(My dad was shot in the chest on Iwo Jima, with a rifle bullet, and he stayed in combat for 48 more hours before getting any treatment beyond some morphine, sulpha powder, and a field dressing until he was able to get back to the American lines. Also, "point blank" does not mean "contact distance" as some think it means. Tissue disruption caused by a handgun bullet is limited to two mechanisms: There are two places that we know will incapacitate a man every time they are hit: the brain and the upper spinal column. US Army Medical stated "the .45 caliber bullet is of little value as a wound-producing agent except in the softer tissues and at near ranges. Not long ago, it was said that 9 mm didn’t have enough penetrating power and the .45 ACP was the way to go. What does that mean? What’s more, a temporary cavity measures volume that has been stretched, not volume that has been destroyed. The stretching may cause some bruising of the tissues, but the actual shock wave itself does not disrupt tissues. While massive trauma to the circulatory system can cause incapacitation, this takes time. If you find yourself in a legitimate self-defense scenario, you will likely not have the opportunity nor the wherewithal to take a careful and well-aimed shot at your assailant's head. These are the only two factors you can expect to remain constant in any situation. I just cannot see how that's possible!! They include sudden catastrophic loss of blood pressure (perforated aorta or femoral artery), catastrophic CNS damage (brain/spinal cord injury), and catastrophic skeletal failures (femoral or pelvic fractures, for instance). It looks like 9mm has really surpassed .45 ACP as the preferred round – well, at least with our Round Table panelists that is. If it is a simple through and through with no structural or vascular damage, it will be a fairly easy thing to recover from. It relies on the tried and true formula of a large cartridge at a slow speed. Since FMJ bullets do not expand in diameter upon impact, the destroyed tissue would be limited to the path of the bullet, and only slightly larger than the actual bullet diameter. The 10mm Auto is a intriguing round in he handgun world. Given the advancements in defensive ammunition, lesser calibers than the .45 ACP perform within the ballpark of the big-bore standard bearer. Of the nearly 250 million guns owned by Americans at that time, somewhere between 40 and 50 million of them were handguns. It does NOT knock the person over backwards. Rick. Consequently, both rounds in their military configuration are considered by small arms experts to be poor choices for self-defense. There are a number of reasons for a failure to incapacitate, including a lack of awareness of the wound, intense personal fortitude, extreme emotions or physiological effects both natural (adrenaline) or chemically-induced (drugs such as PCP, heroin and cocaine). A direct hit to the heart or aortic arch can take as long as 8 seconds to result in unconsciousness. There is also a significant possibility that bone will deflect the bullet off of its original path. When a handgun is bought for personal protection, whether in the home or on the street, its purpose is the application of deadly force to protect your own life, the lives of others, and to prevent serious physical harm. In fact, even if no vital structures are hit and there is minimal blood loss, there is still a very high risk of wound infection, and treatment would necessarily include IV antibiotics. So the .45 ACP has only 5% more one-shot stop and only 4% more incapacitation rate, and is 5% more fatal per shot. Now that may come as a shock to those who are thinking “if this is an argument in favor of the .45 auto then I’d hate to see the other side”. Still, the research is not widespread and a great deal of it is not terribly relevant for the average person searching for a reliable self-defense weapon. Going through an organ leaves a gaping hole (exit wound) which, depending on the organ, can cause rapid blood loss. Projectiles incapacitate by damaging or destroying the central nervous system, or by causing significant and potentially lethal blood loss. Some of the best handgun calibers for self defense are: To adequately understand the efficiency of incapacitating a target, we must have some basic understanding of the mechanics of wounding – how damage to the human body works. Ultimately, your selection of a caliber should be based first on the penetration, and second on the unexpanded size of the round. A larger diameter bullet is going to have significantly more drag than a smaller diameter bullet of the same mass, which means long range performance will be significantly degraded. How do you treat a bullet wound by yourself? Hey guys, i'm not a .45 guy. It’s all about follow up shots. While this research is geared toward law enforcement officers, it cuts through the confusion, and provides common-sense, scientifically supported principles by which the effectiveness of self-defense ammunition may more generally be measured. The term point blank would describe that distance out from the muzzle which is close enough that there has been little or no practical degradation of ballistic performance. That is one of the reasons that training is so important if one is going to be exposed to the possibility of getting shot at. At contact distance, if the bullet encountered bone, the bone would almost certainly be smashed by the bullet. If you shoot someone through the skull with a .22 rimfire and penetrate their brain, you will almost certainly immediately incapacitate them. Rounds were literally ranked on the basis of temporary cavity volume, with penetration and permanent cavity ignored. Next is the foreign matter carried into the wound path from clothing. Two holes means more blood loss than one. Without fragmentation, temporary cavity wounds can be relatively minor. Indeed, physiological factors play a very small part in rapid incapacitation of a target. 