Hornady Critical Duty – Media Day at the Range SHOT 2013

Authors Paul Helinski SHOT Show 2013

Bullet design is tricky. On the one hand you want to bullet to open up, but you also want good penetration. Add in some barrier materials, like clothing, wallboard, glass and car doors, and the dynamics of how a bullet behaves after it leaves the gun gets a little squirrely. The classic hollowpoint works great in gelatin, but shoot through a jean jacket and flannel shirt into the same gelatin and it will sometimes fail to open up. Law enforcement test ammo in the real world every day, and though many “carry rounds” perform very well overall, they sometimes fail on specific barriers. The FBI designed an Ammunition Protocol Test to address these issues, and this Hornady Critical Duty ammunition was the result. The “heavy duty” bullets are designed to stay together through common barriers, including heavy clothing, drywall, plywood, sheet metal and glass, yet they also open up and don’t over-penetrate. You may be familiar with the Hornady Critical Defense line of carry ammo, and Critical Duty is the next step up for the challenging needs of law enforcement and personal self defense in an urban environment.

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  • Mark Teitelbaum February 1, 2013, 11:13 am

    Does that mean all the critical defense ammo I have ammassed in 9mm, 357,38, isn’t worth the metal it’s made of ???

    • Lee Dutra February 1, 2013, 12:05 pm

      Well Mark, I guess that depends if you spend more time on the defensive, or on duty. lol

  • Smitty January 15, 2013, 8:59 pm

    The title should be changed to “Hornady Critical Duty”, to match the title of the video. Critical Defense and Critical Duty are different rounds.

    • Administrator January 15, 2013, 10:46 pm

      Thanks for the catch.

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