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Originally Posted by Guv
So if all handgun calibers are concidered weak and not that effective in stopping the bad guy why do we (self included) spend the extra money on high performance ammo? Seems we may be better off buying the more inexpnensinve types of ammo (FMJ) and getting more time behind the gun?
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Personally, I carry a 1911 in .45 Auto, so if I hit a bad guy with one shot in the hand it picks him up and throws him across the room, so I don't know about the "underpowered" stuff ...
Seriously, FMJ in any of the common handgun calibers has a very good chance of over-penetrating ... shooting right through the intended target, and possibly also wounding an innocent person beyond. What we want in a self-defense round is for ALL the bullet's energy to be dissipated in the intended target. That's what modern hollow-point ammunition is designed and intended to do. The expansion creates a larger wound channel, plus the expansion helps prevent over-penetration while maximizing the amount of energy dissipated into the target.