Best .223/5.56 round for home defense

You could look into one that will accept magazine adapters. That way, you could buy a 9mm upper, and run Glock mags.

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In talking about penetration I did some research on the ability of a 556 military
round to penetrate gel. At 10 feet the .556 round went 11 inches into the gel
Keep in mind this is a military round and it is not going to expand that much.
So a Horandy VMax round which is designed for as much expansion as possible
and again at 10 feet would penetrate 7 to 9 inches. Keep in mind once it hits-
the round starts to expand and tumble which expends the energy of the round
quickly. So firing a Horandy 62 grn. v max round out of a AR Platform indoors
is actually safer than shooting a 9mm hand gun for home defense. Just my
2 cents. Keep your head on a swivel, be safe, and always carry. Mike_T :boom:

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The context of self defense ammo. Hollow point in that context means something different than OTM. The first sentence in your link says that. Match grade ammo wants mm accuracy at super far distances. Home defense ammunition isn’t meant for firing 100 yards, to my knowledge. I retain my opinion that a .223’s self defense bullet is not the same concept as a caliber of, say, 9mm or larger. Especially when hollow point is mentioned.

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I don’t think we can share the document but I’d bet you can Google Army expectations on different types of rounds. This is important when units decide what type of weapons to carry and employ. Smaller arms like 5.56s are safer in urban areas where innocent people could seek shelter inside. Larger calibers are useful when you need to reach that enemy hiding behind a wall.

If you find it, this document might be a good place to start. As others have said, though, it’s specific to Army ammunition. The ammo you buy or load may not behave the same way.

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Is that larger caliber as in rifle caliber or handgun caliber, or non-specific to velocity?

Rifle / MG. But it lays out expectations of what the different 5.56 rounds should do.

@Ouade5 - I totally get what you are saying in regards to ammo and weapons that
are chosen for specific missions. I was going to the penetration values when shooting
a AR platform for home defense. I am sure I didn’t clarify that point. I have a 9 mm
handgun that I EDC and I have it loaded with Horandy critical defense and critical
duty, mainly because I want to stop any threat that comes at me. I use my .556 for
defending my home. Hope that clarifies any points I didn’t share earlier. Mike_T :boom:

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Sorry, I’m the one who was unclear. My point is that there’s documentation out there regarding what these rounds will do. That may not answer your question, but it may give you an idea of what a standard 5.56 round would do inside your house (depending on how your home was built).

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There are a lot of YT commentators that do drywall penetration tests on pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. You might find some of those videos interesting while researching options. The YT channels that have drywall penetration videos that I can think of off-hand include Paul Harrell, Military Arms Channel, and Vigilance Elite.

I’ve seen some. Most of them show .556 taking a strait path through your home, and potentially flying out of brick. The frangible rounds did not. But I don’t know if Frangible rounds will be as effective as other ammunition at ending the fight for ones life. I doubt it would be a pleasant experience by any means.

Wow… I don’t remember any of the channels I listed having those results. I’ll revisit those vids when I have a chance.

Here’s Paul one of Paul’s (I started at 7:40)

This ones good. 17:22 is when the AR gets used. (I was Interested in this guys findings with .45 [which I carry] he showed hollow point getting filled with cloth can keep it from expanding Properly leading to potential over penetration. Hoping my HST never does that though).

I really like Warrior Poet Society, BUT he has a video where he just says 556 won’t penetrate as much as 9mm, but that goes against what I’ve seen. I think he later came out with a vid saying you should know where your family and friendly safe so you can safely shoot in the direction of bad people.

The other thing about standard 556/ 223, it can go through body armor along with better accuracy. Those are factors to confident as well. There was a Church shooting where a man grabbed his AR and started shooting at the bad guy and some of the shots made it through his armor. Body armor is actually not that hard to come across, and that is something to consider.

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One of the reasons that the AR platform is awesome is because of the huge variety of loads available to suit almost any situation.

It is also probably best to get this out of the way… Anyone or anything you shoot with your AR regardless of bullet will have a really bad day. So this is about finding something “the best” or as close to it as possible. There are many really good choices, many of which have been named in this thread, and once you get to that top tier you are really splitting hairs (handgun self-defense ammo is similar in this regard).

