Last night I was looking, unsuccessfully, for ballistics numbers in depth of all calibers and self defense ammo. (And when I say that, I mean actual third party scientific type test data that's not just from Joe Shmoe in his backyard, but more similar to what Andyc displayed in the .380 discussion if anyone has any good links.) But I came across the story of the Trooper Coates shooting in South Carolina which I had never heard about before. In which the trooper struggled with the BG and put a few rounds of .357 into the guy and didn't phase him enough to keep from returning fire on the trooper with a .22 that, as the article stated, passed through his left arm and through the arm hole of his vest and hit a vital spot. It was an eye opening story to me in combination with Andyc's explanation of the myth of energy. In fact it was an article on mousegun.com, IIRC, that was discussing the myth of energy transfer also, which is where the story came to light. What I learned was 1. shot placement for sure, which I already knew, but just reinerated the point. 2. Neither my 9mm or .380 could be effective enough and that the situation may not even be in my, nor my opponents hands, but not to rely solely on the weapon for survival.stroo wrote:The writer concludes that all pistol calibers are inadequate
In all this is just my opinion as I saw it in my mind, but I'm still going to carry both, at least until I acquire the .45 I'm saving so hard for, to put the 9 on reserve duty. But to clarify the .380 is my only option in my line of work because it hides so easy in the pocket, not to drudge up that old argument, but working diesel repair at the moment as a contracted employee, I have not been given any kind of effective notice about not having firearms on me or the properties I work, and crawling around on the ground and maneuvering into strange positions make it impossible to keep the shirt down, pant legs down, and even sometimes keep things in my pocket, but the overnight shift in the hood of Houston ain't changing my mind. So it's just my best option to keep something from happening to receive that effective notice.
Besides, if a .380 doesn't stop someone, it'll still make a better striking tool than bare fists IMO.