A New Bullet Has Been Invented. This is What it Looks Like.

The news: Not satisfied with the destructive power of hollow-point bullets or large-caliber guns? G2 Research has you covered with the new "Radically Invasive Projectile" (R.I.P., clever) an exploding bullet they say can "take the civilian and law enforcement markets by storm, and truly become the last round you’ll ever need."

The bullet is manufactured with bullet points containing trocar angles (edges with three angles reaching one point) to penetrate flesh more easily. It acts like a full metal jacket bullet when penetrating solid objects like "sheet rock, plywood, sheet metal or glass and still performs its original intent. The bullet shreds through solid objects and only then, expands its energy," reserving the worst for when it hits the target.

The result? Gun owners say that the expanding bullets prevent over-penetration (shooting through a target, or, say, the walls of your house) and make sure the bullets don't ricochet. But the new R.I.P. rounds are also sure to cause horrific wounds in their target.

Why you should care: According to G2 Research President Cliff Brown, exploding ammunition is super-duper necessary to defend your home against intruders.

“We went around and talked to several vendors and it knocked their socks off,” Brown toldThe Blaze. “I’ve been in the ammunition business for many years and I wanted to create a round that would work well against a home intruder — there were so many stories out there about a woman trying to defend her home and having to shoot someone five or six times and they’d still come after her, we wanted to create an effective one-shot manstopper.”

The round splits into 9 needles of solid copper on impact, as seen below:

But according to Americans Against the Tea Party's Richard Rowe, himself a weapons enthuisiast, the new bullet bears an unmistakeable resemblance to a tool of war banned by the Hague Convention (Hague IV 1907, Article 23E): Flechette rounds.

In a 1964 St. Petersburg Times article about the use of flechettes in Vietnam, a U.S. Army officer says of the medical task of treating flechette victims:

"Don't kid yourself. It is not a job for a surgeon but for graves registration."

Think a shotgun, but nastier. Traditional bullets do most of their damage by transferring kinetic energy in an expanding "bubble" around the projectile. Flechette rounds are different. They're full of nasty, tiny spikes which pierce the insides of the target (creating holes through skin, muscle, lungs, heart, vital organs, etc.) and pass through the other side.

Rowe notes: "The flechette-like needles that the R.I.P. round produces won’t even offer its victims that cold mercy, though. Because they’re copper."

Instead of piercing the target, R.I.P.'s copper needles will more likely come to a rest inside the target - as seen in their own video. And because the 9mm round possesses less stopping power, that means that the R.I.P. is a poor home defense weapon but an excellent way to inflict maximum pain and suffering on the target.

Or as Rowe, who in the past attempted to modify his own ammunition to achieve a similar effect, calls it: "96 grains of pure, unadulterated hate. A desire to inflict suffering. Period."

That said, police and civilians already have access to hollowpoint rounds which are very, very dangerous and painful, so it's not like the R.I.P. round is a game changer. But BearingArms.com says that R.I.P. and other similar rounds likely "will cause substantial blood loss, but less reliable penetration to vital organs" compared to hollowpoints, and assesses it as having a niche role in self-defense.

And according to a study done by Greg Ellifritz for the Buckeye Firearms Association, it takes an average of two shots regardless of caliber to drop an assailant (9mm does in fact fare rather poorly here):

In fact, the only way to reliably drop someone in close to one shot is to use a shotgun or a rifle. So arguably, there's no reason to buy a fancy flesh-shredding round at all other than the novelty factor.

Or if you wanted to cause maximum pain and suffering.

The bottom line: The new bullet is sure to have gun owners drooling, but with potentially limited application in home defense and nastier wounds, R.I.P. is a dubious purchase.

The Best AR-15 Cartridges Right Now

If worst comes to worst and you ever have to pick up your trusty M4 clone and go to protecting hearth and home, which carbine cartridge is most likely to save your life?

While this debate has raged through the decades, flaring with every significant improvement and/or change in firearms design and ricocheting off of every military contract and police department purchase—the subject has grown even more complex of late, due to the introduction of dedicated M4/AR-15 cartridges such as the 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel and .300 Blackout.

Yes, I know: Many deserving carbine cartridges such as the 7.62x39mm want in. And sure, some of them will leave size-14 combat boot-prints all over the cartridges just listed. But much as I deplore the necessity, let’s confine this discussion to rounds in one arena: those appropriate for the M4/AR-15 family. Otherwise this article would turn into a book.

Trouble is, each popular carbine cartridge has significant strengths, especially in certain areas. What will work best really depends on you and your shooting abilities, your environment and lifestyle, and the probable demands those unique elements will place on your carbine.

Here’s a close look at the strengths and weaknesses of a handful of the best AR-15 cartridges available on today’s market. Only you can decide which is best, so be sure to vote for your favorite.

How to Configure the 7.62mm Sniper System

These days there are many choices in the gas-operated 7.62mm sniper system world, which sometimes makes it confusing as you begin your quest for the perfect setup. I have spent plenty of my own money for lessons learned, so hopefully you won’t have to.

There are a few tricky parts and accessories that attract attention, but my intention is to always have a rifle that is reliable, accurate, simple and lightweight. “Simple” is a relative term. To me it’s a system that translates nicely from the M4-type carbine to the sniper system. Not only are the controls similar, but my accessories will be identical or extremely close. In the past these systems were available, but weight and reliability left us wanting. Thankfully, we now have a few choices that can cut the mustard in the lightweight sniping world. My lightweight choice is the LaRue PredatAR. This system is truly revolutionary due to the fact that you don’t need a weight belt or a series of P90X workouts to be able to move effectively in a tactical environment. Running-and-gunning with a sniper system briefs well in the Team Room, but if you are blowing snot bubbles by the time you need to take a shot due to the weight of your rifle, well, that just won’t work. At the very least it will make you less effective when your mates need you most.

More than just a little thought should go into the selection process of your 7.62 sniper system. The evaluation of the platform itself is obviously the most important, a reliable system that will work well with the ammunition you choose to employ or the ammunition that your department or unit issues. I normally shoot 175-grain M118LRs. As this ammo launches a 175-grain Sierra MatchKing bullet, I must ensure that the twist fits the bullet. In this case I prefer the 1:11. Actually, I have chosen the LaRue PredatAR, which has a 1:11.25 twist. This ammunition is used for two reasons. First, it is the issue ammunition for many of the military folks we train at VTAC. Second, it is very accurate. If I decide to take the same system into the hunting field — for the four-legged type of animal, that is — I jam my Magpul magazines with the Hornady 165-grain GMX load. The LaRue PredatAR is in love with this ammunition. If you haven’t checked out the GMX bullet, it performs superbly when shooting through glass or into flesh. These bullets are gilding metal, which equates to a smoother bullet than solid copper and will result in less fouling.

The Best Home Defense Lasers at Every Price Point

When laser sights became widely available to consumers more than a decade ago, I didn’t pay them much attention. They appealed to Hollywood because of their aesthetics—but most folks thought they were kind of a joke.

The first time I used a quality laser sight in a low-light situation, I realized lasers were real tools with real-world applications. When I attended a Crimson Trace sponsored event at Gunsite a few years ago, I used their laser in conjunction with a white light to “fight” my way though a shoot house in the pitched-black desert night, I was sold.

Despite the fact that most of us conduct our firearms training during daylight hours, bad things usually happen at night. Realistic home defense scenarios involve low light, movement, difficult angles, crucial target identification, unorthodox shooting positions and the panic of a life or death encounter—none of these are conducive to precision shooting.