Do you think m855 is a good home defense cartridge?

[Willoughby23]

[razelove]

It's 5.56, unless you're loading tracers every 3rd round for adjustments, ball ammo is going to perform about the same as everything else. If you are using tracers... just make it a third of your ammo.

Regardless, no AR round is good for home defense. Contrary to popular belief they do have outstanding penetration. Buy a piece of plywood, sheetrock, a 2x4, and cut them all up, then stack them and see how far that round goes. Do the same with a couple cinder blocks, usually you can crack the first 2 easy, and stacking them vertically is good for getting down 3 round burst if you have that.

But absolute garbage in a residential area unless you want to shoot your neighbors, through their house, that neighbors house, and hope to hit a car engine block, a tree, or several studs in a row with each bullet. Use a 12 gauge with the highest buckshot you can get, like 4 ought, I just load birdshot, it'll blast a cone close range, and do jack shit past about 15 feet except hurt like hell. It's also cheap as hell and doesn't need any fancy names, just birdshot. Cheapest at Walmart. Get a cheap mossberg pump, you'll be gravy.

[ChrisMaster69]

Nope you want mass stopping not penetration.

over pen just means more rounds and rounds going through walls across street etc.

JHP are mass stoppers.

A home defence weapon needs to be light enough to track a target at close range, easy to aim, low probability of missing and put the person down fast within minimum rounds used.

Close in rifles become a pain as aiming becomes hard when target tracking.

people breaking in to a house are not likely to be wearing body protection.

Stopping power beats round velocity and penetration.

there is a huge difference between static targets and moving ones.

try doing an indoor paint gun and see how often you are on target (yes velocity comes in to it).

I am a great believer in you fire minimum rounds necessary, do not create other casualties and put down quickly,

shotguns fit the bill nicely.

Over Pen is an innocents killer,

[Willoughby23]

Velocity means fragmentation too though

[ChrisMaster69]

Fragmentation is linked to the make up of the round not it’s velocity.

A armour piecing round with a dedicated penetrator tip is designed simply to go through stuff, walls, light vehicles etc, velocity gives it that penetration extra push.

What the round does on impact or with some after impact is down to the how they round is manufactured.

Hence JHP behave differently than FMJ versus armour piercing (tungsten core etc) shot from same weapon.

A lot comes down to the grain used in the bullet as well, .38 Webley being a case in point, designed for 200 grain rounds it instead used the 145 grain S&W round, resulting in underpowered rounds and thus stopping power.

[Willoughby23]

If you look at ballistic gelatin videos the m855 still fragments tho. Not as much as 55 gr fmj but it does fragment in soft tissue

[Jaylaa2000]

Nope. All that's needed is a simple handgun.
Doubt a army wearing armor is breaking in.

The world ain't that scary of a place that ya need 2 over do it

[Willoughby23]

I already have these bullets an two handguns. Just wanted to see what people thought

[123lucy]

I don't even know what an m855 is and I'm from the UK and we don't use that for "home defense" here.

[MrOracle]

M855 is workable, but less ideal, especially if you are shooting it from a barrel shorter than 20". 5.56mm ammo needs to have enough velocity to yaw and fragment upon impact, but M855 has less than 100 yards of range before dropping below the needed velocity even from a 20" barrel - and it's only about 15-20 yards from a 14.5" barrel, and 0 yards from an 11.5" or shorter barrel. Likely what you're going to get is a very small wound channel and a bullet that over-penetrates.

M193 is a better choice, especially if you have a shorter barrel or a rifling twist rate of 1:9 or less. If you have a 1:7 twist barrel, than your most effective choice is going to be 77gr OTM ammo, but that's expensive. There's also 60gr soft points, though they won't feed reliably in every gun, so you need to shoot some to make sure it works in your rifle.

[BeMuse]

It will do the trick if called upon for most issues… ARs are the standard American rifle and can handle humans, coyotes, wild boar, alligator, cougar, black bear (maybe), and even take a deer with a bit of a run… So there are a lot of sticky situations they could potentially get you, your children, or your animals out of… That said if you live in an apartment building with sheetrock walls, that round will undoubtedly over penetrate. Lots of holes to patch in the walls afterwards if you miss and potentially innocent bystanders being hit...

[MasterOfReality]

I would be concerned with over penetration if you live in an apartment or subdivision where the houses are close together. Or through a wall and into a family member. I like a good ol’ fashioned 9mm with expanding tips (hollow points). Plenty enough to stop anyone, and won’t over penetrate structures because of the hollow points.
Make sure you contact your congressmen and senators and demand they do not go through with the measures they are trying to take to impose more gun control. They are using the Recent Atlanta and Boulder shootings to push their agendas.

