frangible ammo for defense

[C-grunt]

My good friend has started using frangible ammo in his CCW. I dont know very much about this ammo but I feel it is a bad idea. My concern is penetration, will a bad angle shot, say through the arm from the side, actualy hit anything vital in the torso?
A few days ago when I was home on leave, my friend got shot at in front of his house by two gangbangers trying to steal my other friends car. He didnt shoot because by the time he got out of his car and drew, they were already far down the street. Question is, if he had a shot and taken it, he would have had to shoot through a back windshield. Will a frangible 135 grn .40 even go through a windshield?

 

[Firethorn]

From my understanding, standard frangible ammo is more designed to shatter when it hits steel. It'd still be quite effective against flesh.

As for the glass, well, the first couple will probably shatter both itself and the glass, after that you'd be able to shoot through the holes.

If he's that concerned, I'd recommend going with glasers.

 

[VaughnT]

I think the important thing to remember is that pistols are horrible fight-stoppers. There isn't a single HSLD guy that would opt for a pistol over a rifle, and that should tell us something. If a pistol is all you can have, it should be loaded with the optimum cartridge for the job.

Frangible ammo is a good idea if you work in an environment that has a lot of people milling around, people that could be innocents in the line of fire. The air marshals use frangible ammo for this very reason.

However, frangible ammo also puts you at a distinct disadvantage when you start looking at civilian use in the open world. On a plane, with everyone packed in like sardines, you want to minimize over-penetration. In the world outside of that, you might very easily find yourself in a position where you have to shoot through a window, door, heavy coat, and frangible ammo seriously decreases your chances.

Let us take note that not one police department uses frangible ammo in their pistols. There is a reason for this.

Frangible ammunition serves a purpose. It works very well in very specific circumstances where overpenetration just isn't wanted, like when officers are clearing a building and don't want to shoot through a wall to hit their teammates. Other than that, it should be kept on the range.

 

[Preacherman]

There's another aspect to frangible ammo - it's designed to disintegrate (into dust, literally) on contact with the ground or a hard object. This can severely limit its penetration if it hits (say) an arm-bone on its way through to the torso, where you really want it. It also means that treating that injury is going to be extraordinarily difficult, as one can't remove the "bullet" when said projectile is now dust among the flesh! This may be all very well if you've hit a BG, but what if you have a negligent discharge, for whatever reason, and hit your own leg, or a family member? This happens too often not to be a matter for concern. If I have to have a bullet extracted from myself or a loved one, I want the doctor to be able to find the bullet!

 

[StevenT in Ky]

Training ammo only

Frangible ammo is for training only and has no place in a ccw. Frangible ammo was designed for one thing only to alow safe practice at close range on hard target usually steel plates. When frangible ammo hits a very hard target it breaks into dust or very small peices. However when it hits a soft target it almost never breaks up. In fact it almost always act just like ball, now granted it could break up on bone but in most cases it would not, bones do give at the joints and you are in a fluid enviroment. Also if it did break up you would have a bunch of powdered metal peices in a body that would be damned hard to remove. In all frangible ammo acts like full metal jacket ammo (ball) 99% of the time. We all know there is better ammo than ball out there. Suggest he stick with a factory hollow-point such as ranger, gold dot, golden saber. They are the best type of handgun ammo in actual street shootings.