I have read this one off and on, and I might offer a couple thoughts on the debate between solids and hollows, deflection vs. penetration...
For the moderators - I will avoid being graphic, but if this is deemed to be so, please delete or edit as appropriate.
I have killed LITERALLY thousands of raccoons in the last 25+ years with a 22LR, many of them - a vast majority that is - at what are equivalent to self defense ranges. A significant portion of these at only a few inches. I have studied at length how 22LR's kill these raccoons during the skinning process.
What I can say, after physical comparison of human skulls against that of game animals, including raccoons, is that our skulls and facial bones ARE thicker than that of raccoons. I can also say with confidence the rib cage is considerably thinner in a raccoon, and the vitals are much closer to the entrance surface, and of course, much smaller in terms of pass through penetration.
There IS a remarkably large and practically measurable difference between solids and hollow points in terms of killing power on raccoons.
In the shooting of raccoons, a majority of those hit in the brain box die very quickly. I would venture half of these go stiff immediately, and half convulse uncontrolledly for a matter of seconds before succumbing. A small portion will be dazed temporarily, falling out of the tree, then will fight hounds for as long as it takes to put another bullet into their brain. Upon examining these during the skinning process, brain box hits for the first shot are easily confirmed.
I have a collection of bullets I've captured over the years, almost unilaterally hollow points, which mushroomed against the skull of the raccoon and failed to penetrate the brain box. I will say here, some of these dropped flat dead upon impact, however, I do recall having a few carcasses which I skinned and found multiple slugs flattened against the skull, which fought long and hard. I do not recall a single solid bullet deflecting on the facial bones of a raccoon - and you can be assured - as you skin the face of an animal, a deflection would be painfully obvious.
I HAVE skinned many coons with glancing impacts - wherein a bullet makes a long cut along the periphery of the animal. I would be lying if I could tell whether these were deflected impacts as opposed to tangential glancing impacts, however, the evidence in tissue and skin doesn't lie - some bullets obviously skipped off of the skull bones. Objectively, some of these DID kill the raccoon instantly, but as expected, that has been as rare as the occurrence of a brain penetrating shot which did NOT offer an instant kill. BOTH do happen. Naturally, a humans heftier facial structure would increase the opportunity for this deflection to happen.
I also have recovered hollow point slugs from the inside of raccoon ribcages, those which failed to then penetrate the vitals. In fairness, I have recovered solids from the internal cavity of raccoons as well, however, these are typically recovered on the BACK SIDE, not the front side, and have always - every one of them I can recall - been lodged in the spine after a chest shot (looking up from under the coon, through the chest). Typically, solids do exit a raccoon on a vitals shot, but the same cannot be said for hollow points, and I would more readily attest the opposite is more typical.
My uncles and father, when I was in high school, assigned to me the rule of not being allowed to take anything but head shots on coons with my Ruger Pistol and hollow points, as it was immediately obvious how long and hard these coons fought once they hit the ground, compared to those shot with solids, or those shot with a rifle. Reminding here, I was shooting a 6 7/8" barrel, not a snubnosed pocket pistol. The difference in their "not deadness" was significant enough they would stop me and ask, any time it was obvious a headshot wasn't available, what bullets I had loaded. Body shot raccoons do often take more than one bullet, even with solids from a rifle, but we often ask each other the rhetorical question whether the follow ups are really needed, as they do die quickly - just not immediately. It didn't take long before that rule was expanded, by my own realization, that I shouldn't be hunting raccoons with hollow points at all when using my pistol.
I'll also recount a raccoon I carried for a half mile, slung on a bit of braided twine, which I had shot with the muzzle of my Ruger Mark II against the top of his head, dead between his ears, as my dogs had stretched him in a grain bunk of an abandoned barn. As we hunted another part of the creek, he crawled across my flatbed pick up and was in a tree nearby when we returned. The substantial blood trail in the snow was easy to follow. He WAS shot with a hollow point the first shot, and then with a solid by my father with a rifle to finish him from the tree, after which he fought our dogs considerably before yielding. He must have been unconscious as I carried him, as I didn't notice breathing, and he hung as if dead in my sling. This was not the only instance of a raccoon seemingly rising from the dead, but certainly was one which stands out in my mind, since I carried him for 15-20min as "dead," and the life he had in him after the second shot and fighting the dogs then was remarkable. Some animals just do not want to die.
For those not familiar with hound hunting raccoons, it goes as such: hounds track the coons through the creek, driving them up into a tree. The hound sounds tree, the hunter then shoots the raccoon from the tree. The hounds, if the coon doesn't fall dead still, will fight the coon, either until dead, or until stretched so the Hunter can put another bullet in its brain. I can say, I have seen brain shot raccoons fight 3-4 dogs of three times their weight for minutes on end, and have seen many vital shot coons get the better of the dogs on the ground to escape to another tree.
So in all of this killing of 15-30lb, sometimes heavier raccoons with thousands and thousands of 22LR bullets, and in examining the internal damage, and observing speed of death, there is NO COMPULSION in me to EVER recommend ANY 22LR load for defensive use against 150-300lb humans.
