Each bullet type is designed to work especially well for particular needs, which are beyond the scope of this article. Common bullet types include Full Metal Jacket, Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail, Soft Point, Hollow Point…the list goes on and on.
Something that can be confusing when reading ammunition descriptions in catalogs and even on ammunition boxes is that you may only see the bullet type abbreviations. It is as though bullet manufacturers assume everybody can easily match even the most obscure bullet abbreviation with its corresponding bullet type.
For example, one of these boxes of .308 Winchester ammunition manufactured by Prvi Partizan reads “SP” “180 gr”. While it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that “SP” is the bullet abbreviation for “Soft Point” and “GR” is the bullet weight in grains, still there is a learning curve for the beginner.
The other box reads “FSP”. This may be a less common bullet abbreviation, which means “Flat Nose Soft Point”.
So what’s the difference between a “Soft Point” bullet and a “Flat Nose Soft Point” bullet? Here is a picture showing these two bullet types side by side:
Once you start delving deeper into the world of ammunition you will soon discover there are a myriad of bullet types and corresponding abbreviations. So many in fact that even the experts may find themselves unable to decipher the means for some.
With this in mind I have been compiling a reference list of bullet abbreviations that you may find handy. Should you know of bullet abbreviations not in this list, be sure to let us know in the comments section and we will add them!
2F – 2-part Controlled Fragmenting
ACC – Remington Accelerator
ACP – Automatic Colt Pistol
AE – Action Express
AGS – African Grand Slam (Speer)
AP – Armor Piercing (has a depleted uranium or other hard metal core)
APT – Armor-piercing tracer
API – Armor-piercing incendiary
APFSDS – Armor-piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot round
B – Ball
B2F – Brass 2-part Fragmenting
BBWC – Bevel Base Wadcutter
BEB – Brass Enclosed Base
BJHP – Brass Jacketed Hollow Point
Blitz – Sierra BlitzKing
BMG – Browning Machine Gun
BrPT – Bronze Point
Bt – Boat-tail
BtHP – Boat-tail Hollow Point
C2F – Civilian 2-part Fragmenting
CB – Cast Bullet
CL, C-L – Remington Core-Lokt
CN – Cupronicknel
CNCS – Cupronickel-Clad Steel
CTFB – Closed Tip Flat Base
DBBWC – Double bevel based wadcutter
DEWC – Double Ended Wadcutter
DGS – Dangerous Game Solid (Hornady)
DGX – Dangerous Game Expanding (Hornady)
DU – Depleted Uranium
EFMJ – Expanding Full Metal Jacket
EVO, FTX – Hornady LEVERevolution Flex Tip eXpanding
EVO – RWS Evolution bullet
FMC – Full Metal Case
FMJ – Full Metal Jacket
FMJBT – Full Metal Jacket Boat-Tail
FN – Flat Nose
FNEB – Flat Nose Enclosed Base
FP – Flat Point
FP – Full Patch
FSP – Flat Nose Soft Point
FST – Winchester Fail Safe Talon
GAP – Glock Automatic Pistol
GC – Gas Check
GD – Speer Gold Dot
GDHP – Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point
GM – Gilding Metal
GMCS – Gilding Metal-Clad Steel
GROM – Prvi Partizan Copper over Small Lead Core
GS – Remington Golden Saber
GSC – GS Custom Turned Copper Bullets
HBWC – Hollow Base Wadcutter
HC – Hard Cast
HE-IT – High Explosive Incendiary Tracer
HFN – Hard Cast Flat Nose
HP – Hollow Point
HPBT – Hollow Point Boat Tail
HPCB – Heavy Plate Concave Base
HPJ – High Performance Jacketed
HS – Federal Hydra-Shok
HST – Federal Hi-Shok Two
HV – Low friction Drive Band Bullets High Velocity
ID-Classic – RWS fragmentation bullet
I-T – Incendiary-Tracer
IB – Interbond (Hornady)
J – Jacketed
JAP – Jacketed Aluminium Point
JFP – Jacketed Flat Point
JHC – Jacketed Hollow Cavity
JHP – Jacketed Hollow Point
JHP/sabot – Jacketed Hollow Point/sabot
JSP – Jacketed Soft Point
L – Lead
L-C – Lead Combat
L-T – Lead Target
LFN – Long Flat Nose
LFP – Lead Flat Point
LHP – Lead Hollow Point
LRN – Lead Round Nose
LSWC – Lead Semiwadcutter
LSWC-GC – Lead Semiwadcutter Gas Checked
LWC – Lead Wadcutter
LTC – Lead Truncated Cone
MC – Metal Cased
MHP – Match Hollow Point
MK – Sierra MatchKing
MRWC – Mid-Range Wadcutter
MP – Metal Point (only the tip of the bullet is covered)
NP – Nosler Partition
OTM – Open Tip Match
OWC – Ogival Wadcutter
P – Practice, proof
PB – Lead Bullet
PB – Parabellum
PL – Remington Power-Lokt
PnPT – Pneumatic Point
PPL – Paper patched lead
PSP – Plated Soft Point
PSP, PTDSP – Pointed Soft Point
PRN – Plated Round Nose
RN – Round Nose
RNFP – Round Nose Flat Point
RNL – Round Nosed Lead
SJ – Semi-Jacketed
SJHP – Semi-Jacketed Hollow Point
SJSP – Semi-Jacketed Soft Point
SP – Soft Point
SP – Spire Point
Sp, SPTZ – Spitzer
SPC – Special Purpose Cartridge
SpHP – Spitzer Hollow Point
SST – Hornady Super Shock Tip
SSp – Semi-Spitzer
ST – Silver Tip
STHP – Silver Tip Hollow Point
SWC – Semiwadcutter
SX – Super Explosive
SXT – Winchester Ranger Supreme Expansion Technology
T – Tracer
TAG – Brenneke lead-free bullet (German: Torpedo Alternativ-Geschoß)
TBBC – Carter/Speer Trophy Bonded Bear Claw soft point
TBSS – Carter/Speer Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid
TC – Truncated Cone
TB – TerminalBallistics.com
THV – Terminal High Velocity
TIG – Brenneke fragmentation bullet (German: Torpedo Ideal-Geschoß)
TMJ – Total Metal Jacket
TNT – Speer TNT
TUG – Brenneke deformation bullet (German: Torpedo Universal-Geschoß)
TOG – Brenneke deformation bullet (German: Torpedo Optimal-Geschoß)
UmbPT – Umbrella Point
UNI-Classic – RWS deformation bullet, ex-TUG after Brenneke-license was not renewed.
VMAX – Hornady V-Max
VLD – Very Low Drag
WC – Wadcutter
WFN – Wide Flat Nose
WFNGC – Wide Flat Nose Gas Check
WLN – Wide Long Nose
X – Barnes X-Bullet
XTP – Hornady Extreme Terminal Performance
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