Why Do You Hate Ball Ammo?
Dr. John Woods 03.01.16
Recently I was severely dinged for merely suggesting that hardball ammo was good stuff. Now I take most blog or website feedback with a grain of salt, because we all have differences in opinions and experiences. But, dude, how could you not like ball ammo?
High on the list of priorities for preppers and survivalists is the cost factor. We only have so much of our family budgets to commit to prepping. Ammo is certainly one way to balance it, especially for practice ammo. For that role, plain Jane ammo is hard to beat.
For the uninitiated, ball ammo is basic pistol ammunition that consists of a round nosed, hard jacketed bullet. The bullet tip looks like a ballistic missile, so it flies smoothly. These bullets also typically function very well in semi-auto pistols because the smooth bullet inserts into the pistol’s chamber easily without hanging up, usually.
When my dad got back home from bombing Germany from a B-24 Liberator, he brought his command pilot’s Colt 1911 .45 ACP service pistol with him. I used to pull it out of the holster on a regular basis from under the counter at our auto parts store. Inside the magazine were eight rounds of hard ball ammo. I figured if the Air Force thought it was good stuff, who was I to question it?
Also I have come to live by the self-defense proposition that shooting any kind of a bullet at an adversary is better than shooting nothing at all. Is ball ammo the best self-defense ammunition to use? No, it is not. If you can find a good brand of ammo with a modern hollow-point or other style of defense bullets, then for heaven’s sake use that, even if it does cost $35-50 a box.
But, for every day practice at the range, bug out camp, or in the backyard, nothing beats cost effective ball ammo. There are several brands of it widely available most of the time. It does cost less than the fancy new ammunition with fancy new names.
So, do I carry ball ammo in my most days carry pistols? No. But I do practice with ball and then ammo designed for self-defense that shoots to the same point of aim. I am a lot happier when I am burning the cheaper stuff.
