Yes, I am a very sad and uninformed person.  I'm looking into different ammunition for my AR, which I FINALLY have (yeah, it's before Christmas...oh well!).  The rifle and ammo's primary purpose will be defensive purposes first and foremost.

I've been looking into different types of ammo that I want to carry.  If anyone wants to pitch in their personal thoughts on this, that would be great and I'll take them all up for consideration.

But what's really getting me are the various bullet types that are all over the places.  I understand the FMJ and BTHP, I used those on my previous Wilson UT which I owned for a brief period of time.  I get the soft point as well, but the ballistic tip, V-Max, A-Max, TAP, Partition, etc. ammo drives me insane.  For the most part, all I see are bullets with colored plastic tips on most of these.

If I could be properly educated on the differences, what they do, pros and cons for the job expected for defensive purposes, and of course...personal opinions pertaining to the subject, I highly appreciate it.  Thanks!

Plastic tipped bullest are mostly used for varmints, very fast expansion, IMHO not a very good defensive choice, although others will disagree.

Here are a few good sources:

The Ammo Oracle.


Federal Cartridge:
 



The Hornady page at Cabela's:

Which bullet is on the TAP's?