If you visualize a line 4 wide tube running down the center of the opponent from the eyes to the bottom of the sternum shoot them there, continue shooting until the threat is. Handgun caliber choice and the myth of stopping power by greg drobny. Case western reserve university handgun stopping power. Stopping power is the capability of a bullet to disrupt nervous system function enough that somebody loses consciousness.
Effect of accuracy and aim point on stopping power. This article was first published in unapologetically american. From the classic colt revolvers of the 19 th century to john brownings beloved 1911 design and beyond, handguns occupy a special place in american culture everyone has their favorite, of course, and often that shows by way of. You want a handgun cartridge that has a hatcher value of over 50 for the most effective stopping power. An alternate look at handgun stopping power buckeye. The rifle round, which is longer than a pistol projectile, likely also began. Stopping power is the capacity of a firearm to incapacitate an attacker when he is shot.
Evan marshall who coauthored a book in the 1980s with gun expert edward sanow, entitled, handgun stopping power. However, the ability to select ammunition designed to protect both officers and citizens is too critical a task to rely on artificial test mediums in sterile lab environments. By greg ellifritz over a 10year period, i kept track of stopping power results from every shooting i could find. The fbi did a study back when revolvers were the choice for most police departments. The main purpose of this book is to determine which handgun calibers are the most effective, and which cartridges are the best in a given caliber, and to. I dont imagine that is going to change while i am alive. When marshalls first book came out in 1992, i ordered it immediately, despite the fact that i was a college student and really couldnt afford. Aug 26, 2014 i think that the article named the myth of handgun stopping power is a bit misleading. Stopping power contrasts with lethality in that it pertains only to a weapons ability to incapacitate quickly, regardless of whether or not death ultimately occurs. Values over 55 have diminishing returns in that you dont gain any significant increase in stopping power for the extra recoil and control you must cope with. Julian hatcher, a former technical editor at american rifleman, based his theory of relative stopping power on this study and concluded the. Defensive handgun cartridges are all the same facts vs.
A good place for inquiring minds to start would be to read the books by ed sanow and evan marshall, which are the. About the authors evan marshall is a special weapons and tactics trainer for a. What pistols have the best stopping power and controllability. A practical analysis of the latest handgun ammunition marshall, evan, sanow, edwin j. You dont often hear about violent criminals charging headlong into a steady stream of accurately fired. However, as we say in our advanced stopping power secrets report, a handgun is a relatively ineffective weapon against a humansized aggressor especially when your attacker is bigger. Jun 17, 2010 pistol rounds provide more stopping power only if the rifle rounds miss or the rifle is out of ammo. The ability to stop a fight with a handgun bullet is often a difficult goal to achieve. A lengthy discussion of the many myths of stoppingknockdown power of handguns. Back in the day before we knew better, conventional wisdom on handgun stopping power held that reliable effective hydrostatic shock was achievable for defensive carry of le duty andor concealed carry handguns, and that man stopping power was generated by bigger, faster, or a combination of the two. A good place for inquiring minds to start would be to read the books by ed sanow and evan marshall, which are the most important works on the subject at the present time. Please dont think that if you are shot in the lungs with a modern handgun bullet, you can just lay around in bed for awhile and be fine. Thee are handguns will take anyone down, but to respond to this article a bit more intelligently i have to define some terms, then describe the issue that can affect this behavior, and end with some conclusions.
The simple physics that makes some bullets deadlier than others. Handgun stopping power october 8, 2019 by bob campbell 4 comments in writing, i prefer my information to be valid, the research verifiable, and the experiments repeatableespecially when it come to handgun stopping power. Its been a while since i read the article you referenced i dont think the link goes where you intended it to go, by the way but it was one of the first articles i read on my journey into concealed carry and i found it made so much more sense. For at least 50 years gun writers have been absorbed with the issue of which handgun has the most stopping.
The myth of handgun stopping power the shooters log. Its not the endall beall of caliber debate discussion but it definitely worth taking a look at. An alternate look at handgun stopping power buckeye firearms. The best stopping power is a complex mix of many different factors, including how fast the round is traveling and what it does when it enters the attackers body. Much of what one reads about the subject of handgun stopping power is a mixture of truth, halftruth, untruth, rumor and legend. The definitive study marshall, evan, sanow, edwin j. Sep 03, 2016 we also discuss why stopping power of a pistol round is a myth. A practical analysis of the latest handgun ammunition evan marshall and ed sanow rocked the firearms world with the release of handgun stopping power and street stoppers. I think that the article named the myth of handgun stopping power is a bit misleading. The term handgun stopping power generally relates various opinions about the ability of handguns to create ballistic wounds sufficient to incapacitate a target. Jun 21, 2018 in 2008, complaints by street officers that their 9mms werent stopping the bad guys fast enough led to case eight, in which the philadelphia police department authorized its officers to acquire. I remember reading handguns magazine back in the late 1980s when evan marshall was writing articles about his stopping power studies. When they arrived on the scene, they found a woman lying on the ground, calling for help and a man who threw his shirt at their cruiser yelling at them.
We also discuss why stopping power of a pistol round is a myth. Jun 19, 20 stopping power is the capacity of a firearm to incapacitate an attacker when he is shot. Do pistol rounds provide more stopping power than rifle. Stopping power is fine to use for this, but a lot of people are using that term as a physics measurement and insist that more of some variable energy, momentum, diameter being the usual suspects means more stopping power. I would like more information on stopping power of ammunition as compared to others. Its been a while since i read the article you referenced i dont think the link goes where you intended it to go, by the way but it was one of the first articles i read on my journey into concealed carry and i found it made so much more sense than most. In the macabre world of terminal ballistics, the study of what happens when. This is a confusing topic for gun newbies it would seem at the outset that. Remember, its not the size of the bullet, its how many times you can effectively hit your target in the vital areas. This video uses the data from greg ellifritzs 10year stopping power study of realworld gun fights to shed the light of actual data on several common beliefs about handgun calibers including.
