What are frangible bulletts?

Answer 1

Frangible bullets are ones specifically designed to break apart into many pieces when they impact something. There are two purposes to this design:

1. Creation of a large, but localized wound - that is, the bullet fragments cause a much larger wound at the site of impact than a normal bullet, but do NOT have the tendency to bounce around inside the target's body.
2. Avoid the "through-and-through" possibility, where the bullet travels all the way through the target, exiting and continuing on, possibly hitting another target.

Frangibles are typically used in close-quarter situations, since they have poorer ballistic characteristics than ordinary bullets (and, thus, a shorter range), and because they help avoid "collateral damage" due to #2 above. The point behind using a frangible is that the target should be dealt a severe, but localized, wound (putting it out of action) without endangering those nearby.