Are There Armor Piercing Slugs?

Armor Piercing slugs have been the answer to armor penetration for a long time in the history of ammunition and armor protection. The need for armor-piercing slugs has evolved with the demand falling in recent years, leading to a decline in the same production. However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot find armor-piercing slugs if you needed some. They are still there and function as perfectly as before.

Armor-piercing slugs are meant for piercing through lightly armored targets such as bulletproof glass, body armor, and light armored vehicles. Questions have arisen over the past whether armor-piercing ammunition is legal or not. Well, the federal allows for the production and purchase of this ammunition, provided you have the requisite licensing. 

What Makes Up an Armor Piercing Slug?

An Armour piercing slug is made up of several components that team up to make it a full projectile for use in a shotgun. These components include primers, cartridge cases, slugs, and propellant powder that can be used on any firearm. 

Components of Armor Piercing Slugs

The components are broken down as follows.

Slugs

These are the projectiles that you will fire from the firearm separated from the entire cartridge.

Primer 

When you fire the gun, the firing pin strikes the primer, which in turn ignites the powder for an explosion. 

The Powder

This is the combustible part of the ammunition that catches fire and builds gas pressure that later propels the slug down the barrel. 

Cartridge Case

It is the overall coverage of all the components that make up the ammunition. It is commonly metallic mostly made of brass and sometimes aluminum, steel, or polymer.  

Types of Armor Piercing Slugs

Armor Piercing slugs existed and still exist in various types that function differently. We compiled a list of these slugs for you below:

Full-Bore Slugs

If you have used a full-bore slug before, you will agree that they have two main outstanding features: They are cheap, and they leave big holes upon impact with the surfaces they land on. For these two reasons, full-bore slugs have continued to outshine other shotgun slugs in the market. These other slugs may be faster, slimmer, shooting flatter, or even much costlier, but their rank plays nowhere near where full-bore slugs rank.

Full-bore slugs include the Brenneke and Foster types, which use the shuttlecock method of stabilization that involves placing the mass in front of the projectile. The rear is intentionally made lightweight to help it automatically correct the slug’s direction through aerodynamic forces to keep the nose pointed forward.

Let’s have a look at Brenneke and Foster slugs in detail below.