Ouch! Is that you, Elmer? I thought you were dead.
We've made some great technological advantages, but what made the 125gr JHP kind of a "magic bullet" isn't it's power, but the fact that it expands beautifully and it stays in the body. I'm old enough to remember when gun writers recommended the 158gr JHP for police. It turns out it was a disaster. The recoil was awful and the bullets went right through people and expended most of its energy after the bullet exited the body. In California, two cops were shot by some guy with a .45 ACP because, combined with the recoil, the cops had problems hitting the bad guy, who managed to be hit twice, but continued shooting. The .454 would be disastrous because, even if cops could shoot it, I honestly don't believe it would put someone down better than the .357 125gr JHP. And even if the cops could shoot the gun, and even if they could hit their targets, the bullets would sail through the bad guys and possibly hit others.
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One thing that makes this load so effective is that there's a point of diminishing marginal return. If the 125gr JHP, launched at 1,400 fps, hits a person, they go down with a single shot. A .454 might hit them with more energy, and a cannon hit them with even more, but no cop in his right mind would call a .357 "minuscule." The Highway Patrol was very happy with the .357 back in the day. The 125gr JHP could penetrate doors, tires and windows while the 110gr JHP didn't. In fact, in Wisconsin and Michigan, the 110gr JHP would often open up in winter coats and heavy jackets, while 158gr JHPs continued to overpenetrate. When everyone jumped ship in the 1980s-90s, they went to the .40 autos. Friends of mine in the Treasury Department were anxious to see how they worked. Sadly, after two years, there were some notable failures of the .40 to stop armed opponents, one of which was a 50 year old woman who took two torso hits with a .40 and didn't even slow down. One of the agents finally stopped her by bringing the gun down on the front part of her head. That kind of cooled them off to the caliber, for which they had high hopes. After that failure, two of the guys in his office (besides him) all began carrying their 3-inch Ruger SP-101s as backups.
Yep. That came through pretty clear. Just not sure which calibers and rounds you thought were better, and for which purpose. You're right about using air-weight .357s. They're loud and they beat a person up. I shot two 125gr JHPs through a derringer I had foolishly bought in the early 90s. Won't be doing that again.
At an NRA convention in Philadelphia years ago, I talked to a fellow who had been charged by a grizzly. He fired all six rounds and managed to stop it. Later, he swore he had only fired two shots, but his friend showed him the fired rounds in his Model 29. "I could have sworn I only fired two shots," he told me. "I had no hearing loss, not even a ringing in the ears. I remember firing two shots, but all six cases told a different story." He said his friend told him that he (his friend) and another fellow had to work together to get him to let go of the revolver. My point is, often when you have to fire a gun in self defense, you develop a tunnel vision. Blast and recoil aren't issues when your life is at stake. A Navy employee once told me his car was attack by a grizzly and he had a photo to prove it. Sure enough, it was coming right at him. He had photos of the car after the attack and the whole side of it was crushed in like a soda can. Fortunately, the bear chose to bite the door rather than him and you could see the bite marks. The place that rented him the car chose not to repair or replace the car. Instead, they took if from place to place and displayed it in their offices with a placard telling the story. The really amazing thing was, this fellow didn't remember taking the photo, nor the 33 minutes he spent driving down the highway with a cop car behind him with the lights on. The cop saw the whole thing, but the fellow was in a trance for more than a half hour. Finally, the guy came to and had no memory of anything after the bear charging. When the film in his camera was developed, he saw the photo of the charging bear and had no recollection of taking it. (A truck had hit the bear and stunned it, and when it came to, this guy was the first thing he saw!)
For a black bear, yeah, I'd prefer a .44 Magnum, but I wouldn't carry it when every ounce mattered. Most times the bears take off. I'm perfectly confident with a Ruger Speed-Six with a 3-inch barrel and heavier bullets. I've never heard of anyone being overpowered by a black bear after shooting it with a .357, but I've heard of a lot of people without guns being killed by black bears. If push came to shove, an Ontario SP-10 Bowie knife will give people a wicked "edge" against a black bear. And I have a friend who killed a charging cougar with his Dan Wesson .357. It dropped from a tree and came at him. He missed the first shot, but the second connected and dropped it dead in its tracks. Later they sawed off its head and sent it to the CDC in Colorado (he was in Utah). Two days later, he got a call. The cat was rabid. It's a good thing it never made it to him as rabies shots are really unpleasant.
Me, I can see the benefits of larger calibers, but I would NEVER call the .357 "miniscule." Unpleasant, perhaps. Loud, definitely. But never miniscule. An airweight is too light, and a 3-inch SP-101 would do if I were armed with a large Bowie. The SP-10 might be a bit heavy, but a K-Bar might work if weight was an issue, and concealability. My state forbids carrying any gun, so if I hiked there, I'd need something that was easily concealed. Most bears, if shot with pepper spray, will take off. If there's wind, just shoot for the nose, not the head -- at least that's what I've been told by hunters. ۞
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