[Willoughby23]

Yea I've got 2 9mm 5.56 doesn’t over penetrate as much as you would think because it fragments. But yea I definitely need to email my state senator and ask him not to vote for universal background checks and awb even though he is a democrat and will anyway. One of the republicans that voted to pass universal background through the house is from my home state of Michigan. Lets just hope they can't get rid of the filibuster

[MasterOfReality]

I hear you bro. Spread the word to all your like minded family and friends. I do. We have been too complacent on the Right for too long. We just want to live our lives but now we have reached the point where we have to fight the Left like they do us- 24/7 and on all fronts.

[NetSapien]

yup, I'm ok with this

But this caliber is very situational in regards to defense. If I was living in 20 acre property, I guarantee that what would fly would all 5.56.

[Goforit1010]

Anything that puts holes in the bad guys is a good home defense bullet, especially shotgun shells. The more holes and the bigger the holes are, usually works best.

[Lynx122]

For someone who gets off on shooting people yeah seems about right.

[Joshua213]

Yeah they can be pretty good. I normally use my AR-15 for home defense but have really every caliber gun.

[Ashsynn]

If you face bears attack, probably.
If it's because of your neighbour, you should check for a much highier caliber...

[SuccessfulHornDog]

A shotgun with buckshot will destroy anything in your home

[MrOracle]

That's part of the problem. You are responsible for every single pellet - including the ones that miss your intended target - and there's also the problem of people in panic mode not being able to cycle a slide reliably. Those people who use shotguns in competitions know only too well that it takes a lot of practice - constant practice - to become reliable, and also to be able to clear jams, especially in the dark with your heart beating 200+ BPM.

[SuccessfulHornDog]

@MrOracle The spread from a shotgun at close range is not very much. Chance are if you hit the intruder all of the shot will hit them or they will miss like a regular bullet and hit what is behind them.

Everyone should practice with their weapons before they are needed

[MrOracle]

I've patterned shotguns with multiple different loads, so I have a very good idea of what the spread is like. But, remember, bad guys don't stand at attention facing you as you draw on them - they tend to move around, hide behind things, etc. In the real world, misses and partial misses are going to happen. Yet you are still responsible for every bullet and every pellet. Just something to keep in mind.

[SuccessfulHornDog]

@MrOracle I understand but the spread in a house would be small since they will be about 10 feet from you on average

[Agape93]

Nope. They’re armor penetrating, so imagine if you miss, it going through a couple walls and hitting a bystander or a family member. And yes, they can do just that. My basic 00buckshot can do it.

[Willoughby23]

They only penetrate polyethylene armor.

[Willoughby23]

Also buckshot over penetrates more than you think

[Agape93]

1. Which can, even as a basic 5.56, over penetrate through several walls.

2. No dip I legit just fucking said that

[Willoughby23]

Only if you miss

[Agape93]

And you will miss. Also, even if you don’t miss, it’s still AP And will go through the target and could still hurt or kill someone. That’s why cops use hollow points, to stop it from over penetrating.

[Willoughby23]

Cops use bonded soft points for ar-15. If it hits someone at close range it will fragment in their soft tissue. This round is going to fast at that close of range not to fragment

[Agape93]

Which means it’ll over penetrate because it hasn’t lost most of its energy inside the body.

[Willoughby23]

That’s actually completely wrong the faster and more energy it has when changing mediums is exactly what makes the bullet fragment and not over penetrate. Slow moving heavy bullets are the ones that over penetrate. This is a fast and light bullet.

[Agape93]

And yet it’s still an AP round dude. Learn to think. Faster rounds penetrate more.

[Willoughby23]

It isn’t armor piercing was never designed to be like I said it only penetrates polyethylene armor it has no chance of going through steel or ceramic armor. Your telling me to learn to think when you obviously don’t understand how physics work. Speed doesn’t always mean more penetration. Slow heavy bullets will over penetrate because of their momentum. When a bullet hits soft tissue going 3,000 fps it cause the bullet to fragment. These are facts watch some ballistic gelatin videos if you don’t believe me. Its predecessor m193 goes about 200 fps faster and fragments even more and stops sooner in soft tissue which is why I will also be buying those, but by your stupid logic m193 would penetrate even more.

[Agape93]

“It isn’t armor piercing was never designed to be”
“It only penetrates polyethylene armor”

Dude stay consistent. It’s either armor piercing or it isn’t, and it clearly is considering we BOTH have stated it can penetrate armor.

[Wise4myage]

Sure, If a bear or a moose is coming at you.

[MrOracle]

A bear or moose would barely be annoyed by this ammo, or any 5.56 ammo. You'd just make them angry, and that would be a HUGE mistake, because these massive creatures can easily kill you without even trying very hard.

5.56mm weapons were designed around shooting human-sized creatures - generally in the 100-200 pound range. They're not designed for creatures in the 1500-2500 pound range, with much larger, denser bones and much larger chest cavities. There's a damn good reason that hunters who hunt such game use MUCH larger caliber bullets with much heavier weights. And even then, it's dangerous.

[Daniel_Dano]

Aren't shotguns better?

[Willoughby23]

Nope