Your barrel will play a role in your decision as well. The twist rate will determine how heavy of a round you can shoot. 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, and 1/12 are common twist rates with the fastest rate (1/7) capable of stabilizing the heaviest rounds (up to 77gr). Your length of barrel will play a factor as well because the length will determine the velocity (more out of a 20", less out of a 10") and some ammo is more velocity dependent than others.

With any choice you make here… buy a small quantity (maybe one or two boxes) and test to make sure your rifle “likes it”. Once that is confirmed, then buy whatever quantity you like, zero your rifle to it.

Wounding Mechanisms
There are 3 types of wounding mechanisms generally. They each have pros and cons.

  • Expansion. Pretty self explanatory, things like hollow points and soft points
  • Fragmentation. the projectile breaks apart into one or more pieces that each create a wound channel
  • Tumbling. Rounds meant to tumble are the least consistent and most velocity dependent.

Most common military rounds (such as M193 or M855) are meant to tumble because of outdated geneva (hague?) conventions, but we have much better choices available as civilians. Some of the US military rounds like mk262 and mk318 use (I think) OTM-style bullets.

I will mention Temporary Stretch Cavity, because you may hear/see it when researching but I personally dont consider it an important consideration because any rifle round at home defense distances will likely be over the threshold (YMMV). TSC, is the temporary tissue expansion from when something traveling at rifle speeds hit a fluid object. Most tissue snaps back to its original shape, but will tear/shear from the expansion. Some organs are less elastic (like the liver) and suffer way more damage from TSC than other organs. The oft-quoted velocity that a round must be going in order to achieve TSC is (i believe) 2100fps, but that is dependent on a lot of variables.

Barrier Blind
I will also mention a term you’ll see a lot which is important (IMO), which is “barrier blind”. This is sometimes confused with armor piercing or over-penetration. What it means is that when the projectile goes through something does it perform the same as if it did not go through something. Meaning it was “blind” to the barrier. Usually, this comes into play if you have to shoot through something like a window, auto glass, auto door (sheet metal), drywall, etc.

For example, something like a hollow point bullet may hit a barrier (hog shoulder, auto glass) and deform such that when it passes through the barrier it no longer expands and then subsequently over-penetrates instead of expanding properly and penetrating to its designed depth.

Many (all?) fragmenting rounds are not barrier blind. Hollow point, soft points may be barrier blind if they are bonded or jacketed.

Ammunition choices
This article over at ar15com is a fantastic reference, although it is beginning to show its age as the last update was (I think) 2016. Skip to the .223/556 section for a good list of options, and there are good references and explanations scattered throughout the document.

Some projectiles are available in different loadings from different manufacturers. Usually what is important is the projectile. For example, one of the most common is the Sierra Match-King (69gr & 77gr) which is frequently listed as SMK and is available from a lot of manufacturers including Federal, Black Hills, Gorilla, Fiocchi, etc. The Sierra Tipped Match-King is one of the best bullets available right now for defense and hunting and is frequently listed as TMK.

The below ammunition choices are thoroughly my opinion. But hopefully this will steer you towards a shortlist of ammo to do further research on. There are tons of gel-tests and online reviews of pretty much everything I’ve listed below.

If you are running a short barrel (aka 10-13"-ish) rifle and are concerned about over-penetration, I would point you to one of the 77gr Sierra Tipped Match King loadings by Black Hills or Corbon (likely others as well). This is a fragmenting round and is very highly regarded in the hunting community. Review of the Corbon loading here. This round does not do as well at higher velocities from a longer barrel and is NOT barrier blind. This round is generally considered to be pretty accurate, although the SMK is generally considered more accurate but doesn’t perform as well as the TMK.

If you care about having a barrier blind round, I highly recommend the Speer Gold Dot .223 series which is a bonded soft point available in 55gr, 62gr, or 75gr (64gr is no longer made, but you may see old stock, let me know if you do!). If you have a slower twist barrel use the lighter 55/62gr options and if you have a faster twist barrel you can use the heavier 75gr. All are considered pretty accurate. One of the perks of the 3 weight options is that you can pick a load that matches your training/range ammo. Federal makes the Fusion 64gr marketed as hunting ammo which uses the same projectile at a slightly higher velocity which is just as effective and some say more accurate, but I find is usually significantly more expensive. The Speer Gold Dots are usually available from a lot of ammo vendors at a pretty reasonable price. Reviews can be found here and here.

