Back some years ago when the infamous Miami shoot out occured which resulted in a 9mm round that failed to penetrate to the heart because it had to pass through an arm and the main trunk of the body a great hue and cry went up for a better police type cartridge. Although the Gov't understood little of ballistics and still has not learned much the question remained , "Was there a better cartridge than the 9mm for police work.
Although the failure of the 9mm that day was in no way due to the caliber. The 9mm has more than enough penetration to have worked that day if a differently designed bullet would have been used the Government could never have been convinced of that fact. The bullet did exactly what it was designed to do. It expanded and did not over penetrate. Of course the Government like everyone else wanted the magic caliber that would never fail. It wanted a caliber that would never overpenetrate or never fail to expand and never fail to under penetrate. Of course no such round ever existed or will exist but one wonders if 1. There could be a better caliber and 2. If in fact the Government went the wrong way in the choosing a new caliber. In other words they went bigger in caliber rather than of all heresy smaller.
It has been well known amoung a few experts that as caliber gets smaller and velocity gets higher a tremendous increase in penetration occurs. Years ago P.O. Ackley after astounding the world in his Arisaka experiments in which he failed to deliberately blow them up stood the world on its ear yet another time by proving that very small high velocity projectiles like the .220 Swift penetrated armor plating while the traditional 30-06 armor piercing round actually failed to penetrate an armored half-track.
He was even laughed at but further astounded everyone when actually shooting 600 pound ferule burros with the .220 Swift which outperformed bigger calibers and killed like lightning compared to the heavier caliber weapons that were also used that day.
All this was not lost to some military arms developers which years later resulted in FN's new .22 caliber assault pistol that out penetrates any handgun caliber made and it does it without expensive and hard to make armor piercing bullets. All this was necessary because of the new bullet resistant materiels being used in military clothing and helmets.
.
Although civilians will never be alowed to use such weapons because of their penetration (at least not here in the U.S.) this all brings us to the queastion "What new caliber based on this theory would be a superior police and civilian round?
It was also proven even before Ackley's time that calibers that were small but of high velocity like the .30 Luger or even faster bullets fired out of the 30 Mauser could drop a 1,300 pould steer in less than 30 seconds and without the use of expanding bullets.
While thinking about the old .30 Mauser it is just too long to work through the actions of most existing auto loading pistols. But something like a wildcat caliber such as the 30/357 Sig. would work through such actions.
The advantages would be:
1. Superior penetration to what is currently being used.
2. Low recoil which gives faster recovery time between shots and factoring in the human element will enable the person to shoot it more accurately on a consistant basis.
3. Less wear and tear on the pistol itself giving much longer service life.
3. Excellent inherent accuracy becuase of its smaller caliber and lower recoil. Factory records show that standards for accuracy when building weapons decrease as caliber and velocity increases. Remington 40x factory records prove this.
4. High velocity and very flat trajectory making it easier to hit at unkown and much longer ranges.
5. When using expanding bullets, a caliber, because of its high velocity makes it easier to design bullets that will expand more violently and much more reliably than bigger heavier slower moving bullets.
6. A caliber because of its small diameter and high velocity will retain its high velocity better as the range increases than the bigger calibers which tend to slow down quicker because of their inferior ballistic coefficients.
Although all this goes completely against what has been taught over the years and the people who have been beating the big bore drums for years will never accept such different thinking the fact remains that people like P.O. Ackley never accepted any information on firearms that he could not prove or duplucate himself.
It was well known in Europe that small high velocity calibers like the .30 mauser with expanding bullets killed deer at pistol ranges very well indeed and the same thing was proven on this side of the Atlantic many years ago when people used .30 Luger carbines and even stadard barrel length .30 Mauser pistols with shoulder stocks attached.
Maybe its about time for someone to build such a new pistol cartridge like the 30/357 Sig.and give it a try with various weight and various brands of modern bullets that are now available because for years we may just have been throwing out the baby with the used bath water without even realizing it.
Although the failure of the 9mm that day was in no way due to the caliber. The 9mm has more than enough penetration to have worked that day if a differently designed bullet would have been used the Government could never have been convinced of that fact. The bullet did exactly what it was designed to do. It expanded and did not over penetrate. Of course the Government like everyone else wanted the magic caliber that would never fail. It wanted a caliber that would never overpenetrate or never fail to expand and never fail to under penetrate. Of course no such round ever existed or will exist but one wonders if 1. There could be a better caliber and 2. If in fact the Government went the wrong way in the choosing a new caliber. In other words they went bigger in caliber rather than of all heresy smaller.
It has been well known amoung a few experts that as caliber gets smaller and velocity gets higher a tremendous increase in penetration occurs. Years ago P.O. Ackley after astounding the world in his Arisaka experiments in which he failed to deliberately blow them up stood the world on its ear yet another time by proving that very small high velocity projectiles like the .220 Swift penetrated armor plating while the traditional 30-06 armor piercing round actually failed to penetrate an armored half-track.
He was even laughed at but further astounded everyone when actually shooting 600 pound ferule burros with the .220 Swift which outperformed bigger calibers and killed like lightning compared to the heavier caliber weapons that were also used that day.
All this was not lost to some military arms developers which years later resulted in FN's new .22 caliber assault pistol that out penetrates any handgun caliber made and it does it without expensive and hard to make armor piercing bullets. All this was necessary because of the new bullet resistant materiels being used in military clothing and helmets.
.
Although civilians will never be alowed to use such weapons because of their penetration (at least not here in the U.S.) this all brings us to the queastion "What new caliber based on this theory would be a superior police and civilian round?
It was also proven even before Ackley's time that calibers that were small but of high velocity like the .30 Luger or even faster bullets fired out of the 30 Mauser could drop a 1,300 pould steer in less than 30 seconds and without the use of expanding bullets.
While thinking about the old .30 Mauser it is just too long to work through the actions of most existing auto loading pistols. But something like a wildcat caliber such as the 30/357 Sig. would work through such actions.
The advantages would be:
1. Superior penetration to what is currently being used.
2. Low recoil which gives faster recovery time between shots and factoring in the human element will enable the person to shoot it more accurately on a consistant basis.
3. Less wear and tear on the pistol itself giving much longer service life.
3. Excellent inherent accuracy becuase of its smaller caliber and lower recoil. Factory records show that standards for accuracy when building weapons decrease as caliber and velocity increases. Remington 40x factory records prove this.
4. High velocity and very flat trajectory making it easier to hit at unkown and much longer ranges.
5. When using expanding bullets, a caliber, because of its high velocity makes it easier to design bullets that will expand more violently and much more reliably than bigger heavier slower moving bullets.
6. A caliber because of its small diameter and high velocity will retain its high velocity better as the range increases than the bigger calibers which tend to slow down quicker because of their inferior ballistic coefficients.
Although all this goes completely against what has been taught over the years and the people who have been beating the big bore drums for years will never accept such different thinking the fact remains that people like P.O. Ackley never accepted any information on firearms that he could not prove or duplucate himself.
It was well known in Europe that small high velocity calibers like the .30 mauser with expanding bullets killed deer at pistol ranges very well indeed and the same thing was proven on this side of the Atlantic many years ago when people used .30 Luger carbines and even stadard barrel length .30 Mauser pistols with shoulder stocks attached.
Maybe its about time for someone to build such a new pistol cartridge like the 30/357 Sig.and give it a try with various weight and various brands of modern bullets that are now available because for years we may just have been throwing out the baby with the used bath water without even realizing it.