Nightcrawler
Member
...regarding what's good and what's not so good for a self defense round.
In short, it is as follows:
A pistol cartridge is adequate for self-defense usage if it is able to reliably penetrate the frontal skull plate of a human being, and if it can penetrate the torso deep enough (even if entering from oblique angles) to hit vital organs. It should also have enough oomph to reliably punch through the sternum at typical handgun ranges.
Anything else (expansion, for example) is just icing on that cake.
Bigger bullets give you more margin of error. Simply put, a fat .45 bullet is less likely to miss something, given equally skillful shot placement, than a small .32 caliber bullet. The same holds true with a bullet that expands once inside the body.
Momentum is good because it gives you better penetration. It also causes more of a "splash", which while perhaps not doing a lot of severe permanent damage, certainly isn't going to help the badguy any, either.
If the bullet completely penetrates and exits the target, he then has that much longer of a wound channel and two holes to bleed out of. Be wary of bystanders, though (but of course, it's always possible you'll miss, too; always watch your background before firing!).
Agree/disagree?
In short, it is as follows:
A pistol cartridge is adequate for self-defense usage if it is able to reliably penetrate the frontal skull plate of a human being, and if it can penetrate the torso deep enough (even if entering from oblique angles) to hit vital organs. It should also have enough oomph to reliably punch through the sternum at typical handgun ranges.
Anything else (expansion, for example) is just icing on that cake.
Bigger bullets give you more margin of error. Simply put, a fat .45 bullet is less likely to miss something, given equally skillful shot placement, than a small .32 caliber bullet. The same holds true with a bullet that expands once inside the body.
Momentum is good because it gives you better penetration. It also causes more of a "splash", which while perhaps not doing a lot of severe permanent damage, certainly isn't going to help the badguy any, either.
If the bullet completely penetrates and exits the target, he then has that much longer of a wound channel and two holes to bleed out of. Be wary of bystanders, though (but of course, it's always possible you'll miss, too; always watch your background before firing!).
Agree/disagree?