Inoperable Gun

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I bought .32 wadcutters for an antique pistol them found out it is broken. Does anyone
know how wadcutters do in gelatin? I may get the gun fixed if wadcutters perform well. Thanks
 
They penetrate, not expand.

With the muzzle speed of the typical .32 round (~650 to 700fps I think for a .32 S&W, for example) I wouldn't be too scared of dangerous over-penetration in a carry situation, it that is what you are getting at.
 
Wadcutters are designed for shooting paper targets, but can be shot at anything, including gelatin I suppose.
 
They perform perhaps marginally better than lead round nose ammo. Likely what you have is 32 S&W or 32 S&W long, which are not any sort of powerhouse round. You are going to just punch 32 cal holes in the gelatin with them. If anything I think the flat leading edge of a wadcutter will penetrate less due to increased drag versus a round nose bullet.
 
Sounds like you need to buy a real gun and use that one to keep papers from flying around.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
...and a wadcutter can still kill you.



But not as effectively or efficiently as a bonded JHP.
 
Is it .32 SW long, .32HR Magnum, or some other .32? Which manufacturer of ammunition? How much feet per second is the ammo rated at? What is the barrel length of your broken revolver?

Lets see if you will actually come back to this thread.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Is it .32 SW long, .32HR Magnum, or some other .32? Which manufacturer of ammunition? How much feet per second is the ammo rated at? What is the barrel length of your broken revolver?

Lets see if you will actually come back to this thread.


Antique would mean pre 1898 according to the law, so it would be 32 S&W or 32S&W long. Maybe 32 Long Colt. Unless anything old is "antique" in the OP's eyes.
 
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Originally Posted By: KCJeep
Old timers used to shoot wadcutters loaded backwards for improved performance.


And many before that used to start their cars with hand cranks.
 
I wouldn't fix the gun just to use up some ammo you have. I would keep it for a wall hanger, or get it fixed so that it is operable, if you like the gun. Is it a S&W, Colt, etc...? If it is an off brand, cheaper gun, I would leave it as is. The cost of repairs may be more than the gun is worth.
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
...and a wadcutter can still kill you.



But not as effectively or efficiently as a bonded JHP.


Dead is dead. Or you can put it this way. Get shot with wadcutter and you could be either seriously killed or fatally injured. Firepower, stopping power and knockdown power are highly overrated.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack

Dead is dead. Or you can put it this way. Get shot with wadcutter and you could be either seriously killed or fatally injured. Firepower, stopping power and knockdown power are highly overrated.


Firepower, stopping power and knockdown power are either over-rated (if you're shooting at paper) or critical (if you're shooting to stop someone from doing bad things to you).

Dead isn't dead if the bad guy kills you after he is shot because the bullet takes too long to be effective. What good was your weapon in that case?
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack

Dead is dead. Or you can put it this way. Get shot with wadcutter and you could be either seriously killed or fatally injured. Firepower, stopping power and knockdown power are highly overrated.


Firepower, stopping power and knockdown power are either over-rated (if you're shooting at paper) or critical (if you're shooting to stop someone from doing bad things to you).

Dead isn't dead if the bad guy kills you after he is shot because the bullet takes too long to be effective. What good was your weapon in that case?


If you dig into incident reports you will find that once a bad guy is hit he's most often out of the fight. I was not able to find one report where someone continued the fight after being hit, even if they survived well enough to have the capacity to fight back. The choice to survive and or escape or stop the fight and give up, was the path taken. The overwhelming critical factor is shot placement. That defines the gun of choice as the one that you can use under extreme pressure and place good shots even while your fine motor skills deteriorate. Putting too much emphasis on stopping power and a lesser amount on training, practice and accuracy can be a real problem.
 
There are lots of cases of good guys, and bad guys, staying in the fight after being hit, even with major caliber rounds.

Depends on the training and motivation of the person being hit.

Thousands of combat reports of Taliban fighters being hit by the M855 round (a .22 technically, but a bit more punch than a .22LR) and staying in the fight. One of the Army's big issues with the M855 round is that it goes right through a person and often doesn't take them out of the fight.

If you weren't able to find a case where a person continued the fight after being hit, then you're not looking in the right places. There are thousands of combat cases alone.

I recommend the book, "No Second Place Winner" by the legendary bill Jordan. He discussed this very topic.

Finally, where did I ever say that shot placement and training DON'T matter? Of course they do, I've even said so in this thread. You should chose your weapon based on what you are able to handle. For me, I have no problem with the 10mm...I really like that round, and my Glock 20 (10mm) is very accurate. But that pistol isn't for everyone. My wife shoots her Beretta 92 very well (multiple times qualifying expert in the USN). So, for her, a good 9mm defensive round (Speer Gold Dots) in the Beretta is the right match.

A .22 beats harsh language...but it's not an effective round in combat. If that's all you can shoot accurately, well, OK, your limitations define what you can effectively employ, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that a .22 is in the same league as other calibers.
 
I was not referring to war, just good old neighborhood shoot outs. My concern is accuracy and shooting under pressure. In Vietnam I was a Corpsman but technically I was an 8427, a SARC with the Marines (look it up, the designations have not changed very much in all these years). Combat was different. I was referring to what I've experienced since then. For me in the early days it was a 357 magnum revolver. Easy to operate, no safety and I was very accurate with that weapon. I did not upgrade to auto loaders when many others did. My groups were never quite as good. They were always saying that firepower included having lots of rounds and quick reloads and designer bullets. In my experience almost every one that was hit once was out of the fight, even with a minor wound. They were not fanatical religious zealots. And I was referring to reports that I had more than a passing knowledge of details and events.

As a side note I have never been convinced that military brass made the best selections when it came to guns and ammo. In Vietnam we did not even receive cleaning kits for this new weapon called the M16. Marines were killed because of problems with that weapon before the "brass" would allow those working with the guns to officially solve the problems.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
Old timers used to shoot wadcutters loaded backwards for improved performance.


And many before that used to start their cars with hand cranks.


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I wish I would have kept the news story...but here is an example of why you need effective rounds.

Some poor lady tried to defend herself with a 25acp automatic. Something like a Beretta Bobcat or Baby Browning. Dumped the entire mag at close range into the perps chest. He managed to strangle her to death before he bled out. Yeah...she killed him, but not before he killed her.

You can also look at the Philippine Insurrection stories where drug fueled natives would take a cylinder full of 38 long colt and keep coming, where the old 1873's pulled out of mothballs with 45 Long Colts would drop them with one or two.


Now if you dumped a mag of six or seven 9mm JHP rounds, that would not have happened.
 
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Originally Posted By: Robenstein
I wish I would have kept the news story...but here is an example of why you need effective rounds.

Some poor lady tried to defend herself with a 25acp automatic. Something like a Beretta Bobcat or Baby Browning. Dumped the entire mag at close range into the perps chest. He managed to strangle her to death before he bled out. Yeah...she killed him, but not before he killed her.

You can also look at the Philippine Insurrection stories where drug fueled natives would take a cylinder full of 38 long colt and keep coming, where the old 1873's pulled out of mothballs with 45 Long Colts would drop them with one or two.


Now if you dumped a mag of six or seven 9mm JHP rounds, that would not have happened.
Someone who doesn't want to stop is very hard to stop. Unless you take out the CNS they're going to have to bleed out. You can watch videos of deer running off after taking a good hit from a 300 mag.
 
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