Bullseye,

Wasn't that the case of the ".25 Caliber Sniper," who shot his victims at 100+ yards, firing thru a phone book to mask the report? (OK, just kidding :-)

Your experience is exactly the kind of thing that always made me (and doubtless others) run shy of the .25. It compares with two Cooper stories (IIRC), in which a guy had trouble committing suicide with one and a burly woman absorbed 6 rounds in the chest but simply wanted the cops to retrieve her husband so she could beat him senseless! The suicide case shot himself in the temple, then looked in the mirror, stanched the resulting trickle of blood, and went back downstairs to rejoin the party. He died later.

Seriously, do you have any idea why the four bullets in your ER case failed so completely to penetrate? Leather coat or something, perhaps? I know that skin/hide is amazingly resistant, and it's common for bullets to pass thru humans, deer, etc. and lodge underneath the skin on the opposite side, but I rather doubt the ER physician would have been laughing if the bullets had all entered the guy's back & lodged under the skin of his chest :-) And poor manufacture might make one squib load perform this poorly, but probably not four.

I demonstrated to my own satisfaction this spring that the old story of the .38 S&W (.380 British service cartridge) "failing to penetrate an overcoat" was either aprocryphal or the result of damaged/substandard ammunition. I am at a loss to explain the complete failure you witnessed with the .25ACP. Any ideas?