Hornady Critical Defense 223 Rem 73gr FTX – Robust Home Defense Load

Description

The Hornady Critical Defense 223 Rem 73gr FTX takes the defensive bullet design into a rifle cartridge, and the reasoning changes slightly in the process. A 73 grain FTX at 2790 fps carries about 1262 ft-lbs, and the Flex Tip is there as much to guarantee expansion out of a short barrel as to stop the nose clogging.

• Hornady Critical Defense 223 Rem 73gr FTX Overview
• 223 Home Defense Ammo Ballistics
• Why The 73 Grain FTX Bullet Opens At Low Velocity
• Specifications
• Rifles That Suit This AR Platform Defensive Rifle Load

Hornady Critical Defense 223 Rem 73gr FTX Overview

Hornady item 80260 loads a 73 grain FTX bullet to a nominal 2790 fps, producing roughly 1262 ft-lbs at the muzzle. Twenty rounds per box.

Hornady publishes the curve from a 24 inch test barrel: 2790 fps and 1262 ft-lbs at the muzzle, 2448 fps and 971 ft-lbs at a hundred yards, and 2131 fps and 736 ft-lbs at two hundred.

A 24 inch barrel is longer than most defensive rifles have. A 16 inch carbine will typically run two hundred feet per second or so below those figures, which is exactly the situation the bullet is designed around.

Critical Defense in a rifle calibre is a slightly different proposition from the handgun line. The energy is not in question, so the engineering effort goes into making the bullet behave predictably rather than into wringing performance out of a small cartridge.

223 Home Defense Ammo Ballistics

At 2790 fps a 73 grain bullet produces about 1262 ft-lbs, from grains times velocity squared divided by 450437. That is roughly three times what a 9mm pistol generates, from a rifle that is easier to shoot accurately under stress.

The heavier bullet is the point of this load over the 55 grain version. At 73 grains it carries a better ballistic coefficient, retains more velocity downrange and holds together more reliably at close range where impact velocity is highest.

Still doing 736 ft-lbs at two hundred yards is well beyond any distance a home defense scenario involves, which is a useful margin rather than a selling point. It means the load is not working at the edge of its envelope at across the room distances.

Trajectory is flat enough to be irrelevant at any defensive distance. A 223 home defense ammo load sighted at fifty yards is within an inch of point of aim from the muzzle out past a hundred, which removes holdover from the list of things to think about.

Why The 73 Grain FTX Bullet Opens At Low Velocity

The Flex Tip does two jobs in a rifle cartridge. The first is the same as in a pistol: a conventional hollow point driven through heavy clothing can pack its cavity with fabric and fail to open, and a polymer filled cavity cannot pack.

The second is specific to short barrels. A 16 inch carbine, and more so a 10 or 11 inch pistol length upper, gives up a great deal of velocity, and a hollow point that needs speed to open may simply not. Hornady states plainly that the Flex Tip helps the bullet expand at low velocities, and that is the more important claim of the two here.

The result is controlled expansion carbine ammunition that behaves consistently across barrel lengths rather than only in a long test barrel. For a rifle kept by the bed, that consistency is worth more than a headline velocity figure.

A 223 also has a quiet advantage indoors that surprises people. A light fast bullet that expands or fragments sheds energy quickly in drywall, often penetrating less through interior walls than a handgun bullet does.

Hornady also loads low flash propellant. A rifle fired indoors in the dark produces a substantial fireball with ordinary powder, and losing your vision at that moment is a serious problem.

That is what controlled expansion carbine ammunition is for: a 73 grain FTX bullet that opens the same way whether it leaves a 24 inch barrel or an 11 inch one.

Specifications

Rifles That Suit This AR Platform Defensive Rifle Load

Any rifle chambered in 223 Remington or 5.56x45mm in sound working order will fire this load. A 223 chamber is the tighter of the two, so 223 ammunition is safe in both, while 5.56 ammunition is not always safe in a 223 chamber.

Twist rate matters with a 73 grain bullet. A 1:8 or 1:7 twist, which covers most AR-15 barrels built in the last fifteen years, stabilises it comfortably. A 1:12 twist varmint barrel is too slow and accuracy will suffer.

Magazine length is not an issue. The bullet is loaded to standard overall length and feeds through any AR magazine without complaint.

If your rifle wears a short barrel, this is the load to prefer over a standard soft point. An AR platform defensive rifle load built to open at reduced velocity is doing exactly what a 10 or 11 inch upper needs from it.

Controlled Expansion Carbine Ammunition Availability

This Hornady Critical Defense 223 Rem 73gr FTX is in stock and ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer, and orders of this controlled expansion carbine ammunition normally leave within one business day.

For a slower twist barrel see the Hornady Critical Defense 223 55gr FTX. In a larger rifle calibre the Hornady Critical Defense 308 155gr FTX is the equivalent, and for a handgun the Hornady Critical Duty 9mm 124gr FlexLock covers the same job. Full ballistics are published by Hornady.