- Well, you've got your gun now let's wade through all the
confusion about ammunition. (air whooshing) I'm Kevin Michalowski, Director of Content for The US Concealed Carry Association. In this video, we're going
to break it down to the two most important things you need to know, about ammunition. It is very confusing,
but there are two things and then we'll get you started on the road to choosing the right
ammo for personal defense. If you're new here, simply owning a gun does not prepare you
for armed Self-defense The US Concealed Carry Association provides you education and training to make sure you can avoid
danger and save lives. And before we get into this,
let me let you know that we will be giving away a gun, you will have the chance to win a gun by the end of this video but, you got to watch through
the end of the video to get those details for
the chance to win the gun. So let's talk a little bit about ammo, it's very confusing from lead round nose to full metal jacket to jacketed hollow point to,
frangible to, ballistic tip. There are millions of people buying ammo and thousands of ammo manufacturers and dozens of different kinds of ammo all sorts of stuff going on out there. Understand this folks,
it's all marketing, okay? Caliber is the diameter of the bore that's the bore is the barrel
where the bullet comes out. So I won't use this little 22
caliber to talk about caliber. We'll use something a little bigger. Here's a 40 caliber
freedom seed. Check it out. There are some basic
components to every cartridge. First of all, if you're
calling this a bullet, that's wrong, this is a cartridge. It includes a bullet, that is
the projectile that flies out and does the job, inside
this case or casing, there's a big debate, whether
it's a casing or a case this holds the magic fire powder, the gunpowder inside here
and at the end is a primer. The primer struck by the firing pin. The primer contains a very small amount of explosive material, it explodes, it ignites the gunpowder
which burns at a rapid rate so fast some people think it explodes. And the burning who we got it,
this one tried to get away. The burning creates a volume
of gas, which pushes the bullet down the bore down the barrel onto target. So those are the basics
of what a cartridge, what ammunition is. Here on the table we have
everything from 45 ACP, old, fat and slow kind of reminds you of someone doesn't it? And I did this, I grabbed
this type of setup here, this full star clip of 45 ACP cartridges just to show you how confusing it can be. Colt 45 ACP, Automatic Colt Pistol, But this is set up for a revolver. So you can use ammunition,
which was originally designed to go on an auto-loading
pistol, in revolvers. It depends on what the gun is, quote and quote chambered for. So, when you buy your gun you need to buy the
right type of ammunition. There are hundreds of calibers out there but we just picked out a few of the most common self-defense
calibers from 22 long rifle, 32 H&R Magnum, nine millimeter is probably the most popular, it's almost ubiquitous, it's out there everywhere. 40 caliber Smith and Wesson and 45 ACP are the ones you're going to see the most. 380 ACP we don't have out
here, but that's really, truly just a shortened version of
the nine millimeter rounded. There's five or six different
types of nine millimeter, the one we're talking
about the most common one in use in the world right
now is nine millimeter by 18, that is nine millimeter Parabellum or nine millimeter Luger, designed by George Luger back in 1908 or something like that, it's been around for quite a long time. So, I told you to solve confusion. There's just two things
that ammunition needs to do. First, we'll take this one, this, checkout right at the end, right there. That, is what we call a full metal jacket, that is a training or target load. We are using that for training. It's easy to make it's
cheap and fast to load, it is less expensive than
most other ammunition but when it hits, I don't know how to put this subtly, when it hits human flesh, when it hits something that
is predominantly liquid, it really does nothing. It just stays in one piece, flies right on through where it's going penetrates incredibly deeply and doesn't transfer much of
its energy into the target. So it's just a target load, you just want to see where you're hitting, it's poking holes and
stuff, that's what it does. Most commonly used self-defense
ammunition is this, the jacketed hollow point. This is the standard commonly
used self-defense ammunition and the goal of the jacketed hollow point is to transfer its energy into the target to go into the human flash, go into the liquid base material and stop. Therefore transferring all of
its energy into that target. So it hits a little bit harder and it does a little bit more damage. This is the end result of
shooting a jacketed hollow point into ballistic material. We use ballistic gel
that mimics human flesh and this is what we get
when it comes out of there. You'll notice that it opens up, it is wider than the 40
caliber when we started and the pedals peel back and that causes some more
internal damage and this opening up stops inside the
target, that's what we want. We would like to have penetration of about 13 inches and then the bullet
to stop inside the target, because then, you know, all of the energy from that bullet has
stopped inside the target. So quick recap on that before we go on full metal jacket used
for target and training. Jacketed hollow point
or other type material used for personal defense. Those are the two things
that you need to know just from the start. Also check your local listings, looking at you New Jersey. In New Jersey you can't use anything but full metal jacket ammunition. They say that the hollow point
ammunition is more dangerous and causes so much damage in
the bad guy that it's unfair you can't use it. So apparently New Jersey would rather have the full metal jacket
pass all the way through and hit some innocent people
farther down the road nope, that's editorializing
I'm sorry about that. Sorry, New Jersey, but check your laws to make sure that you are allowed to use jacketed hollow point
or frangible ammunition as part of your self defense plan. So moving on, I did say,
I did mention frangible. This frangible ammo, looks a
lot like a full metal jacket. But, in truth it is
compressed copper powder that is made scientifically
and that just means to say that I don't know how scientifically it is put together so that when this hits human flesh,
it returns again to powder and it transfers all of
its energy into the target but you won't get as much
penetration as you get from some of the other jacketed
hollow point ammunition but it transfers so much energy. This one is called one strike,
there's a company out there I don't know if they're still in business, it was extreme shock now
it's allegiance ammo. There's a couple of
