Terminal ballistics

[THE FEZ MAN]

I was wandering around the interwebs last night and started looking at terminal ballistic results, I found this one, of a guy in I think Australia that shoots feral goats and shows the results of the different rounds and loads he uses

Warning, chopped up goats

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/

And another which I think was excerpted from a discussion thread about autopsies preformed on dead people, no photos but interesting points of view from a medical examiners first hand experience, he's a little biased towards .45.

http://www.gunthorp.com/Terminal Ballistics as viewed in a morgue.htm

The reason I was looking is I'm seriously thinking that a 10mm is in my future, I wanted to research wether or not it is truly worth the expense of buying a new pistol in a new expensive caliber to shoot.
My determination is that, yes, when it comes to stopping a threat (2 legged and 4) the 10mm is worth it.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Pretty cool, particularly the one with the medical examiner.

I see an average of 8.2 autopsies per day/365 days per year, and I can tell you that when the chips are down, there's nothing that beats a 12-gauge.

This is reassuring. I've got an 870 decked-out for HD duty.

The .357 is gloriously effective. It's just that semi-autos are much more common than they used to be, so we see far more 9mm and .380 rounds on the autopsy table than we do the .38 and .357. Particularly among the gangbangers, the 9mm and .380 are the weapons of choice. The .357 is a wonderfully effective round for self-defense from what I've seen, but it's rare that we get them in anymore.

Seems like a good excuse to buy one of these:


I've been lusting for one of these ever since I found out about them. I already have a .357 but this is way cooler than a revolver.

 

[THE FEZ MAN]

I have dabbled in the idea of a desert eagle in .357

 

[gleet]

I had an El Monte 44 AMP AutoMag. What a raving piece of shit. Go to all that work to make the brass from rifle cases then it hucks them off in the sagebrush and never in the same direction twice. Then, every surface on that sumbitch was left sharp, they hadn't deburred a damn thing. Racking the slide or dropping a mag or clicking a safety would leave you with a scratch or cut from some sharp surface. I had taken it in trade for a rifle barrel job and I shot a few deer with it then sold it to some collector who thought it was very valuable.

At least 357 brass is available easily.

 

[Hate & Discontent]

I was wandering around the interwebs last night and started looking at terminal ballistic results, I found this one, of a guy in I think Australia that shoots feral goats and shows the results of the different rounds and loads he uses

Warning, chopped up goats

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/

And another which I think was excerpted from a discussion thread about autopsies preformed on dead people, no photos but interesting points of view from a medical examiners first hand experience, he's a little biased towards .45.

http://www.gunthorp.com/Terminal Ballistics as viewed in a morgue.htm

The reason I was looking is I'm seriously thinking that a 10mm is in my future, I wanted to research wether or not it is truly worth the expense of buying a new pistol in a new expensive caliber to shoot.
My determination is that, yes, when it comes to stopping a threat (2 legged and 4) the 10mm is worth it.

Honestly, with the last couple decades worth of bullet advancement, 9 40 and 45 are all within a couple percentage points of each other. Any one, when loaded with proper JHP modern ammo, will perform admirably. If you want something with a little more ass on it, look at 357SIG. 10MM works as well, but the larger frame and heavier recoil offsets the advantages. 357SIG recoils like a *REALLY* hot 9mm load - which is basically what it is. There is something to be said for 15+1 rounds of 125gr Gold Dot on tap with a muzzle velocity of ~1400 FPS (Glock 31).

 

[Hate & Discontent]

Also, look up the work of Dr Gary Roberts (DocGKR on ArfCom, Lightfighter, and others). Everything he does is in gel, but he does back it up with real world results from LE and MIL where possible. He's one of the most respect wound ballistics experts out there for a reason.

 

[MrAbovePar]

I'm slow to post here but H&D, as always, knows his shit.

Bullet design and composition is king. Energy is critical but a high energy round that icepicks isn't as good as a low energy round that cavitates. Rifle bullets are generally deadlier than handguns but thankfully seldom used in crime. Magnum rounds have more energy than typical SA handgun rounds.

There was a German pathologist who gave a lecture on homicide via firearms. He discussed what makes a bullet deadly. It was a pretty decent video that reinforced a lot of assumptions with citations. Mainly that absent a hit to the brainstem, what truly stops someone is blood loss. Bullets that cavitate tend to have the best luck in tearing open arteries and making that occur.

 

[Hate & Discontent]

I'm slow to post here but H&D, as always, knows his shit.

Bullet design and composition is king. Energy is critical but a high energy round that icepicks isn't as good as a low energy round that cavitates. Rifle bullets are generally deadlier than handguns but thankfully seldom used in crime. Magnum rounds have more energy than typical SA handgun rounds.

There was a German pathologist who gave a lecture on homicide via firearms. He discussed what makes a bullet deadly. It was a pretty decent video that reinforced a lot of assumptions with citations. Mainly that absent a hit to the brainstem, what truly stops someone is blood loss. Bullets that cavitate tend to have the best luck in tearing open arteries and making that occur.

Or just ripping one straight through the gravy pump. Lung shots are devastating, but slow to incapacitate unless a major artery is involved.

CNS >> Major cardiovascular structures >>>>>> everything else