Hollow point bullets legal and available in India?

[AndyK]

Hello friends,
Are hollow point bullets (.45 ACP) legal in India? I have a license for self defense. I am getting a 1911 .45 pistol. I dont know if hollow point bullets are sold in India for civilians. Also, besides hollow point and full metal jacket bullets, any other types are available/legal for civilians in india? Please clarify if you are aware. Thanks.

[chicky]

Hollow points are definitely available in India, I just bought a box of Federal .22 in hollow point recently. I am sure similarly .45 should be available too. You could try Sharda Gun House in Delhi for your requirements.

[marksman]

The diameter of a .45 bullet is big enough to do the trick in self defense, at least in India. you'd be served as well with a solid jacketed bullet I feel. Hoe ever the hollow points are pretty legal in India if you have deep pockets.

Marksman

[timmy]

My suggestion is that you do some study of manufacturer's ammunition and also some research on a few reliable internet sites to figure out what you might want to choose.

REgarding hollow point ammunition, it is true that properly designed hollow point bullets in ammunition that is powerful enough (the rules out 32 Auto) to cause the bullet to expand offers greater performance on the target by expanding and creating a larger wound channel.

However this is not the only reason to choose hollow point bullets for some carry guns -- police also use hollow point bullets because they limit penetration. A full metal jacket bullet from a gun in 45 Auto, 9mm, or 357 Magnum, as examples, will penetrate a lot of walls or people. Check out some reliable penetration tests for yourself to see whether this is true. 30 Tokarev, the old Soviet cartridge with full metal jacket bullets, is famous for its great penetration -- which isn't something to be desired on the street or in the house. You want the bullet to do its job and STOP. not go on to the next town, killing and maiming. Properly designed hollow points can achieve this.

Here are five well known quality lines of hollow point ammunition:

Hornady Critical Duty
Speer Gold Dot
Remington Golden Saber
Federal HST
Winchester Ranger T

None of these are on the low end of the price range. The technology incorporated in the bullets is, frankly, amazing.

Personally, I use the Hornady Critical Duty. This is police ammunition intended to limit penetration, yet still be able to go through walls and car doors and achieve its purpose on the far side. You will find a lot of this kind of ammunition available in +P and +P+ loadings, which are simply two higher pressure loads with greater velocity. The Critical Duty ammunition I use is the 9mm 135 grain load in standard pressure. There is a marginally less expensive Hornady product called Critical Defense. This ammunition has a less expensive bullet that does what Critical Duty does, except for the barrier penetration. Also, it is intended for shorter barreled "compact" size guns, where Critical Duty is loaded for longer barreled duty guns that police use (which I also carry).

So you should realize that ammunition, especially this special ammunition, is loaded with a particular weapon in mind -- compact or standard, and in different pressures for different performance levels.

Note also that the full metal jacketed bullets are usually shaped with a rounded end, or ogive, to facilitate reliable loading in semiauto pistols and easy loading in revolvers. However, bullets with a wide "meplat" or wide flat front to the bullet are much more effective on targets, even if they are not hollow points. I would not be interested in carrying a 45 Auto pistol with issue 230 grain round nosed full metal jacketed bullets for carry use. They are fine for practice, but not optimal for carry. One of the drawbacks to the 32 Auto is that it must use this sort of full metal jacket bullet in order to get enough penetration to work, due to its limited power. But if you are using a more powerful weapon, I don't see the economy of saving a little bit of money (compared to the price of the weapon), nor do I wish to accept the possible collateral damage and liability that bullets with a great deal of penetration exhibit.

[Vineet]

Hollow points are legal and available in India. Some pistols dont feed reliably with hollow points so check it before you carry them in your pistol for self defence. Personally I would avoid using hollow points in .45. +1 to what marksman said above

[Afaque]

Can we use copper made bullets in India ? What is the general material used in bullets in India.