26Mar07

223 Performance, from a friend in Dallas, TX:

"One of our patrol officers was murdered here Friday. The suspect fired at him from within a stopped vehicle. Other nearby officers responded by firing at the suspect, who remained inside the vehicle (Chevy Caprice) the entire time. Suspect eventually surrendered after being wounded. He is currently

hospitalized.

The point of this is that at least one responding officer was armed with an

EOTech-equipped AR-15. Both rifle and optic ran just fine. The ammunition

did not! The police rifle was loaded with WW 55gr ballistic silvertip. Range was less than fifty feet. With over fifteen rounds fired at the suspect, penetration of the vehicle door and glass was poor, with every bullet fired

breaking up upon impact and failing to penetrate intact. Only fragments came through and did merely superficial damage to the suspect. In fact, it was police handgun rounds fired at the suspect, particularly 357SIG, that did penetrate and subsequently wounded him severely enough to persuade him to stop fighting.

I am convinced that even 55gr hardball would have performed better."

Comment: For over forty years, the unsatisfactory penetration ability of the 223 round, at all ranges, has been well known within both the military and the law-enforcement communities. In fact, it is "poor penetration" that we have actually used as a selling point while persuading politicians to allow us to equip beat cars with rifles, rather than shotguns.

Unfortunately, in American law enforcement, we get into a lots of our gunfights in and around cars. Most pistol rounds do a poor job of penetrating car doors. Buckshot from a shotgun does not penetrate car doors either. Slugs

from a shotgun do penetrate, but most police shotguns are not routinely equipped with them. Rifles were supposed to address this issue, but, as we see, light, frail, crumbly bullets, at any speed, fail to penetrate car doors, even car glass.

Departments that equip their officers with 223 rifles need to look at Cor-Bon 62gr DPX and Federal 223 Tactical. Both these rounds will reliably

penetrate car doors without breaking up. In fact, DPX not only penetrates but it expands fully after penetrating the car door and subsequently striking soft

tissue. I routinely carry DPX in my RA/XCR, which is one of my car-guns.

It is high time we stop playing games with friable bullets and start equipping our officers with up-to-date, fight-stopping technology!

/John