Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots.
Let’s talk “old Ammo”. If you’re like me you still have some ammo that some might call old. I mean our old hollow points, .357, .44 etc. We used to have this stuff as carry ammo. Not to be confused with our practice ammo. Nowadays quite a few companies have developed a bullet that packs the hollow and calls it critical defense. It works well and I have quite a few boxes for my carry ammo. Now, does that make our old hollow point ammo obsolete? I’ve tried it and agree that the new stuff works well and it does hold up in a gel test, it holds together past the clothing and whatever it needs to and expands like it should, but our old stuff can still make a good carry ammo. In the new realm of things, I don’t know what material is used to fill the new hollow point and don’t really care. But instead of disregarding all of our old ammo, I’ve found a good solution. Follow me on this…
Get yourself some Flex Seal, you probably already have some, and fill the hollow with it. It works just as good as holding the bullet together past clothing or whatever and won’t come apart until it’s supposed to. Don’t over do it, just a little dab will do you and try it. I’ve had success with this and some of my “shootin’ buddies” have even done the same and like the idea. They don’t say so, but they’ve never complained or called me on it. That means it works. My friends don’t compliment well. If that ain’t Texas, I don’t know what is.
If you modify bullets to use as defensive ammo, you may be opening yourself to legal problems if you use it defensively. A prosecutor could claim that your modification made the bullets more deadly. In a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff’s lawyer could claim the same. Best to use unmodified factory ammo for your defensive firearms. Use your old ammo for practice if you do not want to use it defensively as is.
This also begs the question of what about the powder? My experience is that the powder and/or primer aging can produce a “squib”. I would NEVER consider using old ammunition for defensive purposes. In the situation, the bullet must perform flawlessly first time and every time. Do you really want to be dealing with a squib in a gunfight?