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I don't need my old choice of .223/5.56 duty ammo for around my house and farm, so.....

nitesite

Average Guy
Moderator
"Philanthropist"
... What in your opinion is a good short range (<75-yards) .224" rifle bullet that is effective for most home/farm scenarios?

Small farm, you know. Anything beyond 50-75 yards isn't a threat to us. I'm thinking of soft target predators with ill-intent against my animals or my family.

On duty I used to carry Hornady or Barnes all-copper hollow points for their barrier penetration properties (especially sheet metal, auto glass, etc) because of the probability that a more typical bullet would fail me when the chips were really down. Those monolithic bullets would retain 100% of their weight and still do real damage even after punching thru stuff.

My department gave me the awful (and thankfully discontinued) Federal T223A LE ammo, which in Federal's own auto glass tests showed almost zero weight retention and only one inch into ordnance gel after the windshield Denim covered gelatin only did 7.25" penetration and 30%~40% weight retention. Awful stuff. I still have some. Won't use that for anything real soon!

For now, I have switched and re-zeroed my 5.56 bolt gun and 5.56 AR-15 to plain old M193 ball with the cannelure.

I have lots at home in my stash to pick from including polymer tipped varmint bullets, ball, monolithic, LE Gold Dots, and lead soft points.

Thoughts?
 
... What in your opinion is a good short range (<75-yards) .224" rifle bullet that is effective for most home/farm scenarios?

Small farm, you know. Anything beyond 50-75 yards isn't a threat to us. I'm thinking of soft target predators with ill-intent against my animals or my family.

On duty I used to carry Hornady or Barnes all-copper hollow points for their barrier penetration properties (especially sheet metal, auto glass, etc) because of the probability that a more typical bullet would fail me when the chips were really down. Those monolithic bullets would retain 100% of their weight and still do real damage even after punching thru stuff.

My department gave me the awful (and thankfully discontinued) Federal T223A LE ammo, which in Federal's own auto glass tests showed almost zero weight retention and only one inch into ordnance gel after the windshield Denim covered gelatin only did 7.25" penetration and 30%~40% weight retention. Awful stuff. I still have some. Won't use that for anything real soon!

For now, I have switched and re-zeroed my 5.56 bolt gun and 5.56 AR-15 to plain old M193 ball with the cannelure.

I have lots at home in my stash to pick from including polymer tipped varmint bullets, ball, monolithic, LE Gold Dots, and lead soft points.

Thoughts?

Use up your 224 sized bullets just like before just load them down by using Trail Boss. Just a thought...
 
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Small farm, you know. Anything beyond 50-75 yards isn't a threat to us. I'm thinking of soft target predators with ill-intent against my animals or my family.

They may not be a threat at 50-75 yards, but they can close that 50-75 yard distance a lot faster than you can. Lots of rabid stuff this year.

One instance not so long ago.


Those federal bullets are more or less frangibles. They're supposed to dump all of their energy internally.

I have not used one for predators so I don't know how they'd perform in that situation.

@alphasig

what are you using?

I generally just use whatever I have in it. Often 55 or 62 gr pills.
 
The sad thing about those Federal T223As is that they were not marked as frangible, but they were marketed to LE as having less chance of over penetration. They were, however, absolute failures in my book. I was given a few boxes a year to practice and load up my mags, and beyond paper or steel I completely ignored them.
 
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