"Stacking" Ammunition

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Generally speaking, "stacking" or alternating rounds means that you don't have:
a) a clear goal in mind, or;
b) an understanding of what your rounds can/should do..

Make an informed decision, and go with it. Change your mind as many times as necessary. But stick with a program.
 
I stack in my Kel-Tec P32. This is because of the rounds design, it's short, so JHP's will cause rimlock if the entire magazine is loaded with them. So the chamber is loaded with a JHP, first round in the mag is JHP, the rest are FMJ. Any other caliber, good quality JHP all the way.
 
Best left in the comic books , where it came from.
This one just kills me.

Pick the right load for the job.

This always seemed really asinine to me, at least in most cases.

Whichever round comes up in the magazine queue, the chances are 50-50 that it will not be the one you wanted just then.
Click to expand...

Precisely, +2

Who says you will have time do anything but shoot, anyway.

Lets see "He's in a truck, now... (at least he was 10 seconds ago) so maybe I should use the ball ammo that has 15% enhanced penetration in car doors (well maybe my JHPs would penetrate this model of car door...that is if the window riser mech isnt half way up (in which case neither will work as well as I want) ...or what if he has a thick leather jacket on, and its a tuesday, and he has green socks on, then I want the RBCD ammo...no wait..."

"Oh, darn...I just got shot in the side of the head cuz I was busy checking which ammo I have in the chamber just now..."

I would like to see examples of someone walking away from a gun fight saying "damn, I'm sure glad I used 9 kinds of ammo in my magazines, I never would have made it with out JHP - FMJ - JHP "

Yeah, not gonna happen...

Just comic book logic.
 
i keep a lot of autos at condition 3. most misfeeds are the first round, loaded off of the mag (because the slide is released by hand, not mechanical action). for this reason, I load the first round in the mag as ball.
 
My carry gun is a Glock 25 (.380) with 15 round mags. Still undecided after extensive research into the expansion vs. penetration/FMJ vs. HP debate, I decided to do my own ballistic testing using large local pork carcasses. The readily available ammo down here for that caliber is:
* 90gr. Speer Gold Dot
* 91gr. Wolf FMJ ball
* 95gr. Winchester FMJ flat nose.

All shooting was done at 7 yards.

The Gold Dots - surprisingly for this caliber - expanded fully and penetrated an average of 8".

The Winchester penetrated slightly more, up to 10", deformed with minimal expansion and lost both lead and jacket fragments throughout the wound channel.

The Wolf , advertised at 1010fps (compared to 990 and 955 for the Speer and the Winchester) blasted clean through 11"+ of swine every single time.

All rounds broke leg bones surprisingly well, the Speer and the Wolf doing the most damage. Carefully dissected wound channels showed little difference between the Winchester and the Wolf, except for penetration. The chanel made by the Gold Dots was significantly larger and much more ragged than the others.
I own a popular restaurant/lounge and nightspot and my primary risk is ambush and robbery late at night on my way home. Experience and statistics indicate that the perpetrators are likely to be wearing denim or sport type jackets over light clothing and driving a small, older Japanese car. Based on all that, I decided to stack my mags for a combination of penetration and expansion in double tap-bang 3 round bursts of Gold Dot-Gold Dot-Wolf. In multiple burst practice drills, I can usually keep track of the rounds by thinking "tap-tap-bang" as I engage the targets. In standing drills, the first two go COM and the third into the head. Running and ducking, all three go COM.
If I could legally carry a larger caliber down here all that would, IMHO, be unnecessary.
 
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Tropical Buzz. Thanks for the informative and well thought out post. You hit the nail on the head when you stated that you practice triple shots. Other posts indicated that if you stack there is a 50% chance that the "wrong" bullet will be in the chamber. Well if you triple tap, problem solved.

Who would attempt to stop an attack by only taking one shot? Shoot until the attack has been stopped.
 
I would have to ask: How is the problem solved when the target is usually moving ?
There is no guarantee that the intended round will hit the vital, intended target the prescribed number of times for an "ideal" stop.

What happens when you have to reload on the move.
Do you have to shoot four rounds for that burst and 3 the next ? Jack out the last round in the chamber ? Only shoot to lock-back ?

