Dark Horse frangible rounds are available in 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 223 Remington, 308 Winchester and .300 Blackout.
It is common practice for tactical teams to carry shotguns for breaching. Though effective, shotguns make it mandatory for the end user to transition back to a rifle and can add weight and clutter to one’s loadout.
What if tactical teams could breach doors with a common battle rifle? Enter Dark Horse Ammunition from Ascendence International.
Dark Horse Ammunition has developed a 242 grain frangible .308 Winchester round that is optimal for breaching. Not only is the round good at shooting through locks and hinges, but it will also hold 1 to 1.5 MOA at 100 yards. Since the round is 242 grains, Ascendence recommends a 1:8 twist barrel.
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Breaching with a rifle has a lot of advantages. Not only can an end user breach with their primary weapon, but they will also have a near full magazine after entry has been attained. A .308 Winchester battle rifle is a very accurate weapon and can also produce devastating wounds on enemy combatants. The representatives from Ascendance stated that with their round you could, “Fight to the target, into the target, through the target, and hit them running away.”
After we were shown the 242 grain .308 Winchester breaching round, the representatives showed us the rest of the frangible line from Dark Horse. The bullets composition is unique because it will turn into dust when shot as close as 6 inches, but will also group well at long distance. The representative stated that the 9mm ammunition would group just as well as its ball counterpart. The bullets are 100 percent lead-free, will not damage AR500 steel, and will increase barrel life due to the projectiles’ composition.
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These .308 rounds are capable of breaching a door.
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Frangible rounds are suitable for home defense. No need to worry about over-penetration aka shooting into your neighbor’s home.
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I personally shoot a lot of steel, and I am looking forward to this round coming to market. For tactical teams that fight in sensitive structures, I can see a place for this round. For civilians worried about over-penetration regarding home defense, you might want to look at this round.
These rounds are currently available in 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 223 Remington, 308 Winchester and .300 Blackout. For more information, check out the Ascendance International website.
A frangible bullet can’t be a breaching bullet because a frangible bullet is designed to disintegrate upon impact and loose all of its energy. Also how can there bullet INCREASE the life of a barrel? Sounds like a lot of BS.
Hello Rod, thanks for the comments. This is Joe with Ascendance, shotgun breaching has been around for a very long time. At its core, it is based on a Frangible projectile. What we have done is take that concept and repackage it into another caliber, with excellent results!
Sorry we missed you at the range, we demonstrated six clean one round breaches on a solid core door with standard deadbolts. Our breaches deliver maximum energy against the lock, break it, and push it clear to allow entry. All with minimal debris entering the crisis area.
This is revolutionary for those who do this kind of work for a living. Much like many of the folks who attended the demonstration, you should be skeptical. But like everyone there who saw it live, we hope you will become more of a believer as this concept becomes main stream.
Get some of our ammo, please test it yourself and then make an honest assessment on barrel wear.
As for the BS; if you think one of the newest innnovations to tactical breaching falls into the catergory, that is unfortunate. We will be posting more videos and doing more demos. Truely believe you opinion will change. Have a great day and see you at the range.
Hey Rod,
This was an intriguing article. I am interested in procuring some of this ammo, however I went to the website and there is nothing that you can buy. Looks like a website shell with no core. Can you comment?
Two major problems with the tactical police side of using .308 for breaching. One, no professional well-trained team would mix breaching/less lethal rounds in their primary weaponary, and two, I don’t know of any police tactical teams using .308s for entrys.
Hello Roy, this is Joe from Ascendance, thank you for your comment! You are correct, there are no police departments breaching with .308s, YET! But since Monday when we showed the world that it was possible, we have been contacted by no less than 27 professional law enforcement agencies requesting more information. This is the future of tactical breaching!
We took 242 grains of pure angry, that we designed to break metal locks, and jacked it up to supersonic speeds to achieve a desired effect. While it’s primary purpose is breaching doors, please trust us, this round is quite lethal, so please be careful!
In fact it is specifically designed to allow military and law enforcement personnel to fight to the target, into the target, through the target, and take 100m shots as required! One gun with one round, and the operational benefits of that are quite numerous!
We will soon be working with those professionals to make their jobs easier, safer, and much more dangerous for the criminals that wish to do them harm.
Ascendence Intl’s website isn’t very friendly to my computer. Pages wouldn’t load a product line from which selections could be added to a cart. Nor was pricing displayed. How/where are they selling?
Hello, this is Joe with Ascendance. First I want to apologize for the website! We were supposed to have the new site up and running by Shot Show but had a couple technical issues that didn’t allow that to happen. It’s not what you deserve and we are working hard to get the new site up! It should be up and operational within a few days. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding!
What is the pricing on 9mm for home defense going to run???
You didn’t give us a link to follow for more information, or to the manufacturer’s website. Are you sure this exists outside of some table at ShotShow? Never heard of it, never seen it, can’t find it on line, can’t find anyone that sells it or ever heard of it. It certainly SOUNDS interesting but it just seems to be a figment of your imagination. Give us a link that will prove me wrong.
It is real. Their website is terrible.
This product was introduced to the public at Shot Show 2018 for the first time. You are going to soon be hearing a lot about this amazing new capability.
Honestly, breaching with ammo is getting weird! I just carry along a buddy of mine that weights 363 and is 6’4″ with a 12 pound sledge hammer. All self contained, moves by himself, can carry a weapon of almost any-kind, and is kick ass mean when he needs to be! Lol!