What are the different kinds of bullets?

[ian g]

What are the different kinds of bullets like JHP, FMJ, Semi-Wadcutters, etc? What is the best kind for IPSC competition?

[Patrick Sweeney]

They refer to the shape of the bullet;

fmj: full metal jacket

jhp: jacketed hollow point

swc: semi-wadcutter

As for what is best, that depends on what you can afford, and what the firearm in question feeds reliably and shoots accurately.

Ask the guys in your squad at the next match, and see what they're using and why.

[DogmaDog]

ian G,

I just shoot FMJ or CMJ (complete metal jacket) bullets, because they're the cheapest available factory ammo, and I don't reload.

Many who reload use lead bullets, because they're even cheaper.

When I was on the Marine rifle team, I talked to the pistol team reloader, and they used jacketed hollow points (except for hardball competition, where they used hardball (FMJ)...duh.  The guy explained that JHPs (at least these ones) were made by pouring lead into a mold with the bullet base on the bottom, so gas bubbles trapped in the liquid metal rose to the nose of the bullet, where they were drilled out after the jacket was put on (to make the point hollow), resulting in a more uniform density and mass distribution in the finished bullet, and therefore greater accuracy for those 50 yard shots with 1911 service pistols (we're talking a 1/4" difference in group size, or so).  

So you can get pretty deep into it and shave those groups down by a few fractions of an inch, or you can just get cheap bullets that feed reliably in your gun and just go shooting.

Semper Fi,

DogmaDog

[BSeevers]

Ian

I assume you belong to USPSA. What caliber do you shoot? Get the copy of Front Sight mag about Nationals and shoot whatever the majority of shooters are using. Not full proof but a good starting point. Some guns are picky so if your buddy is shooting Hornady XTP HP's your gun might not like them. Your gunsmith could fix that but it is not enough of a  problem to worry about. Most bullets are good.  Buy name brand from one of the known suppliers and practice.

There are other bullet shapes or profiles but keep it simple. As said use what works with everybody else's guns. Also remember changing bullet types means you might need to "dial" everything back in.

[TMC]

I my neck of the woods most people use lead bullets in the limited guns and FMJ or CMJ in open guns.  The Complete Metal Jacket bullets tend to run cleaner in my open gun. FMJ bullets typically do not have the base covered with copper thus they tend to burn and lead up the comp, whereas CMJ do not.

Try to find bullets that feed good, this is paramount. For this game shooting steel and paper you do not need some super trick hyper-ninjafied hollow point max expansion bullet, just a fairly accurate, well feeding and in my case, low cost bullet.

[Allen]

Also, the open based jacketed bullets are almost as bad as lead bullets for airborn particulate. I believe many indoor ranges require FMJ or TCJ bullets for health reasons.

Allen

[EricW]

This won't sound like a lot of help, but shoot the cheapest thing that works that you can get a consistent supply of.

[Jasonub]

using plated so that smoke will not affect high speed shooting

[Guest bulm5]

I use moly coated in my forty and it is pretty good. Cheaper than FMJs.

[Sterling White]

try jacketed hollow points (jhp)....they are very close in price and very accurate.