Interesting post-shootout interview with officer

[Malamute]

"...And a match grade hollow point bullet wouldn't necessarily do more damage than the .223 whatever that was used in this shootout. It may not have made a difference. A soft point, which would be more common, may have had a more dramatic impact but in a medium as thick as the leg it wouldn't have enough time to expand to make much of a difference. It would plow on through with minimal expansion leaving a slightly loarger hole with maybe a little hydrostatic shock to the surrounding tissue.... "


I don't believe this statement is correct. I've shot game with various 223/5.56 loads, and 2" of critter is plenty to get expansion and extremely dramatic effect with soft point loads. I used 55 gr, as that was what was primarily available at the time. Cottontail rabbits simply came apart in chunky pieces, the pieces going in various directions, Jack Rabbits would get about a 1 1/2"-2" exit hole blown through them, and instantaneous DRT. Coyotes had similar holes blown through them with lung shots, and they were basically bang/flop dead. The fact that the coyotes had exit holes the size they did indicates the bullets were not extremely fragile, like varmint only type bullets are. The bullets seemed to hold together. M-193 loads exibited inconsistant results on small game. I never had a cotton tail rabbit come apart when shot with M-193, they they wer generally dead on the spot. Jack rabbits would sometimes have largish holes blown through them, sometimes not, sometimes they felt "crunchy' after being hit. I had one jack rabbit shot through the chest with M-193 ball that got up and ran off while I was standing looking at it reloading the rifles magazine. I didnt shoot any coyotes with 223/5.56 ball ammo. Larger caliber soft point rounds still exibited dramatic results on cottontail rabbits, 30-30 being one I used some. Results left no doubt whatsoever that there was bullet expansion. I only used 170 gr bullets in the 30-30's. Peripheral hits on various game animals with any soft point load I've used and seen used results in very large holes, often with large amounts of guts hanging out. May not be an instant stopping shot, but extremely dramatic results. I killed an elk with a match hollow point, a 190 gr Speer bthp in an '06. If hit the cow elk a bit too far back on the near side, blew about a 1"+ entrance hole, broke a rib, utterly destroyed the liver and off side lung, broke two ribs on exit, with about a 2" exit hole. Blood was strewn across the snow like it came from a paint sprayer then squirt gun. BTW, she ran over a mile. She still had one lung. I've shot some smaller game thru coyotes with FMJ loads in '06, they werent very dramatic, nor were cast bullets in most things compared to expanding loads, tho the 357 magnum with a swc fctory load exploded one jack rabbit, and good SWC bullets made rather nasty wounds compared to rn bullets. After hunting with various loads, I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would use FMJ ammo for defensive use if not required to. To each his own I guess.

I did not read the link. My sympathies are all with the officer. We don't know what loads the bad guy used, but I would hazard a guess that if he had been shot with soft point ammo, the results would have been much worse.

[booker_t]

.. ability of troops to carry more ammo..

They can only carry as much as you can deliver. Main forces are nothing without their logisitical tail.

Few carry more than 7 magazines, 210 rounds. Some carry up to 14 or 15, 450 or thereabouts, depending on the mission. Even with disciplined semi-auto fire, 450 rounds looks real thin in even a moderately protracted fight.