I've never shot anybody. I'm a relatively new gun owner. I've got a Remington 870 w/18 inch barrel, a Ruger SP101 w/3 inch barrel in .357, and a Stoeger Cougar in 9mm. I have researched articles, forums, charts, etc. in search for the perfect round in these guns. My 870 has 00 buck loaded in it (although some say it's going to penetrate walls and kill loved ones and neighbors). I have my .357 loaded with .38 +P because it's mainly for my wife. I just recently bought the Cougar (I'm very happy with it and with the unbelievable price). My question is this: what is better, heavy or light bullets? Fast or hard hitting? And what's with this wild fear everone has of over-penetrating? It seems like everyone wants a bullet to go straight to the heart, stop, then explode, shattering the bad guy into a million pieces but with no dangerous bad-guy shrapnel hitting any innocents. With all the talk of over-penetration, I get the impression no one has ever fired a bullet and missed the intended target, and our only fear is that our perfectly aimed bullet might pass through the bad guy and hit our daughter who was crawling around behind him. Then on the other side of the coin, everyone ridicules the .38 and the .380 for not penetrating enough. How far must it penetrate? And what if the bad guy is standing in front of a mountain and I don't care if the bullet goes through him? Why is it so bad for a bullet to go through somebody. What's all this talk of "dumping" energy? Wouldn't the same energy dumped into the bad guy be dumped back into me through the gun? If I can handle the energy, can't the bad guy? Isn't my goal to make bleeding holes in him in the most inconvenient places? What bullet should I buy? How much should it penetrate? Help me? Maybe I should shoot him with the .357 and then hit him with a baseball bat, dumping massive energy he'll never forget right into his chest.
And if you quote Massad Ayoob, can you also list all the bad guys he's shot and what round he shot them with. Also whether the bad guy was stopped dead in his tracks, was knocked back more than 6 inches, or whether his momentum carried him forward more than 6 inches.
And if you quote Massad Ayoob, can you also list all the bad guys he's shot and what round he shot them with. Also whether the bad guy was stopped dead in his tracks, was knocked back more than 6 inches, or whether his momentum carried him forward more than 6 inches.