What ammo type do you use in your go-to rifle?

A lot of people have a go-to rifle, ie the rifle that you grab if there's serious trouble. They keep it with a bunch of mags or clips loaded with ammo.

Those of you who have such a rifle/ammo setup, what is the ammo that you have on hand or will grab if you need to use it, and why? Mainly I'm curious as to whether you use FMJ, SP, HP, etc.

My motivation for asking is looking at these .308 Win wound profiles:
http://www.firearmstactical.com/images/Wound%20Profiles/M80.jpg
http://www.firearmstactical.com/images/Wound%20Profiles/308%20Winchester.jpg

Comparing the two wound profiles, it seems like SP or HP or some other expanding bullet would be an obvious choice. So I'm wondering who keeps FMJ vs the other types.

Federal 55gr JHP, one magazine.

M193

XM 193's or Winchester Q3131's

M1 Carbine, hollow soft point:

http://www.winchester.com/Products/rifle-ammunition/super-x/hollow-soft-point/Pages/X30M1.aspx

A mag of hornady 155 tap red box near my socom

I have mags loaded with XM193 and Hornady TAP, both in 55gr.

The mag in my "go to" carbine is loaded with Hornady 5.56mm 75 gr "T2*" JHPs. I got probably one of the last boxes ammotogo had. Really wish I had bought more than just one box before Hornady cracked down.

Other than that, I've got a bunch of Prvi 75 gr JHPs, and Wolf 75 gr JHPs.

168 grain Hornady A-max, 49 grains of IMR4895, and a CCI BR primer gives me MOA at almost 2700 fps

No option for mine, handloads with cast bullets. A Marlin 1894 Cowboy 20" loaded with 240gr SWC's over 10.0gr Unique for 1450fps. Easy shootin' and will kill anything in the lower 48.

"Go to" and "trouble" sounds like thinly-disguised home defense. At such most-probable distances, any old bullet is gonna make a mess inside a Bad Guy. While my preference is a hunting bullet, it's not something I'm gonna worry about. Even GI bullets do bad things to coyote innards inside of a hundred yards.

Soft or hollow point 54R. FMJ is not the best choice for anything other than target shooting.

125 grain NOSTLER BALLISTIC TIP .308 in my ar-10 carbine, 20 round mag

and there are a bunch of mags with different types of ammo in the bag and the drawyers. I have mags with 147 ball, 150 grain ttsx barnes, a mag with 180 grain barnes MRX, and a mag with steel AP rounds.

I'm pretty sure if it's a threat approaching, the 125s are going to mess somethin' up bad... Otherwise, I'll switch the mag and use whatever round would work better for the scenario.


I do have some tracer rounds for when I'm attacked by propane tanks. :D:D:D:D

For any sort of social breakdown, natural disaster, SHTF scenario, I rock 147 gr FMJs in my M1A. They may not be as accurate as some other ammunition types, nor do they have the terminal effect of expanding rounds, but they are cheaper and easier to buy in bulk, and they allow me to defeat a wider assortment of barriers. If I have to disable a vehicle on my rural property, come against someone wearing body armor, or taking cover behind a brick wall, I am more confident in my ability to engage those targets with M80 ball. In this way, I choose FMJs for many of the same reasons the military does--it's cheaper and easier to buy/produce in bulk, adequately accurate (my M1A will do 2 MOA with cheap S&B or WWB FMJs), and while it does trade terminal effectiveness for penetration, it has proven to be a capable fight stopper.

I do keep a magazine of 150 gr JSPs on hand, however. These are the same rounds I hunt with in this rifle.

And this is not to be confused with what I keep on hand in my defensive carbine--an AK with a reflex sight loaded with Uly JHPs.

158gr Softpoints for Winny 94.

