redstategunnut
Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2009
- Messages
- 42
I respectfully disagree. I've seen the results of a polymer tip / ballistic tip bullet .223 commercial hunting load out of an AR-15 carbine on a nearly 200 lb white tail buck. The gentleman who harvested the deer placed the shot just behind the shoulder, squarely in the rib cage. The buck walked a very short distance, and collapsed as it expired. There was a massive blood trail originating at the entry wound. The gentleman's father described the internal damage as "turned the heart and lungs into strawberry soup" from the ballistic tip bullet's violent fragmentation. There was no exit wound.
Switching to a bonded core copper jacketed soft point or a solid copper JHP bullet of 55 grains or heavier in .223 Rem or 5.56 NATO cartridges results in excellent penetration on automotive safety glass. ATK (parent company of Speer and Federal Cartridge Company) and other manufacturers have published these results across various media.
I specifically restricted my comment about terminal ballistics to CQB range. I did not say a 5.56 can't make a mammal DRT (dead right there), it can. I'm well aware some 5.56 loads can also shoot through safety glass. All one ounce slugs shoot through windshields and outperform 5.56 as far as maintaining terminal ballistic capability.
I continue to maintain that at CQB range a load of 00B is a better man stopper than a 5.56.
The shotgun has a niche, and within that niche it is king. The 5.56 is far more versatile and also extremely effective across more self defense scenarios. Were I picking between having only a shotgun or an AR, I'd pick the AR. That said, there are scenarios in which the shotgun is a better choice. We can't know in advance what our "scenario" will be, so the AR is always a "correct" choice whereas the shotgun might not be.