Federal's New Guard Dog Self-Defense Ammunition Getting More Popular (with video)

[Johnny Rico]

http://www.guns.com/federal-guard-dog-ammunition-self-home-defense-nra-shooting-illustrated-golden-bullseye-8048.html



Federal Ammunition was awarded the NRA publication Shooting Illustrated's Golden Bullseye award for their premium self-defense Guard Dog expanding full metal jacket ammunition not too long ago. The award is for the Ammunition Product of the Year. And at the very least, this is interesting ammo. The design is a combination of both hollowpoint and full-metal jacket features. Guard Dog ammunition has a polymer-filled cavity inside the front of the bullet that is constructed similarly to hollowpoints and scored inside to split apart. But the petals are all connected together by a thin jacket over the bullet's tip.

Instead of blooming like flower petals Guard Dog ammo flattens and pancakes, the polymer acting as a mechanical force that pushes the walls of the cavity into an even disk for very predictable expansion. While the overall diameter of the expanded bullet is going to be slightly less than the maximum diameter of a traditional hollowpoint, the polymer also fills the gaps between the petals, greatly increasing the surface area of the flattened bullet point. Behind the hollow cavity is a standard lead-filled bullet base.

Another interesting thing is that these are not +P or even particularly high-energy bullets. Because of the bullets more reliable expansion, Federal did not soup up these cartridges to extremely high pressures (which could be a con from a different perspective) which makes them extremely fast shooters, insuring ease of follow-up. Also, because they're fully-jacketed, they are much less likely to encounter feeding problems, particularly with older designs that center around lead, ball, or soft-point ammo.

But perhaps the most important thing about Federal's Guard Dog ammunition is that by being a fully-jacketed bullet, it is available for sale in jurisdictions where hollowpoints are restricted or banned. Almost every school of thought regarding self-defense ammunition is that the bullets need to be expanding. But even so, in many places hollowpoints are prohibited, which is why these Guard Dog cartridges are so important. Also, because they're fully-jacketed, they are much less likely to encounter feeding problems, particularly with older designs that center around lead, ball, or soft-point ammo.

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(more at link)

As the article states, this appears to be an excellent product for those unfortunate enough to live in jurisdictions that prohibit hollow-point ammunition for civilians.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Our Tax Dollars at Work

[ozone82]

2. What Tax Dollars?

Federal is not a government entity.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. oops. my bad. misread the post. thanks.

[Hoyt]

4. Great read. Manufacturers will go to great lengths to push the envelop of laws to sell more guns

and ammo to the gun culture.

[gejohnston]

5. what law?

there are only one or two states that ban hollow points. Since only "our kind of people" are allowed to get CCWs there, I'm sure they look the other way on that too.

[-..__...]

9. Soon to be known as "The Hollow Point Loophole"...

But perhaps the most important thing about Federal's Guard Dog ammunition is that by being a fully-jacketed bullet, it is available for sale in jurisdictions where hollowpoints are restricted or banned. Almost every school of thought regarding self-defense ammunition is that the bullets need to be expanding. But even so, in many places hollowpoints are prohibited, which is why these Guard Dog cartridges are so important. They can go where hollowpoints can't, and are available in the following configurations:

It was only a matter of time until the death merchants (working behind the scenes with the NRA), came up with a way to skirt the law, and at the same time, develop an even more lethal human ventilation device.

Disgusting!!!

[Clames]

10. What you are really seeing...

...is another hosing of the technically incompetent legislators who put such laws into place in the first place.

[Travis_0004]

12. Doesn't FMJ feed more reliable than hollow points in some guns?

I've heard some guns may have issues feeding some hollow points. I believe this myth at least enough to test any self defesne ammo before relying on it. (which is good practice anyway.

If it is infact true that a FMJ is a bit more reliable, even 1% more, than it seems like a great design.

(and for the record, I'm against any bans of hollow point ammo)

[ManiacJoe]

13. FMJ is more reliable in some guns, yes.

The problem tends to be the shape of the bullet nose. Round feeds well, flat not quite as well.

[Meiko]

6. Looks like

Good planning, research and marketing to me...find a niche and fill it.

[Meiko]

7. Anyone

remember the dreaded Winchester "Black Talon's" Man that ammo got a lot of bad press over nothing. It was finally taken off the market in 2000.

[ileus]

8. A nice bad guy tissue friendly round, nice to see companies engineering outside the box.

[Clames]

11. Something the usual group of clutchers will fail to notice...

...but should be brought to their intention is that this light-for-caliber ammunition addresses the issue of over-penetration. Because these rounds are lighter they lose energy at a faster rate than typical lead or mono-metal JHPs which means they also shed more energy when impacting a barrier.