ICC Frangible Defensive Ammo

[TBob]

I haven't seen much written about International Cartridge Corporation's relatively new frangible rounds. I attended one of their demos at TREXPO East last year and was very impressed. I stayed around afterwards and asked a lot of questions and was treated to further demos.

Older frangibles are simply packed powder that turn back to powder on impact. They make very nasty but shallow wounds. ICC's rounds are sintered metal that break into chunks upon soft-target penetration. The base (from the bottom of the hollow-point cavity on back), however, stays intact and continues to penetrate the target. So, you get the double benefits of numerous, significant wound channels plus penetration. The linked website has some good videos of the round's performance in gel, including through cloth barriers. The bullets' consistent performance from shot to shot is impressive.

The bullets look like solid brass hollow points and can be dropped w/o damage. They will penetrate car windows and even some car doors. However, when impacting hard steel and brick or stone walls, even at an angle, the bullets disintegrate. That makes them ideal for urban environments because they won't ricochet or over-penetrate, yet do considerable internal damage to the target.

Additionally, the bullets contain no lead, which together with their complete disintegration upon impacting hard steel, makes them ideal for practice on ranges with lead issues and at very short ranges. ICC makes the rounds in .380 Auto HP .9mm Luger HP,.357 Sig HP, .38 Special HP, .40 S&W HP, .45 Auto HP for pistols and .223 Rem RP & HV, .308 Win RP & HV, 7.63 x 39 RP for rifles/carbines. They have accumulated a number of government and police customers.

I previously used Remington Golden Saber BJHPs as my defensive ammo, and I still like their accuracy and performance. However, after witnessing ICC's demos and shooting the ammo from my own firearms, I switched over to ICC's 155gr FP .45ACP rounds for daily carry. I buy them from frangiblebullets.com. The ICC rounds appear to be uniquely suited to the urban environment here, providing multiple wound channels while preserving penetration, yet preventing over-penetration and ricochets.

Non-disclaimer: I don't work for ICC, but I like the ammo.

[davasmith]

Thanks for the info, but i'll stick to my black talons for daily carry.