I submit that we must do the same thing, but have very compressed time frames in which to do it. An alternate look at handgun stopping power handgun forum. Handgun calibers and cartridge loads have always been a hotly debated topic when the issue of self defense is the center of that discussion. Nov 27, 2015 handgun ammunition stopping power update. Trouble is, it was published in 2001, anyone know of a more recent source. Handgun stopping power is the definitive study or we are the. Jun 04, 2017 a lengthy discussion of the many myths of stopping knockdown power of handguns. The main purpose of this book is to determine which handgun calibers are the most effective, and which cartridges are the best in a given caliber, and to determine how this stopping power can be prediceted.
In 2008, complaints by street officers that their 9mms werent stopping the bad guys fast enough led to case eight, in which the philadelphia police department authorized its officers to acquire. The title page of the definitive stopping power book referenced by mr. Hatcher rating of caliber effectiveness the high road. An alternative look at an alternate look at handgun stopping. The assessment of bullet wound trauma dynamics and the. About the authors evan marshall is a special weapons and tactics trainer for a federal agency with counterterrorist responsibilities. This is the definitive methodology for predicting the stopping power of handgun loads, the first to take into account what really happens when a bullet meets a man. I talked to the participants of gunfights, read police reports, attended autopsies, and scoured the newspapers, magazines, and internet for any reliable accounts of what happened to the human body when it was shot. I would suggest that anyone with an interest in the subject read those books and decide for themselves. The hunter doesnt simply shoot at the animals body. An alternate look at handgun stopping power page 2. Stopping power is the ability of a firearm or other weapon to cause a target human or animal to be incapacitated. I expected to be castigated by all the big bullet aficionados for reporting honest data about the mouse gun calibers. If he doesnt stop you dont stop pulling the trigger.
Handgun stopping power is a matter of the speed of incapacitation of a deadly human opponent. To some, this reduces the validity of the study to zero. Aug, 2016 7 thoughts on a modest stopping power study jay hafemeister on august, 2016 at 10. Real life stopping power mississippi gun owners community. Easy to say, but harder to do under stress is getting the hits. Video armed cop learns a hard lesson about handgun. He has seen the end result from all too many gunshot wounds. Its not the endall beall of caliber debate discussion but it. All experienced revolver men should carry the federal 357b in a. Jun 09, 2010 stopping power is the capability of a bullet to disrupt nervous system function enough that somebody loses consciousness. Written by greg ellifritz since my handgun stopping power study was published last month in american handgunner magazine, ive received several questions from readers about my data.
A modest stopping power study the view from north central idaho. Pistol rounds provide more stopping power only if the rifle rounds miss or the rifle is out of ammo. Handgun caliber choice and the myth of stopping power. The above data is drawn from various sources including the book handgun stopping power by marshall and sanow, and various articles in magazines such as handguns for experienced shooters the headings of most of the columns above are probably selfexplanatory. Dec 21, 2011 handgun calibers and cartridge loads have always been a hotly debated topic when the issue of self defense is the center of that discussion. A practical analysis of the latest handgun ammunition by e. Finding the right caliber for different law enforcement agencies. Update on stopping power page 2 the firearms forum the. Mar 03, 2019 back in the day before we knew better, conventional wisdom on handgun stopping power held that reliable effective hydrostatic shock was achievable for defensive carry of le duty andor concealed carry handguns, and that man stopping power was generated by bigger, faster, or a combination of the two. Marshall and sanow have published three entire books on handgun stopping power. Firearm stopping power fact, fiction and anecdotes. Which variable you prefer changes which caliber is best and so the arguments begin. A modest stopping power study the view from north central.
A software retrieval code for the data stored on the wang 2200. Jun 20, 2018 police bodycam video shows the limit of handgun stopping power the truth about guns east cleveland police responded to a call of an altercation on sunday. Ive been interested in firearm stopping power for a very long time. Marshall and sanows works were pretty much disregarded many years ago. Some say this is not possible and is an unrealistic expectation. The point is to cause a bad guy to cease hostile action, even though he does not not want to. Both books predicted the effectiveness of all types of ammunition by studying the results of reallife shootings rather than relying on laboratory tests that. Handgun ammo stopping power all of us have been exposed to the varying theories regarding which type of handgun bullet is best for defensive purposes. Julian hatcher believed that bigger is better while the national institute of justice performed a computer man study a number of years ago which suggested that light and. Oct 16, 2018 this video uses the data from greg ellifritzs 10year stopping power study of realworld gun fights to shed the light of actual data on several common beliefs about handgun calibers including.
The best known of the handgun stopping power studies are those of evan marshall and the police marksmans association pma. Handgun ammunition stopping power update free republic. The variables that i can identify are shot placement, projectile shape, projectile velocity, and the mental state of the person being shot. The best handgun caliber a real world study the firearms. Police bodycam video shows the limit of handgun stopping power the truth about guns east cleveland police responded to a call of an altercation on sunday. This rational preps video uses the data from greg ellifritzs 10year stopping power study of realworld gun fights to shed the light of actual data on several common beliefs about handgun. A practical analysis of the latest handgun ammunition evan marshall and ed sanow rocked the firearms world with the release of handgunstopping power and street stoppers.
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