Hornady Critical Defense Ammo

Entirely Appropriate for Armed Citizens

Hornady offers law enforcement professionals hollow point ammunition specifically loaded to meet guidelines established by FBI Protocols for handgun ammunition.

Critical Duty ammunition features Hornady's FlexLock bullet replete with a Flex Tip point. The Flex Tip point is assembled with Hornady's Interlock technology which locks the jacket and core together to eliminate jacket/core separation. This helps the bullet to stay together when penetrating intermediate barriers typically encountered in the line of duty. Also important to note, Flex Tip's hollow-point cavity resists clogging when penetrating heavy garments and yet expands beautifully when striking a human target.

You probably already know FBI protocols mandate that handgun ammunition be test-fired through a number of barriers into ballistic gelatin and meet a penetration standard. Penetration is the only fixed requirement. Should the bullet fail to penetrate a minimum 12 inches of ballistic gel after having passed through the barrier, it fails. While there is no requirement for expansion, obviously for wound generation, the expansion the better.

It should come as no big surprise to learn that Hornady's Critical Defense line of ammunition is also entirely appropriate for armed citizens. The engineers at Hornady realized that most citizens are not likely to be shooting through sheet metal or auto glass. With that in mind, the FBI protocol specification penetration in one's home could actually be a bad thing. Consequently, Hornady's Critical Defense ammunition does not necessarily adhere to the FBI protocols for penetration requirements. Critical Defense ammunition also typically offers less recoil than the Critical Duty ammo as most armed citizens typically carry smaller, lighter firearms than do cops on duty.

Hornady Critical Defense Expansion