Black Hills 55 grain .223 for home defense?

Depends on what bullet they're using. You can do a quick and dirty test that should answer your question. Get about 4 empty milk jugs (or similar container). Fill em up with water, line them up in a row, shoot em. You should see fragments in jug #3 or 4. If you don't, skip using it for SD.

I don't know if that's the BEST load for home defense, but I'm sure it will work...

Do you think the bad guys will know the difference?

Call up Black Hills, ask 'em how it compares to M193.

I suspect that all FMJ .223s will tumble and fragment at HD range as long as they bury in enough flesh.

Use it. It is perfectly fine.


I don't mean this with disrespect or anything like that, but all this fussing over "M193" and whatnot is so silly. Any .223 pressure load at home defense range is still going to hit at over 2,800fps. That's serious. We're talking about a centerfire here. Compared to pistols, having a .223 is a massive leap in effectiveness.


I wouldn't sweat it.


Ammunition, particularly the aspect of slightly more velocity ..is so insignificant in the bigger picture of home-defense or self-defense for that matter. You know the saying "only hits count"

"...shoot out of my rifle normally..." Aside from a rifle not being the best firearm for home defence, how well does it shoot?
Remember that YOU are responsible for where any bullet you fire ends up. Hit a kid after a .223 bullet goes the several miles after exiting your house and YOU are guilty.

Any 55gr hardball should be fine.
A better choice for home defense, standard 55gr to 64gr soft nose bullets will perform much better. The Winchester 64GR power point is my personal choice.

isnt there a law that says if you kill anyone while defending yourself the one that you are defending against is responsible?

i dont know i just think ive heard this somewhere...

isnt there a law that says if you kill anyone while defending yourself the one that you are defending against is responsible?

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Not in Texas. Here if you accidently kill a bystander while defending yourself, you cannot escape criminal liability. Its written into the law itself.

Aside from a rifle not being the best firearm for home defence,

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Oh God here we go again with that......of COURSE a rifle is the best firearm for home defense. There's a 10 page thread around here somewhere.......

Hit a kid after a .223 bullet goes the several miles after exiting your house and YOU are guilty.

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Once again, ill informed to the absolute limit.

From an article written by Roberts, the dentist turned ballistics expert:

CONCLUSION

A 5.56mm/.223 semi-automatic carbine with a minimum of a 14.5" to 16.5" barrel may be the most effective and versatile weapon for use in law enforcement. When used with effective ammunition, the 5.56mm/.223 carbine simultaneously offers both greater effective range and less potential downrange hazard to bystanders than a 12 ga. shotgun, handgun, pistol caliber carbine, or SMG , as well as far greater potential to incapacitate a violent criminal than any handgun, pistol caliber carbine, or SMG.

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To the OP, your choice is reasonable, but not the best. The best choice is the Hornady 75gr TAP ammunition. You will find that one recommended by just about everyone that actually knows what they are talking about.

Unfortunately it is $1 a shot, so it's an investment.

If you like Black Hills they also make a 77gr loading with that OTM bullet. Mk262 Mod 1 is the name. There was a Mod 0 but this is "improved" by adding a cannelure to prevent bullet setback. It is an excellent round, probably as good as the TAP.

Again, unfortunately a dollar a shot or more.

For some really good info, and since it becomes a religious war I like to use my best priestly tone....

"Get Thee To The Oracle"

Ammo Oracle

To the OP, your choice is reasonable, but not the best. The best choice is the Hornady 75gr TAP ammunition. You will find that one recommended by just about everyone that actually knows what they are talking about.

Unfortunately it is $1 a shot, so it's an investment.

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Without a doubt the best all around choice. It'll fragment from CQB-near 300 yards. And you can load your own for FAR LESS than $1 per round.

In Florida, anyone hurt as a result of self-defense is 100% the liability of the assailant. Ex. If a stray bullet hits an old lady, the mugger is charged for that too.

You could do worse, but Black Hills has some MUCH better loads in 5.56.

Does anyone even know if 55gr BH FMJ even frags?

H/D

Try the 77 gr Black Hills, that would be a good round. I prefer a 12 ga and .45 for in home defense. Rifle rounds tend to over penetrate which could cause liability issues in some states.

quote:
isnt there a law that says if you kill anyone while defending yourself the one that you are defending against is responsible?

i dont know i just think ive heard this somewhere...
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Yes, that is usually correct, but that will still depend on the actions of the person defending himself or herself from the threat. The actions constituting defense need to be of a quality such that they would be considered reasonable actions in regards to the nature of the threat.

This means if one person enters your home and you set off a nuclear device to kill your home invader, all the other people that die would not be his responsibility, because it is not REASONABLY CALCULATED that by his behavior, the neighborhood-nuke would be the consequence. It COULD be reasonably calculated that from the behavior OF THE home invader, a few .223 stray bullets, or 9mm, or 40, or whatever, that were shot with the intent and purpose to defend against deadly force (death, great bodily harm, rape, or kidnapping are all things you can shoot against), might have missed or over-penetrated. At this point, since it was reasonably calcaulted and considered a probable consequence of the action of INVADING the home, then the BG is responsible for anybody hit by your stray bullets.

