Some thoughts on Hornady critical defense ammo

[N.H. Yankee]

Being a whitetail hunter and through the years having used various bullet designs in both center fire and black powder rifles I jumped on the Nosler ballistic tips soon after they came out. The ballistic tip is similar to the critical defense being a hollow point with a plastic tip. Deer have a coat of fur and one could compare that to clothing. One of the obstacle's of expansion even in today's best ammo can be clothing. The HST and other ammo has a decent track record but even in numerous tests isn't 100% reliable when it comes to having the nose plugged and acting somewhat like a solid.

This brings me back to the ballistic tip, I have had hollow points ( Barnes MZ expander ) plug in my black powder rifle until I went with the plastic tip design by T/C. I also found in my center fire rifles absolute 100% expansion every time with the ballistic tip. The one thing about the Nosler's is there is a velocity window for expansion and you need to match the bullet to the game. I can say the internal damage done on every deer I shot was devastating, looked like a grenade went off inside.

Hornady uses the plastic tip design on their critical defense ammo to prevent blockage of the hollow point and it is designed for defense in mind. At this time I have not bought any of these and do use the PDX by Winchester in my 9mm and the HST in my 40cal. What are your thoughts about the plastic tip design in the critical defense ammo?

 

[alfack]

The plastic tip in the self-defense ammo is different than the ballistic tip rifle ammo. In the Critical Defense ammo, it is not so much a plastic tip as it is an encased rubber ball. When the bullet impacts something, the ball gets squished which forces the bullet to expand.