I have been thinking about this for a long time do the OTM or HP style 223 bullets do anything special that a FMJ does not? I ask this because I bought about 500 HP in 223 and none of them acted like HP when shot. They acted like FMJ I will give you that this first batch was a Wolf or Gold Bear brand.

I have also shot some top shelf ammo that was OTM that were marketed as LEO sniper ammo so I thought good enough for them its good enough for my AR-15. Well at almost a $1.50 a pop I did get accurate FMJ and I did shot these out past 100 yards and into soft targets like mike jugs only had 30 rounda.

So can anyone tell me something I dont know? I ask because there is a deal on OTM 224 bullets and want to hear what others think.

generally:

more accurate
frag better/more consistent

OTM does not= HP

all HPs are not created equally

Milk jugs are not at all a decent media for testing ballistics?

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generalizations...no doubt. There is good FMJ ammo and bad OTM/HP ammo. You don't have to spend a lot of money for good OTMs.

What grain are you shooting?
What distance are you shooting?
What is your barrel"s twist?
Who manufactured your barrel?
etc?

"Open Tip Match" is a term to help differentiate bullets that have an "open tip" from "hollow point" bullets.  HPs are supposedly designed and built to expand, while OTMs are designed and built for accuracy.  The reason is that making a bullet cup with the tip open means that the base of the bullet can be made very consistent, which contributes to accuracy.  And on the scale of a bullet, the opening doesn't have any significant affect on aerodynamics, as a similar opening on the scale of an airplane would.  So repeat after me: "open tip bullets are NOT hollow point bullets."  Keeping the terminology accurate can help avoid another episode of "bullet ban" stupidity.

SOME hollow point bullets work very well.  Others, not so much.  It depends on many factors, including the overall bullet design, and very critically, the velocity the bullet is traveling at when it impacts the target.

The base of the bullet is more important to overall accuracy than the tip.

Forming a bullet base first allows the geometry and uniformity of the base to be controlled much more closely than forming one nose first.  If you look closely at OTM bullets around the nose, you will note they aren't perfectly formed.

For a given jacket thickness and core composition, FMJ will have better penetration performance.

Now, before anyone starts with but the Mk 318 is an open tip and has better penetration performance than the M855, look at its internal design the two are not comparable.  The entire back half of the bullet is solid copper with a lead core in front of it.  Compared to the three piece make up of the M855.  With the M855 impact at angles other than perpendicular will place bending stresses on the bullet, with the M855 the only thing preventing the break up of the bullet into a very light weigh steel tip and a soft heavy base is the copper jacket, with the Mk 318, the bullet is still subjected to bending, but the jacket is thicker, and the base is harder, giving it better performance.

The OTM I used where  PMC .77 Gr. X-TAC match OTM

Other was a Remington UMC 223Remington 50Gr JHP

Trust me I know water filled milk jugs are not the best thing but show me something cheaper! Soft points in my AR rip apart the water filled milk jug same goes for the JHP pistol I use not cheap JHP but the Winchester Ranger 165 gr, Remington Gold Saber 180 gr, Fed Hi-Shock and Fed Bond both in 165 gr all out of a 40 S&W.


Two barrels were used 20" and 16"

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OTM is designed for accuracy but expands pretty well.

HP is designed for expansion but is pretty accurate as well.

In a .224 bullet aren't the various TTX and tipped bullets, such as V-Max the only true hollow points? Varmageddons I guess as well.

There just aren't many true HP bullets in .224. And other than the TTX they are varmint bullets.

No, there are HP hunting/varmint rounds out there


Speer 52 gr HP

Sierra 60 gr HP

Of course there are others as well.

I do think the tipped bullet provide better expansion over the cheaper hollow point