My 5.45x39 Saiga is loaded with Bulgarian FMJ 53gr 7N6. The Afghans called the 7N6 ammo the "poison bullet" for a reason. Here is a link to Brass fetcher's ballistic gel testing on this ammo http://www.brassfetcher.com/545x39mmBulgarian53grFMJ.html

Prvi Partisan M193. 55 grain FMJ.

170 grain Remington soft points in my Winchester 32 Special model 94. It may be an oldie but it hits what it's pointed at all the time.

50 Gr Vmax, in a MINI 14,and a Savage bolt, works for varmints of all kinds.

1 OZ 3" Sabot Slugs Copper Solid, will put a stop to anything walking or crawling... out of my 870 with rifled barrel...

I use Hornady TAP.

What ever I have handy/loaded at the time.

My go to carbine is ar, I keep a couple mags of hornady tap 62gr urban rifle and a mag of tap 75gr hollowpoints nearby. If I need more than that, the rest of my mags are fmj.

I use pmags and have them color coded by ammo type.

I have several "go-to" rifles (though all follow my shotgun in priority). The M1 Carbine is my primary and is kept loaded with 15rnds. of handloaded 100gr. hollow soft-points. My secondary is an M17 (.223Rem.) loaded with 20rnds. of 55gr. Hornady TAP (with additional magazines containing HP fodder). The VZ.58 (7.62x39mm) is kept loaded with Wolf Mil. Classic HP, but this one is unlikely to see service unless something goes awry.

:)

223 Wolf reloaded with Hornady 75 OTM bullet

or 223 Black Hills 68 OTM

Just about any 5.56 FMJ will do for me.

My go-to rifle is a mini 30 with remington soft points.
Go-to pistol is a hipower in 40 S&W with 180Gr PMC/El Dorada Starfires.(Nasty Bullet!)
These are backed up by a Rem. 1100 12ga with #4 Buck. Something is going down.

Winchester 55gr soft point. I keep a mag full of that 'around' while camping etc. I don't use a rifle for HD.

About 84% of my 5.56, my go-to, is 62 gr.. 63% of that is FMJ and the balance is HP.
I'm pretty sure I don't own any HP in .30 anything...
Al

Currently I have 200 FMJ rounds and counting, 40 Hollow-Point and 20 Ballistic tip

Wolf 123gr FMJ and JHP. Czech vz-58. 8 30 round mags in a Blackhawk chest rig, Will I ever need it? I hope not.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/armoredman/CZ%20posters/vz-58withP01.jpg

federal fusion (soft point) 62 grn in my mini 14. For "go to" I generally think "truck gun" which I want to be as reliable and handy as a mini but able to feed me if I'm in a donner party situation.

Living an urban environment it's ballistic tip 5.56 for most reliable fragmentation: Currently Hornady TAP FPD because it's a quality ballistic tip, and it was available. JHPs in the pistols.

hornady TAP 75 grainers

also ? some winchester 64 grain power-points.

.457 round ball

Aguila 30 carbine 110gr FMJ

6.8 spc Hornady Match 110 gr. bthp

armoredman, seeing that 20 rounder in your VZ.58 reminds me...have you had any luck on procuring any?

shotgunjoel, you may want to rethink your ammunition choice if you have close neighbors. I did a test using .30Carbine FMJ (Winchester White Box IIRC) and it went through about 24-30in. of stacked plywood and about 10 water jugs before sailing off into the sunset. It penetrates far more than most folks might believe. OTOH 100gr. soft hollow point expanded very well whilst limiting penetration to about 4-5 gallon jugs (try it first because it may or may not feed well; does fine in my USGI carbine).

:)

maverick, my sources dried up on me, and the Canadian Connection fizzled, import laws, sorry. :( That's likely to be the only 20 round mag i ever see...

maverick, my sources dried up on me, and the Canadian Connection fizzled, import laws, sorry.Darn, well you did what you could...I appreciate the effort.

:)

For hd I use 55 grain hornady tap for shtf I use m855 and xm193

I'm out in the woods, so I keep an SKS loaded with SP ammo, for the occasional feral dogs and hogs that visit.

