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Posted On: 2/27/2022
By: Mable Johnson
A: It's good to hear from you Mable! I'm afraid I'm not quite certain what you mean by replica. Glock is an Austrian handgun manufacturer that started out in the early 1980s, so unless you have a forgery of some sort there's no reason why your Glock shouldn't be the genuine article. Regardless, if it's chambered for 40 S&W it should fire this ammunition just fine.
As a new handgun owner, you should be aware of two different types of bullets: full metal jacket (FMJ; occasionally referred to as "metal case" or MC like with this ammo) and jacketed hollow point (JHP). The FMJ is the cheaper type of bullet. Its design is more economical because it cannot expand as it penetrates soft tissue, which poses no advantage while you're just having some target practice. The vast majority of people who are firing at the gun range choose FMJ ammo for this reason!
JHP bullets cost more, as they are designed for terminal expansion. Basically the bullet widens out as it penetrates a threat, which accomplishes three things: (A) the bullet transfers more of its energy outward instead of merely forward; (B) the bullet gouges a wider wound channel into its target, thus inflicting greater harm on the target; (C) the bullet has a lower chance of completely passing through its target, thus reducing its chance of striking an innocent bystander. Your grandson is alluding to (C) when he advises hollow points!
Now, you absolutely want JHP ammo for self-defense – partly because you don't want your bullets to pass through the threat, but the main reason is that you want to maximize each shot's chance of neutralizing said threat. You're trying to prevent someone from killing you when you shoot them with your handgun, and a bullet that expands inside of its target has a much better chance of stopping that threat immediately. But to be sure, a JHP bullet can still pass through its target. Furthermore, it is extremely likely that several shots fired will miss the threat altogether, and all of those bullets can easily penetrate multiple walls. I'd like you to remember an old saying: "Every bullet that comes out of your barrel has a lawyer attached to it."
You should purchase both FMJ and JHP ammunition for your Glock. The 40 S&W is a powerful cartridge and produces lots of recoil (aka kick), so it's important that you go to the range and familiarize yourself with your handgun's performance before you would ever count on it for self-defense. But when you're just keeping your handgun ready for self-defense, you should keep its magazine full of JHP ammo. In a nutshell: FMJ for training, JHP for personal protection!
FYI, I personally believe this is the best 40 S&W self-defense ammo on the market (it's what cops use): luckygunner.com/40-sw-165-grain-jhp-hst-federal-premium-le-50-rounds
