YouTube - .38 special revolver stopping power
interesting

And yet Jack Ruby dropped Lee Harvey Oswald with only one .38 Special 158 grain lead round nose. If you read the post operative report, that one bullet took out Lee's spleen, diaphragm, one kidney, and two arteries. When they opened him up, he was leaking blood quite badly.
So that video proved that yes she had a .38 Special, but it doesn't show shot placement, the types of loads, etc. Shot placement being the most important, as the old saying goes, a hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44.

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Vaya con Dios

it looked to me like the first shot dropped the guy. Then he started staggering away and she kept shooting him as he rolled around on the foor.

Whatever one wants to say about the .38, at that kind of range I sure would not want to be on the business end of one.

Know one fellow who emptied a .45 ACP 1911 into a guy and then had to club him down with the gun to get the cuffs on. The perp survived.

So what? All is proves is bullet placement is vital, and no handgun guarantees a stop.

Exactly! One shot through either eye.......
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

right, shot and blunt barrel/slide placement is what counts

Sure seemed to incapacitate him. I paused it when he rolled over on the floor, and it did appear he had something "gun-like" in his hand. So that's why she continued to fire.

By the end of the video, it looks like he is trying to kick-start the floor. The cartridge certainly put him down and out.

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You're shy a few manners.

Looks like the first shot hit the bad guy in the gut! That's gotta hurt!

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S&WCA # 2045

It looks to me like it stopped the guy. He went down like a sack. What does it matter that he rolled around, totally incapacitated? One shot, and the attempted robbery (or whatever it was) was over, as far as I can see. I would say the cartridge worked just fine.

Simple matter of math and science -- felt recoil (i.e., what the shooter feels) cannot be amplified upon target impact. In the case of handguns (with very rare exception), "stopping power" is directly linked to how the body reacts to being shot. Bottom line, bullet placement is key in incapacitating or "stopping" a threat.

If she would have stuck the barrel closer the higher velocity involved might have given her a "one-shot" stop!!!!

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

Neat and didn't take a 16 shot auto to do it with. Don't get me wrong, I have one but live with my 642. TC

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There's no justice, just us.

dont mess with a lady (or anyone else) armed with a .38 special.

The reason there was so much damage with this one shot was because it was a CONTACT wound! Ruby stuck that revolver right into Oswald's belly and pulled the trigger. It wasn't the bullet that did all the damage, it was the 15,000 psi gasses (assuming a standard .38 special round)released into his innards that tore them to pieces. All the bullet did was let the gasses in. Nobody's insides can withstand that kind of pressure. If Ruby had fired BEFORE the barrel contacted Oswald, he would have probably survived. If you had a tank of air at the same pressure and could put a hole in someone, then hook up a tube to the hole and let a bunch of that high pressure air into the person in an instant, the same thing would happen. This is why contact wounds are so deadly.

I use a .38, for both home, and carry, and don't feel under guned at all, then again 40+ years of practice helps me hit what I shoot at. YMMY.