If anybody were to start cruising in our subdivision and display a weapon, like the human jackals seeking gasoline in
"The Road Warrior", any ammo loaded on stripper clips for the SKS would work.
But the danger would also be to neighbors across the street.

Hornady V-max handloads. 60 gr bt in the car-15 pushed by AA MR223 powder CCI military primer, 165gr interbond in the m1a pushed by ramshot TAC and CCI military primer , its a no brainer IMO. When you care enough to give the very best.

Rifle is secondary in my house, and my ccw weapon is my primary. I'd need plenty of time (which likely would never happen) to get the rifle ready. I do keep a one mag of fmj's and one mag of jhp's (in different style/color mags) ready to go.

5.56-SSA 70gn Barnes TSX. This is my precision round that I zero with. But any 55gn FMJ will do at defense ranges. I stockpile Federal 55g FMJ.

http://www.ssarmory.com/556ammunition-70gr-leadfree.aspx

5.7x28mm- FN ss195

6.8spc-SSA with a heavy Barnes TSX ot Nosler Tactical:

http://www.ssarmory.com/6.8_spc_ammo_Nosler_100grain_Accubond-tactical_load.aspx

I had my Kar98K camping with me once and twenty or so 15rd boxes of FMJ. Someone asked me if I was 'preparing for war.' I took them out to an old uranium mine outside Moab and fired off ten boxes or so. Totally changed their view of 'having a gun in camp.'

Not that I'd pick a WW2 bolt action rifle for 'defense' but hey, use what you have, right?

I've also used my 1894 Marlin as my 'camp' gun. Stoked with 300 gr soft points.

Hornady TAP 75 grain in all mine.

Art Eatman nailed it, as usual.

That being said, specifically I rely on M193 and Federal TRU in 5.56 and anything of the 168-gr. BTHP variety in 7.62.

BTW, Dr. Rob -- 300 gr. SPs in the 1894?? I had one and always relied on the standard 240. I thought Marlin's twist had trouble stabilizing heavy bullets?

well, I don't 'go to' anything in a carbine or rifle of any caliber re: "serious trouble" at 50 yards or less.. shotgun mebbe
my house/yard just ain't all that big, and Grizz don't live here, and it still is the USA not "over there"
(unless maybe you live on the southern border)

at over 50 yards, 'serious trouble', is "to pay attention to".. gun 1st (his & hers), alarm buttons 2nd, cell phone 3rd... not time to dig up bambi guns, not unless they are considerate enough to pause and ponder.. keep your head down and take a deep breath, aim, and squeeze (don't pull), the trigger on that handgun if they dumb enough to close the gap and shoot the dawg 1st

if Katrina II visits us here, WWB or any other generic 357 caliber cartridge, any bullet type that happens to be in the brass bought off the wallyworld shelf that will feed reliably will do, JHP, JSP, or FN, anything 125-158 gr, I don't care, matters not.. (if I do miss 'em, she maybe won't)
even 38+p out of any carbine will do at 50 yards and closing fast, if I just happen to grab the 'wrong' box of whitebox.. extreme few ninjas really are anywhere near as tough as bambi

never was anything evil about ARs or AKs or whatever else, nor any caliber
but never was any need to conjure up scenarios to justify anything extra special, not unless you hunt stuff that outweighs average-joe by at least 2X

I cannot remember any off-the-shelf-cheapo 38+P or 357 cartridge bullet not leaving the muzzle real quick any time I ever dropped the hammer on one, long or short
same can be said for every/any centerfire rifle/handgun cartridge

shoot whatever you shoot real well, and always mind your backdrop
but when it comes down to 'serious trouble' , pretty much any centerfire cartridge will get it done, if you can get it done
if you really worry about 100+ yd shots for defense of family and self, maybe you really should.. some do, some don't