Vern Humphrey
Member
JohnKSa said:You could--or you could say that it's the energy that makes the difference in extreme cases and use energy as the tie-breaker. The point about the extreme case is that there's a huge difference in nearly any parameter you choose to measure. You can't just pick ONE parameter, scale the comparison back to a nearly trivial case and have any basis for saying that the single parameter you picked (essentially at random) is the one that's important when the difference is picayune.Those are called religious beliefs. Ok, that's pushing it a bit, but you get the point. Belief without evidence is fine, but only if that's how you sell it. You can't couch opinion or faith as fact to a non-believer and expect to make any headway.FBI did a study awhile back on exactly this topic. Their conclusion was that the issue pistols currently in use by U.S. LE are all effective. The difference between the winners and the losers was attitude, skill and training--NOT the firearm or caliber they were carrying. TFL search is sick right now. When it gets better, I'll post a link to the article.
Oh, everything you say is true.
But let's design a defensive cartridge, based on terminal ballistics only.
Should we go with a .40 or .45? We can't measure the difference in terminal effect between .40 and .45. But extreme cases say larger is better.
Should we go with FMJ or a hollowpoint? We really can't measure the difference in terminal effect between FMJ and hollowpoints. We can set up tests, but how do we validate them? But extreme cases say hollowpoints are better.
Should we go with a 3" barrel or a 5"? We can't measure the difference in terminal effect between those barrel lengths. But extreme cases say longer is better.
Should we go with +P or standard? We can't measure the difference in terminal effect between +P or standard. But extreme cases say boosting velocity and energy is better.
Now we have designed two cartridges -- a .40 standard load in FMJ out of a 3" barrel, and a .45 ACP +P hollowpoint out of a 5" barrel.
And we may well be able to measure which is best by keeping track of actual shootings. No one element is proveably more effective, but the sum of our decisions is another matter.