Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Originally Posted By: dkryan
To [censored] with all of the usual internet drivel about velocity, bullet size, and ballistic gelatin results (when has ballistic gelatin ever gotten stoned on meth and tried to attack someone?).
Shot placement in a critical area is what counts. And repeated shot placement so that you stop the attacker is what really counts. You can debate that other [censored] all year long, but unless you understand and practice basic shooting fundamentals and can place one or more shots in a critical area while under tremendous stress, kindly stay on the bench.
We have a real professional ballistics expert on this board.
The FBI, after over 100 years of trial and error, recommends 12-15 inches of penetration in ballistics gelatin. Why would they do that? Has it not occurred to you that in many shootouts, you simply wont' have the opportunity to make a shot with perfect shot placement? Sometimes the bullet has to travel through the body at odd angles before it reaches vitals. Sometimes it has to pass through an arm, or furniture, or a car door or window glass before it has an opportunity to do it job (stop the threat)
You can choose to carry the .38 special lite round if you wish. But I will choose a round with the velocity, weight, and track record behind it to do the job and to penetrate to the vitals if I need it to.
Got it. And I choose to carry .40 S&W 165 gr JHP (Speer Gold Dot) or 10 mm 180 gr JHP (Buffalo Bore)....both proven LE rounds, both with FBI provenance...
But this Hornady round isn't marketed to, or appropriate for, you and me. It's not for the regular shooter, it's not for folks in LE.
It's for the person that can't handle the recoil of that kind of ammo. It's for the person who has a .38 SPL and can't even handle the .38 SPL +P (which is a decent round, by the way)...and the #s on this round aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be, as I said, the round is much better performing than most .380 ACP, which many people carry.