2.1 and 2.5 million defensive gun uses annually, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Arming Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Self Defense and Concealed Carry (CCW), Protecting Your Family: A Parent's Guide to Self Defense and Concealed Carry (CCW), Arming the Elderly: A Self-Defense Guide for Senior Citizens, Holsters for Self Defense: A Guide to Carrying Concealed, Arming Toddlers and The "Kinder-Guardians" Program: A Shamefully Bad Idea, Self Defense for LGBT: Self-Protection and Concealed Carry (CCW) for the LGBT Community, Arming the Disabled: A Self-Defense and Concealed Carry Guide for People With Disabilities. The hydrostatic shock causes the tissues along the wound path to stretch away from the bullet's passage, much like the wake of a boat in water, causing a temporary stretch cavity. People get shot, and they either assume that they cannot continue or that they are going to die, and they just give up. This is why officers typically carry as many shoulder weapons as possible in their cars. What minimum training could the general public seek which would assist trained emergency-response professionals after a disaster situation? What we do know, however, is that when most people are shot, they fall down. Finally, FMJ bullets tend to penetrate more deeply than do hollowpoints. However, any bacteria contained in the fibers of clothing or growing on the skin will be carried into the wound channel. Surgery saved his life, but being shot in the heart did not produce instant incapacitation. Note that buying a handgun for personal protection is not an abstract desire. That's right, just 2mm larger in diameter than a 9mm. This is not so much true any longer with modern powders and bullet design. There's a reason it's called a man stopper. Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/whoteewhoThis was a fun comparison!!! Keep in mind that fragmentation does sometimes occur, however, it cannot be relied upon. A common theme you will run into when people are discussing the 10mm Auto is that it falls into an awkward weird little crevice somewhere between the performance of a .40 S&W or 9mm and the performance of larger calibers such as the .45 ACP and .357. BUT ... being shot through the lungs, or through the bowel will not necessarily physically incapacitate the person who is either determined or psychotic and wants to rip your face off. This study is thus inherently flawed, as it ranks large shallow wounds above deeper ones. Studies based on law enforcement shootings that are available to us show that only one or two solid torso hits can be expected at best. But after hunting with the .357 mag. I worked in the ER of a level 1 trauma center for several years, and I've seen a LOT of gunshot patients ... including people shot with a .45. Even a frontal gut shot must penetrate seven or more inches in slender adults for reliable incapacitation. This fact has emerged in Afghanistan, where the M9 9mm pistol has been essentially used in combat for … We cannot recreate these or even reliably use the data. All of this leads directly to the question of handgun wounding factors: the effectiveness of a handgun, lethality by caliber, and stopping power are all important considerations when purchasing a firearm for self defense. A double stack 9mm will barely be any thicker than a 45 ACP. Shot placement is often cited as a consideration when choosing the right handgun for self defense and for good reason – it’s definitely important. Meaning no disrespect, but the question is kind of like asking, "what does a sandwich taste like?" As for shot placement and such, really, the jury is out on that one. This tendency to produce an exit wound is called "over-penetration" and it is why an FMJ bullet is not a good choice for home defense. So, with regard to the specific question of "what kind of wound is likely to be caused if someone is shot in the upper arm or shoulder with a .45 ACP FMJ," it would most likely be a through and through with a fairly unremarkable exit wound. Of handgun owners alone, 63 percent owned these for the purpose of protecting themselves against other people, with another 20 percent owning them for protection against animals. Tissue inside the human body is remarkably elastic, even vital organs such as the lungs, bowels or circulatory system. The .45 ACP didn’t lose any ground with the advent of high-performance projectiles, indeed, if anything it became even more capable of changing bad-guys attitudes. Even rifle bullets don't always do that, and they are FAR more devastating than handgun bullets. Handgun Wounding Factors: A Caliber Effectiveness Guide for Self Defense and Body Damage, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, Best Self-Defense Caliber and Damage to the Human Body, Effectiveness of Bullet Wounds: How Gunshot Wounds Work, What Happens When You Get Shot: Damage to the Human Body. Pain is generally physiologically irrelevant, but where present often just makes motivated targets angry and thus, more motivated. Psychological incapacitation was not a luxury that the wounded could afford on that day. For a handgun, that might mean 4 or 5 feet, or even further depending on the caliber. So please, before you say "we all know", why not ask us what we know, or at least come at us with some hard statistics on the subject. The cartridge also has relatively low muzzle blast and flash, as well as moderate recoil. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. This is what can incapacitate a target, even with a poorly placed torso shot. There have been several attempts by ballistics engineers to increase the wounding ability of a round.
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