I'd suggest you don't get shot in the chest with one!!
10" is just about right to turn your heart & lungs into pink jello soup.
Without blowing on through three walls and killing your neighbor down the street.
I can GayRonTee ya you won't continue doing whatever it was you were doing.
It's about as good as it gets for home defense.
http://www.hornadyle.com/products/rifle-ammunition/223-remington/55-gr-tap-urban
rc
Did you really just use the "would you want to get shot with it" argument? Seriously?
I'd suggest you don't get shot in the chest with a .22lr. So based on your logic, why not use that for defense?
Now, I'll move on to some other false premises: "blowing through 3 walls..." Well, according to the test linked elsewhere in the thread, the more effective 5.56 rounds didn't penetrate 3 walls either.
"As good as it gets for home defense" Well, when I go to that link and look at the bare gel test, I think you must have copied the wrong link. A 24g fragment goes only 10" deep and that is bare gel, no bones, no bad angles, no intermediate barriers.
In reality, our bullets have to travel through tissue that varies from bone to highly elastic skin, dense muscle, fat, fluid organs. they have to do so from odd angles and often have to get through the wrist or arm before entering the chest, then go through the sternum or ribs, then make it to something vital. How does that 55g varmint round look with those variables? According to some autopsy photos I was looking at yesterday...not too good (the 55g TAPs didn't put the perp down).
Would the 55g TAP work fine for a perfect, well-placed frontal chest shot? I'm sure it would...but I don't train for that because I know what happens when the first bullet gets sent down range. "Perfect" goes right out the window...