There are lots of other excellent rounds in this category, some of which have already been listed. Like the Hornady TAP series which has several varieties and is in frequent use by LEO. The Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (TBBC) is effectively a unicorn as I have never seen it available, but IIRC it is an FBI approved load and those who have it, swear by it. The 50gr TSX by Black Hills (Black Hills is a smaller manufacturer, all their stuff is GREAT but expensive) is an awesome all copper barrier blind expanding round reviewed here.

Over-penetration
First, it is a very important fact, that any projectile capable of inflicting lethal damage on a human-sized target will 100% go through at least one interior wall (two sheets of drywall, likely no insulation, and not hitting a stud), and very likely go through several walls before it hits an exterior wall or has shed enough momentum to where if it hits something it would be non-lethal.

This is a physics problem. The heavier a projectile is, the better it retains its momentum and remains lethal longer. The lighter the projectile is, the less it retains its momentum and does not stay lethal for as long.

This is why people who are really concerned about over-penetration might choose birdshot from a shotgun, since those extremely tiny and lightweight pellets barely make it through one wall. However, birdshot is at best debateable whether it would stop someone, and you now have 300+ projectiles instead of 9 from buckshot, or 1 from a handgun/rifle that you have to account for. So its not a trade-off without consequences

This applies to AR15 defensive ammunition, because the very lightweight 55-77gr projectiles will go through LESS walls than a 9mm 115-147gr projectile, a .45ACP 200-230gr projectile even though those handgun projectiles are travelling at lower velocities.

If you really want to have ammunition that is extremely capable, and will offer the least amount of penetration then a fragmenting 5.56mm/.223 round like the TMKs listed above would be among your best choices.

I have previously posted on this topic and the link below has more info and links to several tests around the internet. To again, be 100% clear… I am NOT saying 5.56mm/.223 ammunition doesn’t go through walls. What I AM saying is that 5.56mm/.223 ammunition goes through LESS walls than almost anything else except for birdshot from a shotgun.

I dont mean to make light, but the best solution to over-penetration concerns is hitting your target. Second best solution is knowing your home layout and where to place yourself so that any errant shots go in a safe(ish) direction or into a solid object that is capable of containing the projectile.

From my own home defense plans, my 1st choice is to make a stand is the top of the stairs and shoot downwards where the only thing I might hit with a miss is the hardwood floor. My fallback from there is a bedroom at the end of a hallway and shooting down that hallway if any projectiles happen to leave the house (unlikely after passing through 1 wall/door and a brick exterior wall) it would have to go through about 50ft of forest before maybe hitting a neighbors house (also brick) if i was really unlucky.

PDN happened to have this video not too long ago, I bookmarked it as they show some of what I mean about knowing your layout. Knowing where your furniture and people may be (and maybe willfully placing some in strategic locations) can do a lot to mitigate over-penetration concerns.

I hope that helps, I’m happy to answer any questions, especially on the over-penetration issue as it is often misunderstood and there is lots of empirical data out there.

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@Harvey I wish I could like your post twice. That was a quality response above and beyond what I normally expect from online answers.

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Wow! Fantastic post @Harvey

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Brian–shoot a prairie dog with one. They REALLY work as intended then. :slight_smile:

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GREAT post. I load all sorts of different configurations for my various .223s/5.56s.
Not being able to penetrate (as per the initial post) has not been my experience.

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I cannot give you a BEST round for 5.56, but I would steer away from FMJ rounds for HD. Despite what others say, bullets from an AR will not automatically tumble upon hitting flesh. The original M-16 had a twist rate of 1:14, which barely stabilized the bullets in the air. Hitting flesh they would tumble and create quite a bit of damage. But the 1:14 twist would not shoot well at longer distances. From personal experience with M-16s in the 1970s, it was difficult to maintain any consistency firing beyond 300 yds. The slower twist also would not stabilize bullets over 55 grains very well. Most barrels today are between 1:7 and 1:9 twist. They shoot well with longer, heavier bullets (including 5.56 self defense rounds) and give better accuracy at longer ranges. But the bullets are much less likely to tumble now after hitting a person because the bullet is spinning much faster.

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Sprinkling a little more on this topic. Andrew at arfcom goes through the top five types of home defense rounds. He does a good job of going through the pros/cons of each bullet type and why you may want one type over another.

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Good video, thank you.

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