Defensive Carry Guide to Ammo Acronyms and Features
Thanks to member Bob O for putting this list together. It keeps getting longer due to new designs and manufacturer's marketing ideas, such as Hornady's new "TAP FPD" offering.

Note - not all are actual acronyms and in some cases actual designations are comprised of a mix of various smaller designations, all added together. Hopefully however the list will help.

As and when new material becomes available it will be added.

+P Contains a higher powder charge than normal (10-15% overpressure).
+P+ Contains a much higher powder charge than normal (20-25% overpressure).
A A-Frame (Swift)
ACC Accelerator
ACEL Accelerator Discharging (or Discarding) Sabots
ACP Auto Colt Pistol
A-MAX Polymer tipped long range target bullet (Hornady)
AP Armor Piercing (has a steel or other hard metal core) (Military)
API Armor Piercing Incendiary (Military)
APT Armor Piercing Tracer (Military)
APTI Armor Piercing Tracer Incendiary (Military)
AT-BT AccuTip Boat Tail (Remington)
BBWC Bevel Base Wad Cutter
BD or Ball, Duplex M198 - Contains two bullets (Military)
BEB Brass Enclosed Base
BEE FP varmint bullet for .218 Bee (Hornady)
BJHP Brass Jacketed Hollow Point
BP Bronze Point
BT Boat Tail, also Black Talon (Winchester)
BTBT Ballistic Tip BoatTail (Nosler)
BTHP Boat Tail Hollow Point
BTM Boat Tail Match
BTSP Boat Tail Soft Point
C/T Combat Target (Hornady)
CB Cast Bullet
CL Core-Lokt (Remington)
CL-SIL Cannelure - Silhouette (Hornady)
CLU Core-Lokt Ultra (Remington)
CMJ Complete Metal Jacket
CNL Conical Nose Lead
CP Cone Point
DEWC Double Ended Wad Cutter - can load either way (Cast Bullet)
DPX Deep Penetrating X (Cor-Bon cartridge with a Barnes X all copper hollow-point bullet)
EFMJ Expanding Full Metal Jacket (Federal)
EP Expanding Point
FEB Fully Encased Bullet
FMC Full Metal Case
FMJ Full Metal Jacket
FMJBT Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail
FMJ-ENC Full Metal Jacket - Encapsulated (Hornady)
FMJFN Full Metal Jacket Flat Nose
FMJFP Full Metal Jacket Flat Point
FMJRN Full Metal Jacket Round Nose
FMJRP Full Metal Jacket Round Point
FMJSWC Full Metal Jacket Semi-Wad Cutter
FMJTC Full Metal Jacket Truncated Cone
FN Flat Nose
FNEB Flat Nose Enclosed Base
FNSP Flat Nose Soft Point
FP Flat Point
FS or Fail-Safe Partition bullet with steel bands around lead cores. (Winchester)
FST Fail Safe Talon
GAP Glock Auto Pistol
GC Gas Check (Cast Bullet)
GD Gold Dot (Speer)
GDHP Gold Dot Hollow Point
GS Golden Saber (Remington)
GS Grand Slam (CCI)
HAP Hornady Action Pistol (Hornady)
H&H Holland and Holland
HBWC Hollow Base Wad Cutter
HC Hard Cast
HE High Energy
HM Heavy Magnum
HMR Hornady Magnum Rimfire
HORNET Extra thin jacket for .22 Hornet (Hornady)
HP Hollow Point
HPBT Hollow Point Boat Tail
HPJ High Performance Jacketed
HPWC Hollow Point Wad Cutter
HS Hydra Shok (Federal)
HS & HS2 Hi Shok & Hi Shok 2 (Federal)
HSP Hornady Soft Point, also Hollow Soft Point
HST (no actual meaning) a type of hollow-point (Federal)
I Interlock (Hornady)
IB Interbond (Hornady)
IRT Indoor Range Training (Federal)
J Jacketed
JET FP for 22 Rem Jet revolver (Hornady)
