what is an armor piercing bullet?

[beergood]

is a 7.62 full metal jacket bullet armor piercing? or perhaps a .40 caliber hollow point? or a 30-06? a 30-30? what about the dirty hairy .44 mag round, is that armor piercing?


the media talks a lot about banning armor piercing rounds, but what are they?

[Vincardog]

1. I suspect anything made with a steel jacket or depleted uranium

[TexasProgresive]

2. Evidently bullets with a steel, iron or brass core-certainly not hollow points of any kind.

US considers ban on type of ammo that can pierce vests
Obama administration considering ban on type of ammo used in AR-15-style rifles because the bullets can pierce a cop's armor when fired from a handgun

Mar 3, 2015
http://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-armor/articles/8376889-US-considers-ban-on-type-of-ammo-that-can-pierce-vests/
An ATF spokeswoman, Ginger Colbrun, said Monday the agency is considering eliminating the exemption now because of the production of so-called AR pistols that can fire the same cartridge. The agency is accepting public comment about the proposed change until March 16 at the email address [e-mail], by fax or postal mail. Colbrun said it's unclear when a final decision will be made.

At issue is the material in the core of the bullets. As long as the bullet's core does not contain particular types of metal, including steel, iron or brass, the bullet would still be legally available.

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. Technically, none of those rounds are "armor piercing."

Most of those you list, if using a fully-jacketed bullet, will probably defeat lower-level body armor (most any hunting rifle caliber will do so, but those pistol rounds woudl be iffy, even the .44 mag), but aren't specifically designed for penetrating armor. Ammunition designed to defeat armor will have a steel (or tungsten, beryllium, etc.) core in the bullet, or even a sharply-tapered bullet entirely of the harder metal.

There are sensible federal restrictions on armor piercing rounds for handguns (essentially, you can't buy such ammo), designed to keep criminals from having ammo that will defeat police body armor. Criminals rarely use rifles, and the handguns chambered for rifle rounds have the same problem for criminals that rifles do: they're far too bulky to conceal.

[Amishman]

4. it depends on if you mean the legal definition or the practical definition

The legal definition is:

Under federal law, armor-piercing ammunition is defined as any projectile or projectile core that may be used in a handgun and that is constructed entirely from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium.

So technically just about anything sold, even almost army surplus ammunition, is legally not armor piercing. But plenty of stuff that is not officially armor piercing will go through a vest.