Hmm. One thing I learned about myself after my last tactical class is that I put a lot of shots out very quickly, very accurately. What's this "one shot" you guys speak of?
Good point. I'm not going to wait around to see if the guy's done after the first shot. He's going to get about four or five more to make sure he's done.
But let's think about this: Imagine you do unload five shots..... I just can't imagine anyone surviving five shots to the chest/head with an average performing .357 round. I can imagine very well somebody surviving five shots to the same area with a 9 mil, since it happens all the time. THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO SETTLE THIS! Have cops/military/gang bangers/homeowners switch from the 9 mil to the .357 and see what happens! I think we should call Myth Busters right now!
NO, IT DOESN'T. According to the statistics, a 9mm achieves a one-shot stop roughly 75-80% of the time and .357 Magnum roughly 85-90% of the time. A difference, yes, but not a huge one. And largely irrelevent unless you're limited to one shot. Since many gangbangers can't shoot anyhow, I'd rather they be armed with six-shot revolvers than high-capacity wonder-nines. Many of the rounds fired by gangstas wind up hitting bystanders, not their intended target (usually some other gangsta scum). Still, if we could round up two gangs and have them face off, one group armed with 9mm autos the other with .357 Magnum revolvers, that might be a fun test.
I think you guys are arguing two different points. Oldfella's talking about people being killed. You're talking about people being incapacitated.
I believe the statistics are for one-shot stops, not necessarily kills. If a certain load has an X% record of achieving a one-stop shot, that means that X% of the time, a single wound was sufficient to end the altercation, whether the person receiving the wound (1) died, (2) lost the capability to resist, or (3) surrendered. As far as kills go, nothing is certain. I've seen people who have survived having a third of their brain blown away by a large bore handgun (Oprah did a story on one many years back). David Petraeus survived a 5.56mm to the chest at point blank range during a training accident. A .22 ricochet nearly killed Reagan; other people take multiple hits from a .44 Magnum and live to tell about it. If I'm only allowed one shot to stop someone with a handgun, by golly I'm going to take a .500 S&W Magnum with the heaviest expanding bullet loads I can find. Or, better yet, a Thompson Contender in a big rifle caliber. But that's not the real world. Absolute stopping power is a trade-off against firepower and weight and size and recoil and cost. A .50 Browning is probably the single most effective anti-personnel caliber you can buy; however, it is impractical for self-defense. A .460 Weatherby Magnum is better, but not by much. 8000 ft-lbs at the muzzle won't make the guy on the receiving end any deader than 500 ft-lbs will, so better to sacrifice some energy for some other benefits. The best self-defense gun/caliber is the one you can have and shoot well. A .380 you can control is superior to a .454 Casull you can't lift. An inaccurate pistol with lots of bullets is superior to a high precision single-shot target pistol. A cheapie Kahr 9mm you can afford is far superior to the Sig .45 you can't.
Back on topic, I just got the new "American Rifleman". Ruger is making a brand new 6+1 shot DAO .380 that is slightly smaller than a Walther PPK/S
The safety between the ears aside, I figure my friend's best bet would be something that would be very unlikely to slam fire, or go off on an accidental trigger touch when holstering the gun. I will point him to an NRA training course before I show him a few gun shops around here, training is definitely the best tool you can get when planning self defense. Thanks for the help, there is more than enough advice here to get him started.
We have officially stopped teaching "double taps" (or aimed pairs, whatever you want to call them). Triple taps FTW!
At my last course I had to have six mags for all the moving drills because of my highly accurate and rapid rate of fire.
No need to dance around, I know what you're saying and it's all good. But my point is that part of the reason for the bolded is that those weapons are made to be relatively reliable, easy to operate, and easy to clean (b/c hey, not every is a super genius like me ). Considering that is what the OP was asking about, I figured it'd be a good fit.
