Defense Ammunition Types
Currently, the company makes several major brands of defense ammunition: Hydrashok, Expanding Full Metal Jacket, and HST. Hydrashok has been popular among American law enforcement agencies for many years now while the newer HST ammunition has shown in testing to expand reliably to more than twice the original bullet diameter. Alliant TechSystems (ATK), which owns Federal and Speer has conducted many Wound Ballistic Workshops in various police agencies around the country using Winchester SXT, Speer Gold Dot, and the HST. The Speer Gold Dot was the only "bonded" bullet used in several workshops. Testing is completed in 10% ordnance gelatin, and consists of shots in bare gelatin, gelatin covered in FBI specification Heavy Clothing, steel, wallboard, plywood, and the toughest challenge of all- laminated automobile safety glass. The HST performed incredibly well in all categories, with consistent and adequate expansion, penetration and weight retention, with very few (if any) core-jacket separations. The Winchester SXT had many core-jacket separations in several categories including with all rounds fired through auto glass. Speer's Gold Dot performance was parallel to the HST's. HST, being new and with such promising test results, is difficult to obtain anywhere but in law enforcement circles and actual, reliable data on "street" performance is still pending. Also relatively new is the Expanding Full Metal Jacket, EFMJ, ammunition which uses a lead core and polymer tip completely encased by a copper jacket. The idea behind this being that it is guaranteed to feed reliably in autoloaders (a problem for some hollowpoints and firearms) and, because there is no "hollow" that can be filled, things like heavy clothing, glass, or drywall will not prevent the ammunition from expanding. This gives the EFMJ ammunition a very reliable rate of expansion at the potential drawback of a lighter bullet which moderately reduces the energy it carries. EFMJ is also marketed as an alternative to hollow point ammunition in locales where such ammunition is illegal for civilian carry. The State of New Jersey is one such locale.
Read more about this topic: Federal Cartridge
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