the path of the bullet the more likely it will expand. Someone shot from the side where the bullet enters the arm and then the body will expand more than a person hit perhaps in the stomach where it travels less and encounters no bones which brings up the next variable.

    Bullets hitting bone will often fly to pieces or expand much wider than bullets that only go through soft tissue.

    Then there is the failure of an expanding bullet to penetrate deep enough to reach the vitals. In the infamous Miami shootout an 115 grain 9mm hollow point entered the felons arm and then went into the body cavity stopping just short of the heart. It seems as though the Miami police did not study ballistic history well enough because the German Army found out in WWI that the 115 grain fmj bullets did not penetrate enough so after the war they recalled all the German Lugers and installed heavier springs so they could use the 124 grain projectiles which brings us to the next variable.

    Police are faced with the dilemma of whether to use a lighter weight bullet that will not overpenetrate and go on to hit bystanders but fail to penetrate to the vitals or use the heavier bullets that penetrate too much and do kill bystanders but also can be relied on to reach the vitals. In other words there is no perfect weight bullet.

    • Damn little d! whoever you plagiarized that from deserves credit, they did a decent job. You on the other hand probably still need to clean your room and take the trash out. Mommy might get you more pizza rolls

    • cool story bro. now give credit to whomever you stole it from. and clean your room mommy might get you more pizza rolls

    • Quite Right.
      The solution to hollow point bullets failing to expand is a either a Desert Eagle chambered in .50 BMG, or a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slugs or “harmless” buckshot.

    • Have been a lot of lead magnets stayed on their feet until a load of 00 buck to the head dropped them,and on the other hand is the .22 short, rim fire round that is capable of a one shot drop in some situations.

    • Dacian: The term expanding bullets is used because of the various designs of bullets that do expand but aren’t necessarily hollow points such as the Hornady flex tips or the Glaser Powerball

    • This just in!
      Dacian is an idiot!
      In related news, San Fran city streets are covered in poop! Socialist government is at a loss for why!

    • This is another age old conversation over calibers and projectiles. Yes yes we all know the history where we evaluate the pros and cons of high pressure loads that deliver shock but over penetrate. People argue for .45 because its a slower velocity. People argue that police liked .357 because it can penetrate a windshield, or that 9mm wasn’t enough and 10mm was too much so we have .40 which was perfect…except it wasn’t on firearms designed for 9mm and then 9mm had a renaissance in technology and popularity…again and it was back in the good graces of the masses.

      Hornady plugs the hollow portion of a projectile, along with other manufacturing techniques that prevent the projectile from filling with clothing and not expanding or with the Critical Duty, more delay with thicker jackets and other intricacies in manufacturing to allow for greater delay time in expansion.

      Good Grief, are we seriously not over the caliber and projectile war yet?? It’s 2024 for crying out loud!!

    • The nation is fairly evenly split. There is very little grey area anymore. The vast majority of this country have chosen their sides. The notion of the single issue voter only ever worked as long as that grey area existed. You can point out the difference between those in charge vs. the common man but that just doesn’t mean what it used to.

      This is a state of being that might well have always been there. But the lines that define the two sides started really coming into focus with 9-11. The other side went nuts when Trump won and those defining lines became a serious matter to be dealt with when Covid hit. What we have right now is not sustainable and will lead to a national divorce if we don’t grt a president that actually is a uniter. That is’t what Biden is and that is painfully obvious. What both sides must understand is that this is a disintegration of the US and is exactly what this worlds communist dictators want.

      Tread lightly fellow Americans. But the only way to survive is going to be through that ‘rugged individualism’ held together primarily with conservatism based on freedom and the word of the Holy Bible.

      • “What we have right now is not sustainable and will lead to a national divorce if we don’t grt a president that actually is a uniter.”

        With two, unalterably opposed, views of what the nation should be and do, is there any uniting possible? What partnership is there between good and evil?

      • The word of the Constitution of The United States.
        But No.
        Keep the grapes and fiddles hid
        Nero’s about to flip his lid
        America was nice when I was a kid
        What we should have done and what we did.

  5. 23 years of police work and a gnawing interest in wound ballistics. Coroners in two counties humored my interest. When hollow points are used about half of them expand. If the bullet hits bone it causes a lot of damage and secondary fragments- assuming at least a .38 or 9mm.
    Funny sometimes soft lead RNL bullets- old calibers- expand some. Modern revolver bullets are harder cause we shoot more. They dont lead the barrel. Soft lead hollow point never fails to expand. So- it all depends. A modern JHP that hits bone is the best thing you have going for you. But what do I know? The labs at Hornady and Federal that test the HST and XTP do more viable work in a week that I have done in a year. The point is I know some things but I am a hobbyist. Degree in Criminal Justice, minor in Psych, very good as a witness, a hobbyist in wound ballistics. Unfortunately the real experts like Fackler are long gone or studied in the past.

    • Honestly Nyclads probably got this right as best as anyone did. Or if you’re doing it yourself some hollow points with dead soft lead and powder coat.

  6. At the end of the day. Far more people have been killed by so called range ammunition, than all the hollow points being carried. Presently.

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