other things out there, Custom Cartridge out in
California, making this frangible ammo which
transfers all of its energy but doesn't give quite
as much penetration, it's truly amazing. One of the other side benefits of this if you miss your target and
this hits anything else, it just turns into powder and it's gone and it's not ricocheting and it's not causing any
other problems downrange. Let's focus on the jacketed hollow points and all of the different styles and different methods of making
the hollow points work. This is around called the X fire, this is a nine millimeter
hollow point round. I would call it jacketed hollow point, except that the projectile
is solid metal and it is cut, you can see the little cuts down in there. What happens when you shoot X fire into human tissue or human
tissue equivalent is this, you get dramatic opening much much wider than the original nine
millimeter base down here and it still keeps together. So it carries the weight, we're talking about the
scientific equation again, you know, the weight is
transferring energy into the target, but it's opening up and it's
giving you much more of a what we will call a temporary
and permanent wound channel. So the temporary wound
channel is something that happens really fast
when the bullet hits the permanent wound channel is the actual diameter of
the wound into the body. So terminal ballistics is something that people really talk deeply about but, the truth of the matter is most
of what you hear is garbage. Honestly, this is no lie, somebody posted very recently that a 45 ACP shot into the toll will provide lethal
results. No, it will not. The one true thing
about handgun cartridges of all calibers is that none of them possess the power that
you see in the movies. You're not going to get a
guaranteed one shot stop, the lightning bolt effect from anything, you know 357 Magnum or 44 Magnum stuff we didn't even put out here, you're not going to get
that kind of reaction, that's why we tell you to
shoot until the threat stops. Because you don't know if your ammunition is going to perform as it is supposed to, there are lots of different variables. Critical defense ammo from Hornaday will put that forward and
let you take a look at that. That is also a jacketed hollow
point but notice there is a polymer insert in the
front of that projectile, that powder insert makes sure that this does not fill up with
clothing or other areas because the truth about a full metal,
excuse me, the truth about a jacketed hollow point
is that it only works, it only opens up like this, when material gets into the
center of the hollow point and pushes the rest of
the material out the side. Something like the critical
defense round from Hornaday, that make sure that this doesn't fill up so that you get a much
more consistent opening. There's lots of other
stuff out there too because everybody is trying to
build a better mousetrap to get you to buy ammo. And we're right in the middle
of an ammo shortage right now because everybody is buying ammo, so they're buying everything they can get. This is a polymer based projectile, so it's not going to expand
at the same way metal does but when it hits the target, you see the grooves on the front, they're transferring the energy it's pushing that projectile to turn in a different direction and move and transfer some of that energy. I don't know how well this works, we've shot it into ballistic gel and seen it just turn
and come out the side. So I'm a much bigger fan of the traditional jacketed hollow point or the frangible ammunition, even as stuff like X fire, as long as you get the good penetration that you're expecting and
much more important than that as long as this functions
effectively in your firearm, so grab a few boxes of whatever
it is you're going to carry and my plan is to always shoot 200 rounds of my defensive ammo. My gun has to fire 200
rounds without a malfunction, then I consider it reliable enough for me to bet my life on it. One thing you'll notice, well one last thing we'll
talk about as we go forward, this is a 22 caliber ammunition, most crime scenes you'll talk
to cops, they end up yup, 22s were used because they're common, they're ubiquitous, they're everywhere, they're cheap, they're easy to get a hold of, you can keep thousands and
thousands of 22 rounds with you. Typically a 22 caliber
is a lead round nose, there are a few companies making hallow point 22 caliber ammo but, lead round those bullets
are most often for, like I said before target shooting and things like that. And if you're looking here
on the screen and you said, "Hey, Kevin what's that
one with a red tip?" Okay. This was made by American
Eagle, Federal Cartridge Company (mumbling) Sim Tech,
synthetic technical, okay, it's a polymer covering
over the lead bullet which was designed to put less fouling in your barrel so you have to clean your gun less. Again, these are marketing elements, you should clean your gun anytime when you're shooting anyway, but when you're in the store, well, I shouldn't say that now because there's no ammo in the store. When you're shopping online and you see all of these images of ammo and it probably says sold out right now. There's so many different
choices it can be confusing, but let's break it down to this. Let's recap this for you the
two things you need to know, full metal jacket, for
training and target shooting, jacketed hollow point
or frangible ammunition for personal defense. Those
are the areas of the breakdown. And, look for the proper caliber, it will be stamped on your firearm, it will say nine millimeter
para, or it will say 40 S&W there are a few little quirks in there. The Ruger Firearms Company does not call their 40 caliber guns shooting
40 Smith and Wesson ammo. That's what the standard
name for 40 caliber ammo is the 40 Smith and Wesson, Ruger will stamp 40 auto on there because they don't want to
put the term Smith and Wesson on a Ruger firearm. But, make sure that you are
buying the right caliber the right cartridge for your firearm, and then the right type of projectile for your intended need. So remember that gun
giveaway I talked about at the beginning of this video, now is your chance to win all you've got to do is Click on the link, it's down there in the description or you can click right on this video. You get a chance to win a gun, I can't guarantee that you'll win it but someone will win it. We make sure that people
have the right tools to protect themselves. We want you to avoid danger. We want you to be able to save lives. This is how we do it. So no strings attached, click
on that. Try to win the gun. I'm Kevin Michalowski, Director of Content for The US Concealed Carry Association. Stay safe out there. And Hey, if you like these videos please, Subscribe to this page. Click that notification button. We'll notify you every time
we come out with something new we'll see you in the next video. (upbeat music)
