Here is the second part....
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Question. I have read posts by guys who do autopsies and explained how each bullet acted but they only see the dead guy. What everyone wants to know is if the bullet stopped the bad guy in his tracks. Does not matter if the bullet expands or not; was the bad guy stopped? The problem I have with all of this stuff is that I can put an ice pick into someone brain stem and stop them immediately. Does that mean that an ice pick has 100% stopping power? You see, people stop for two reasons; psychological and physical. As far as the physical goes, you either hit the CNS or wait for the poor SOB to bleed out. The difference in bullet sizes is only fractions of an inch and not the big differences they are made out to be. So the difference in the time it takes to bleed out is not going to be that much different with a single bullet shot. On the other hand, you can stop someone cold with a .22 to the brain or a .44 magnum. The only difference will be is that one is messier than the other.
Put anything, whether it be a bullet, an ice pick or a pocket knife, in the right place and you will have stopping power no matter how big it is. All that you need is penetration and accurate aiming. The advantage of bigger bullets is that you have more room for error but again, we are talking fractions of an inch. Shot someone in the arm with a .45 or a .22 and if they stop it is not because of the caliber.
Too much is made of stopping power and I think that is because the majority of gun owners never served in combat where people were stopped all the time and no one asked what caliber it was. They are looking at numbers to explain something physical. Almost like trying to pick the winner of a horse race by the record of the horse and jockey. May work some times but not enough to keep you from being wrong most of the time.
Put anything, whether it be a bullet, an ice pick or a pocket knife, in the right place and you will have stopping power no matter how big it is. All that you need is penetration and accurate aiming. The advantage of bigger bullets is that you have more room for error but again, we are talking fractions of an inch. Shot someone in the arm with a .45 or a .22 and if they stop it is not because of the caliber.
Too much is made of stopping power and I think that is because the majority of gun owners never served in combat where people were stopped all the time and no one asked what caliber it was. They are looking at numbers to explain something physical. Almost like trying to pick the winner of a horse race by the record of the horse and jockey. May work some times but not enough to keep you from being wrong most of the time.
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