223 home defense ammo suggestion

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Zulu

Zulu

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A co-worker of mine was asking for recommendations for home defense ammo for his new AR. Not being an AR guy myself I didn't have any suggestions, but told him I'd ask around. What's a decent round that he's got a reasonable chance of finding?

Also, he wants to use it to thin out the coyotes around his cabin. Any scope favorites for him to look at?

Thanks.
 
I agree with MUP. The Hornady "Zombie" nonsense is nothing more than varmint ammo but is more likely to cost less since it's marketed to people who want more rounds than varmint hunters do. Any expanding bullet load that feeds reliably in his rifle will do the same though.

Since you mentioned that he wants to use it to pop the occasional coyote, then I'd think he'd want to leave the rifle loaded with ammo that will do both jobs - defense and varmints - I'd definitely go with a soft point bullet there and steer away from the more commonly available full metal jacket.
 
Not trying to be smart, but I would suggest to him that he use something other than his AR as his home defense weapon.
 
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mr.big said:
where does he live and how many other people live in the house
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It's just him and his wife retiring to a cabin off by itself up in the NC mountains. Occasional visitors, but I don't think any grand kids. I think he's looking more for shtf type ammo vs what we'd traditionally call "home defense."
Honestly I don't know the guy all that well, but he came to me since he knows I hunt and shoot a lot.
 
Sierra Blitzking (if i remember the name correctly.) Its just as explosive if not more so than the hornady VMax. But theres also the factory loaded Hornady TAP ammo. Its built for that kind of use.
 
.444 Marlin said:
Sierra Blitzking (if i remember the name correctly.) Its just as explosive if not more so than the hornady VMax. But theres also the factory loaded Hornady TAP ammo. Its built for that kind of use.
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Yeah, the Sierra Blitz and BlitzKing are both frangible varmint bullets. I used to love the 50 grain Blitz .224's in my 22 CHeetah Mk II loaded to about 4,180fps. They would rarely ever exit a groundhog and gave instant kills at any range I could hit one at. I recall shooting a bullseye taped to a corn flake box one day and seeing bunches of tiny holes in the back of the box where the bullets were fragmenting going through even that thin cereal box cardboard. If you hit a groundhog on the fringes it was explosive. When I shot up all of that lot of bullets and bought another batch I could never get them to shoot as they would come apart in the air and tumble. Of course I could have backed off the velocity but why have such a rifle if you have to shoot it as if it were a 22-250??

But back to the Sierra Blitz line, the standard Blitz is a flatbase and the BlitzKing is a boattail. Both are equally frangible. The extra cost of the "King" is only justified, imo, if you are shooting tiny varmints at long range and need the flatest trajectory you can get.
 
7mminatree said:
Winchester 45 gr. hollow points is another option. Very explosive at 3600 FPS.
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This in the white box. It has done extreme damage to yotes and armadillos. My M&P 15 loves them
 
SES said:
Not trying to be smart, but I would suggest to him that he use something other than his AR as his home defense weapon.
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I disagree with this suggestion. He already has the ideal weapon.

Any kind of expanding bullet would do well. Even a non expanding bullet would do that job. I'd look at something like a Hornady VMax.
 
There was a video some years back that showed that an AR with Hollow Points were a great choice for inside the house protection vs 45, 9 mm, and/or shotgun (using buckshot I believe). The way they did the test was to see how many walls of sheet rock would be penetrated, so not to injure other members of the household. The 223 won over the others. But to me a shotgun with rocksalt can and will work and if close enough it can be deadly if needed.
 

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