Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats a well-placed round.
Except for a well-placed round that can reach the most important body parts in the direction in which it is pointed and from any angle with respect to the target. Such a level of performance increases the odds of any shot to be considered well-placed (effective) once it hits. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sucks more than to fire a bullet directly at a target's vital areas and to have it stop short, causing only a flesh wound.
My view is that you should always shoot the weapon that you are most comfortable with, that best fits your hand and eye, that you are the most accurate with overall. If that weapon is a .380 ACP, then good for you and bad for the bad guy.
If I shot a .380 ACP, I'd quite possibly select a FMJ round for defensive purposes. Expansion means little without penetration that works no matter what the geometry of the shot may look like.
First, 38spl round nose bullets often flip to base forward and make a larger wound (both temp and perm) as they tumble.
True, although that does negatively affect penetration, I would think.
Second, semi wadcutters are not the same as wadcutters. They perform more like round nose. The reason is the small flat forward nose creates a "bow wave" that directs the flow around the shoulder. This has been proven by marking a bullet with a felt tip before firing. After firing the mark is still intact at the shoulder.
So it's literally all or nothing regarding this mode of injury? The SWC round depicted in the video that I linked seems to create an extra-wide permanent wound channel of fairly consistent width. If it were tumbling, wouldn't we see have seen more variation as well as a visible temporary stretch cavity near where it began tumbling?
It goes bang, it stops the bad guy...works for me!
Yes, but your choice of caliber affects the overall odds of a stop, all else being equal.
Isn't the little ol' .22lr responsible for more deaths than any other caliber? I believe I read that hear also.
Beware of absolute numbers. If true, all it proves is that .22 LR can be lethal and that it is used a lot. What it does not tell us is exactly how effective it is in comparison to other calibers. Most likely it is not as effective as a caliber that penetrates more deeply and gouges a larger hole in targets. You could easily kill almost anything with a .22 LR to the back of the neck, but it's probably not the most effective round to use against a charging boar or bear, against which it is practically useless.
It seems to me that all of these tests don't matter much in the real world. One guy may be stopped with .22lr and the next guy won't go down when hit with a .45acp. Go figure.
They matter in ways that are difficult to predict, and the size of the target is one determining factor. Hit a bad guy in the eye with any caliber mentioned here, and he's dead, but .22 LR won't do anything useful in the context of a gunfight if it hits some fat bad guy in the gut (especially when fired out of a pistol), while a round that can penetrate all the way to his spine and other good stuff can kill him in less than a minute and drop him almost immediately if you're lucky. I don't know why this is so hard to see in the context of self-defense when people seem to understand the difference that caliber selection makes in the context of hunting.
Shot placement being king of all gunfights...
Although that doesn't mean that one should settle for .22 LR or Airsoft if one can handle a larger caliber.
The key here is the fact that he is comparing Hornady CD ammo only against itself. If you look at the CD line in 9mm and .38 you will see how weak the ballistics are... something like 115g at around 1100 fps for 9mm and 110g at 1050 for .38+P. Needless to say, these are not the most potent loads around in these calibers. They are actually some of the more anemic loadings on the market.
Like I said early on in this thread, .380 ACP can perform much like 9mm as long as the 9mm load in question performs down to .380 ACP's general level. So much for this being premium ammo (at least certain loads).
