Visiting the local water hole, there was a discussion on DOD using 9mm ammo that has much greater stoping power than ball. The initiator of this discussion said he read an article awhile back and of course unable to recall anymore about the type of ammo.
Searched “google” and didn’t see anything along these lines, therefore the question to the pro’s.
Another urban legend?
Maybe this is what you were talking about.
The Brit Mil has a 9mm designated type 2Z. The 2Z ammo is intended for use in sub machine guns only, in the case of the UK this was the Sten and then later the Sterling. Gentler pistol ammo did not have the necesary ooomph to always send the bolt back into full lock and could result in an unintentional rapid emptying of the magazine:D.
Most units of the Brit Mil did not differentiate between 9mm types and the dim witted ammunition clerk used to just order 2Z 9mm. The result was that unit armourers used to whinge about the undue maintenance requirements of the Pistols. This was caused by the frames being rattled with the extra force of 2Z.
We, the British Army, used to buy our 2Z from Radway Green, Pakistani Ordnance Factory (POF) and the Indian Ordnance Factory. I have also seen POF 2Z 9mm advertised by the box in Shotgun News. Pistoleros beware of 2Z.
My old man was one of many that took part in the pistol trials to replace the 1911 and all of the 9mm ammunition they received was from Canada and it was SMG ammo. The result was that they broke all of the test pistols with the exception of the Browning HP and the Rugers.
The military 9mm ammo I have sitting here is regular 115gr FMJ and it is made by Winchester in 06. I haven’t shot it through a chrony but I would assume it will be around 1100-1200 fps.
DOD is a huge entity, with military, civilian, and contractor, CONUS and OCONUS, gun carriers with a wide variety of duties and 9mm ammunition, including some of the better commercially available defensive loads.
I bet I know exactly what they were talking about. It was an article by Massad Ayoob about a modifed version of Federal’s EFMJ 9mm 124gr.+P round that the military was thinking of adopting. I’ll search around and see if I can find it. Its been discussed on here in the past.
Found it…http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_3_54/ai_n24232193/
I believe that is the article he was talking about, he was using the acronym FMJ-LP thanks for the link. Dang, this is a great site!
FMJ-LP
Sitting on my desk as I write this is a generic white box of Federal Cartridge brand ammunition marked “50 Cartridges/CALIBER 9MM/124 GR LIMITED PENETRATION FMJ,” Lot Number 2 24V630." Examination shows it to be nickel case, marked " P," with a projectile resembling a flatnose, jacketed truncated cone, hardball round
I’m not sure how limited penetration equates to greater “stopping power,” whatever that is. But I do know that CONUS we can and do use a hollow point bullet. The law enforcement nature of (my) stateside work and the fact that we are not limited by LOAC in this capacity allows the use of bullets other than FMJ. I have yet to figure out what kind of HP bullet we are using, though, and I will have to look into that.