Do you shoot multiple targets 3 times each or once or twice each and then "back for seconds" as conventional wisdom preaches ?

The best approach, [sadly] something that isn't available to all participating in the thread, is to use an effective caliber and load for every shot.

Agreed....as the saying goes [paraphrasing] "shoot until your target thinks he's dead"
 
Most people are way over-thinking this one. While cocktail loads may not be the best thing since wine in a box, they are certainly not the worst thing.

If tested for reliability, and to ensure similar point of impact, stacked loads, or cocktail loads will serve their owner just fine. Of course, so would most quality JHPs.

You don't bother counting to see what type of round is coming up. You just shoot until the threat ceases to threaten. Which is exactly what you should do if all the cartridges in your magazine are identical.

Its not rocket surgery. It neither greatly increases or decreases the ballistic effectiveness of your pistol. It is personal choice, and like a lot of the choices that we make, has very little significance in the greater scheme of things.
 
I do in my shotgun 1 slug and 4 00 buck
My 38 is also,the one under the hammer FMJ the other 4 110 gr. hydra shok.Why first 4 HP last one FMJ just in case I need a little more penitration then I will reload with 5 winchester JHP I keep in my pocket.Also I still have this fear that it might go off one day and the FMJ is pointing at my groing area instead of a delf defence round.I know this can' happen with newer pistols with a firing pin block it's just in my head.
 
I only stack if I don't have a full mag worth of hollowpoints left. The backup mag is full of ball ammo because it shouldn't have feed issues, but I really think it wouldn't matter.

gp911
 
My 38 is also,the one under the hammer FMJ the other 4 110 gr. hydra shok.Why first 4 HP last one FMJ just in case I need a little more penitration then I will reload with 5 winchester JHP I keep in my pocket.Also I still have this fear that it might go off one day and the FMJ is pointing at my groing area instead of a delf defence round.I know this can' happen with newer pistols with a firing pin block it's just in my head.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I never thought of that...I might want max penetration in case my pistol/revolver spontaneously discharges and blows my nuts off...LOL!!!!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Wow, thanks dude..I needed that.

I only stack if I don't have a full mag worth of hollowpoints left. The backup mag is full of ball ammo because it shouldn't have feed issues, but I really think it wouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

Does this mean :the extras mag is half ball because you didn't have JHPs left ?

OK, I can see that.
 
Ok, did you:

Fire 200 rounds of EACH round you are using to ensure your pistol will cycle it reliably? AND

Shoot every possible variation you are considering to make sure your gun will chew through it with no hiccups?

This is your life, it's not the time to start experimenting. If anything, the only variation I might see is different loads in different mags, but even in that case, you have to really consider, what it is my best defensive round won't accomplish in the first place? Trying to split hairs between different premium JHPs, FMJs, trick loads, etc won't yield good results in the real world.
 
The top 2 or 3 rds always with PD ammo on all my calibers. Mostly Win. SilverTips......Everything is rotated by using the same routine on the range...I figure if I miss or can't finish the job with the first few, the remaining won't make much difference....:eek:
 
I think most of this stuff is overthinking. It is more applicable to folks using rifles and machine guns who might have to deal with armored vehicles, armored troops, or soft-skinned vehicles.

For self defense pistols, you can just use the best you can afford. You have to have a round that will penetrate far enough to stop a threat, expansion is just gravy. I don't even bother worrying about clothing. All it will do is maybe turn my expensive hollowpoints into slightly less expensive FMJs. And no pistol round can reliably penetrate body armor, so no need to convern myself with that either.

Mousegun ammo is too anemic to be concerned with anything other than penetration.

I don't even worry about stacking shotgun loads. At in house distances birdshot and buck will hit about the same and I don't think the over-penetration risk is much different. Slugs are on the side saddle. If I thought I would need them ready in the magazine tube (long distance shots or vehicle penetration) I'd just use a rifle in the first place.

MINDSET, tactics, skill, then gun and ammo type at the every end so long as it is reliable and penetrates 8 inches.
 
I don't know if there is any reason to do this. I never have and don't see a reason to do so. In my LEO career I had friends who carried their third mag loaded with hardball, we carried 9mm and had a total of 42 rounds. By the way, at 4:00am my rifle is within reach.
 
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