Originally posted by sr71gn
iif i buy another gun--for the extra stopping power
Since you won't bother to click on the link provided, I'll post it here for you.
What caliber has the best Stopping Power* ?
"Stopping Power" is a misleading term when discussing small arms munitions terminal performance and wound ballistics as there is not an absolute medical mechanism that will cause an immediate and absolute stop when facing the human predator with one shot and there is not a valid means to compare cartridges with "stopping power".
Note- Our discussion of Stopping Power * is not related to the text Handgun Stopping Power*
"Stopping Power"* as defined and used in ammunition advertisements and online discussions throughout the industry and the internet is most often explained as the ability to stop or incapacitate an attacker with one (sometimes more) bullets fired into them immediately. This is very vague as it does not address the medical aspects or the technical aspects of the gun shot wound or penetration and is the primary reason for so much confusion. End users have been seeking improved "stopping power"* since it first appeared in print over 60 years ago and just as Thompson & LeGard, Hatcher, Taylor, Fackler, and many more discovered there is no exact way to qualify it or to predict the physiological or psyhcological responses of the human predator to gunshot injury. Stopping Power or power rating systems have been published for the past 60 years and from the knockout formulas to the power factors to the statisitical models they are even more confusing for the end user as they present a standard and criterion that changes with every new system.
The hope of providing improvements in ammunition product performance has lead to the expanded research into the study that is known as wound ballistics today. Dr. Martin Fackler was the original pioneer who opened the door and paved the way so to speak as to the science. Dr. Facklers work is archived here and also at Firearms Tactical and it is well worth the time to review it.
Readers are also advised to look for ammunition products which discuss quality, consistency, accuracy, and reliability and to use the same intelligent evaluation process and do their own research. In many of the current articles, books, and website systems that have become popularized in the Internet and Shooting Sports Publications, cartridges are often ranked using methodologies and percentage scales of ranked effectiveness. The end user should as always question any such study and such require references, sources, and the ability to validate any claims being made that they find to be questionable. As always with outlandish claims caveat emptor or let the buyer beware is all that needs to be said.
To date the only professionally accepted study done which was verified as scientifically accurate that was done comparing actual LE line of duty shooting information, medical autopsy, and laboratory testing was performed by the late Eugene J. Wolberg.
Eugene "Gene" was a San Diego Criminologist and he compared all three facets using over one hundred LEO line of duty shootings with the Winchester 147gr 9mm loading. His study was partially published by the magazine American Handgunner in their year end annual and the IWBA. (We do not know if back issues are still available, you will need to contact them directly.)
The reader of this website is advised that no one system and no test or individual can currently predict the variables in the human response to gun shot wounds or trauma; these issues in particular are exceedingly variable and this website compares competing ammunition and firearm products using certified, controlled, and validated laboratory conditions; we do not and cannot predict any products ability to incapacitate any animal or validate any products ability to protect the end user from life threatening injury or criminal assault.
Handgun cartridges especially are comparatively small and weak while the predatory human animal is large, strong, determined, aggressive, and capable of sustaining lethal wounds while remaining functional, dangerous, and ambulatory with loss of limb, heart tissue, blood volume, and even fatal brain injuries.
An intelligent, conservative, and careful person will evaluate each ammunition product based on their own needs or duty requirements and depend not just upon the product but upon the quality of their training and their ability to think and react under stress in life threatening situations.
From the AmmoLab FAQ.
www.ammolab.com