The court arguments would heat up if you started shooting through walls at random times without seeing a target and one of THOSE stray bullets hits an innocent... Practice and training become the reasonable pre-action to help justify your actions.

Try the 77 gr Black Hills, that would be a good round. I prefer a 12 ga and .45 for in home defense. Rifle rounds tend to over penetrate which could cause liability issues in some states.

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This is a myth.

The FBI conducted studies that prove that most handgun rounds penetrate just as much or more than standard 55gr .223 rounds and are just as lethal to bystanders. It's one of the reasons that the FBI and others are switching away from pistol caliber carbines and going with RRA LAR-15's.

You're kidding yourself if you think a 12ga or a .45 will not overpenetrate...

personally, .223 from ten feet away is one of the last things I would want to get shot with. I think that round will work great for HD, do some testing next time out at the range and see how it does on various objects from ten feet. You should be able to tell how much penetration you are getting from mixing and matching some different targets like milk jugs and plywood.

.223 is a devestating round on soft targets when it fragments. A fragmenting bullet would be much less likely of causing harm downrange too. A few V-Max bullets from a 223 would turn a BG into hamburger pretty fast. A 50gr V-Max out of a 16"bbl at the muzzle has around 1600ftlbs of energy four times the energy of a 45ACP at 355ftlbs or even +P at around 450ftlbs.

I would personally prefer 55-grain JHP's to FMJ's. You can pick up 55-gr JHP's or SP's fairly inexpensively at your local big-box store or gun shop.

I think the 16" Bushmaster is as good of a choice as you could have for home defense. The idea of a .223 going through your walls and travelling for miles outside your house is laughably inaccurate.

I live out in the country, with no houses around and surrounded by hills and trees. A few weeks ago I had a chance to discover exactly how a .223 from a 16" Bushmaster behaves when fired indoors. The attached pictures show a little bit of what I am talking about.

The .223 projectile left the barrel and traveled approximately 9 feet before grazing an entertainment center made from composite fiberboard. It next struck a picture frame and exited through the back side, scattering glass for several feet around. After exiting the back of the pictureframe it hit a candle (about 2" thick). The candle disintegrated into thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of pieces.

After exiting the candle it struck the drywall corner which was about 18" behind the candle. The pictures attached show the pattern which it made after exiting the candle. I believe there were 4 main fragments of the .223 projectile which struck the drywall, as well as several smaller ones. Only one of the fragments managed to penetrate to the other side of the drywall/trim corner. (Note they passed inside of the 2x4 in the corner and missed it completely.) That fragment had such little energy left that it either bounced off the next drywall wall or just fell to the floor.

There is NO WAY that a 223 projectile could penetrate through a few drywall walls and then travel with any velocity beyond that point.

About a year ago I called Black Hills about their 55 grain FMJ and was advised it was the M193 bullet.Their round has a muzzle velocity of 3100 FPS.The M193 is an excellent bullet and as others have mentioned,there are some good HP 55 grain bullets.Federal loads the Sierra 55 grain HP. The other bullets in various weights would serve one well. Byron

I have a bushmaster xm15 with a 16 inch barrel, for home defense I use 75gr Hornady TAP rounds. The 55gr black hill rounds will work fine for home defense but it wouldnt hurt to but the TAP rounds, just 1 box. Another option would be to use a 12ga shotgun with 3 inch #4 shot.

The FBI conducted studies that prove that most handgun rounds penetrate just as much or more than standard 55gr .223 rounds and are just as lethal to bystanders. It's one of the reasons that the FBI and others are switching away from pistol caliber carbines and going with RRA LAR-15's.

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A little OT, but relevant nonetheless. I had just purchased a set of Peltor electronic earmuffs and was at an outdoor range trying them out. I turned the volume all the way up and was shooting a Glock 22 to see if I could hear the rounds ricochet. The berm at that range is at a 90 degree angle to the skeet range impact zone down the road about a half mile, so I had lots of territory behind it. The area is also wooded.

To make a long story short, .40 cals that bounced over the berm crashed through the trees on the other side for an extraordinarily loooong time. I was shocked. I thought they'd stop pretty quickly, but they just seemed to keep on going for 3, 4 or more seconds before they stopped or got out of the range of the Peltors. I will never again claim that a pistol round presents minimal risk of downrange penetration. Try it yourself sometime when you're out in the woods if you have a set of electronic ears.

Back on topic, the box of BH 55 gr. FMJ that I have seems to have the little NATO cross in a circle on the base of the brass and it's marked "LC 06". It appears to have a military crimp on the primer. Does this mean that it's really 5.56 NATO in Lake City brass?

Their website lists "remanufactured" 55 gr. fmj at 3200 fps, which is plenty fast enough for fragmentation at HD distances. Works for me.

The brass is simply once used stuff. But it's not loaded to 5.56 pressures.