JFP Jacketed Flat Point
JHC Jacketed Hollow Cavity, (Sierra jacketed hollow point)
JHP Jacketed Hollow Point
JHPBT Jacketed Hollow Point Boat Tail
JSP Jacketed Soft Point
JSPF Jacketed Soft Point Flat
JSZ Jacketed Stranded Zinc (Federal)
L Lead
LBT Lead Bullet Technology
LF Lead Free (Nontoxic)
LFN Long Flat Nose (LBT design), also Lead Flat Nose
LFP Lead Flat Point
LGC Lead Gas Check (Cast Bullet)
LHP Lead Hollow Point
LM Light Magnum
L-N-L Lock-N-Load (Hornady)
LRN Lead Round Nose
LSWC Lead Semi-Wad Cutter
LSWC-GC Lead Semi-Wad Cutter, Gas Checked
L-C Lead Combat
L-T Lead Target
LTC Lead Truncated Cone
LWC Lead Wad Cutter
MB Multi Ball (Shot)
MC Metal Cased (basically FMJ)
MJ Metal Jacket
MK-BTHP MatchKing Boat Tail Hollow Point (Remington)
MON Monolithic Solid
MRWC Mid-Range Wadcutter
MR-X Improved TS with poly tip & tungsten rear core (Barnes)
NBT Nosler Ballistic Tip
NOS Nosler
NOSBT Nosler Ballistic Tip
NP Nosler Partition
P Plated
PB Parabellum
PG Partition Gold (Winchester)
PL Power-Lokt
PP Power Point
Pro-Tex Bore Lead bullet with a zinc washer cast in base (Cast Bullet)
PSP Pointed Soft Point
PSPCL Pointed Soft Point Core-Lokt (Remington)
R.E.A.L. Rifling-Engraved-At-Loading (Lee muzzle loader bullet)
RN Round Nose
RNFP Round Nose Flat Point
RNL Round Nosed Lead
RNSP Round Nose Soft Point
RHT Reduced Hazard Training (Federal and CCI/Speer low toxicity bullet)
S&W Smith and Wesson
SBBT Soft Point Boat Tail
SCHP Solid Copper Hollow Point
SFHP Starfire Hollow Point (PMC)
SHP Speer Hollow Point
SJ Semi Jacketed, also Short Jacket (Hornady)
SJHP Semi Jacketed Hollow Point, also Soft Jacket Hollow Point
SJSP Soft Jacket Soft Point
SLAP Saboted Light Armor Penetrating
SOL Solid
SP Soft Point, also Spire Point, also Spotter-Tracer (Military)
SPSX Spire Point Super Explosive (Hornady)
SPTZ Spitzer
SSB Swift Scirocco Bonded (Remington)
SSP Single-Shot Pistol (Hornady)
SST Super Shock Tip (Hornady)
ST Silver Tip HP (Winchester)
STHP SilverTip Hollow Point (Winchester)
Sub Subsonic
SWC Semi Wad Cutter
SX Super Explosive
SXT Supreme Expansion Technology (Winchester)
TAP FPD Tactical Ammunition Police - For Personal Defense (Hornady)
TB Trophy Bonded
TBS Trophy Bonded Solid
TC Truncated Cone
TCMJ Truncated Cone Metal Jacket
TCSP Truncated Cone Soft Point
THP Tubular Hollow Point
TL Tumble Lube (Lee)
TMJ Total Metal Jacket -- like FMJ, but the copper jacket even wraps the rear of the bullet and totally encapsulates the lead. Also CMJ, FEB
TNT TNT hollow point (Speer)
TRI Triad Group (A Square)
TRU Tactical Rifle Urban (Federal)
TS or Triple-Shock Improved X-bullet (Barnes)
UHC Ultra High Coefficient (Hornady)
VLD Very Low Drag
V-MAX V-Max Polymer Tip Varmint Hunting Bullet (Hornady)
V-MAXBT V-Max Boat Tail (Hornady)
W/C With Cannelure (Hornady)
WLN Wide Long Nose (LBT design)
WLY Woodleigh
WMR Winchester Magnum Rimfire
WSM Winchester Short Magnum
WSSM Winchester Super Short Magnum
X or X-bullet Solid copper hollow-point bullet (Barnes)
XP3 FS without the steel bands (Winchester)
XTP Extreme Terminal Performance (Hornady jacketed hollow point)

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