Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamecock
Sheetrock won't stop a bullet that can penetrate a human.
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Yes, but the question is, what will it do to the sheet rock AFTER it penetrates a human?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 6518John
I can’t imagine any gun person discounting a 437.5 grain bullet traveling at 1200 FPS! That’s almost 1400 foot pounds of energy.
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Well, these numbers are misleading. As has been said, it's not one 437.5 grain bullet, but 400 individual <1 grain bullets.
Also, that 1,400ftlbs of energy isn't really telling you the real truth. I don't pretend to know all the details, but something is missing from that equation. One thing I know is that Newton's third law works. Therefore, the actual energy being delivered is not 1,400lbs. If it were, imagine what would happen to the shooter.
No, the number means something different altogether. Ft lbs of energy is the energy transferred upon applying a force of one pound-force (lbf) through a linear displacement of one foot. How is that related to a mass striking an object (person)? Well, we can use that, but I think a better unit of measure is recoil.
The physics starts to get really involved when trying to account for all the variables. Suffice it to say that it is a very difficult calculation, but we can get a close estimate. Using your example, a 1oz load traveling at 1,200fps, fired from a 7lb gun, will impart about 16lbs of force to the shooter. It will be a tad more to the poor recipient of the shot because that's not overcoming the mass of the gun. Still, it won't be dramatically more.
But wait, there's more....
If we're talking about a slug, then it's simply 16-17lbs of force hitting the bad guy. When talking about anything else, that force must be divided by the number of pellets. Since we're looking at about 400 pellets in a typical 1oz load of #8 shot, that means each pellet carries about 1/400th of that force or .04lbs of force. Contrast that with 00Buck which would have 1.9lbs of force per pellet.
This is an oversimplification. I'm only reporting these numbers to show the difference and how dramatic it is.
As I've always said, the goal is not to tickle, hurt or even injure the bad guy; it's to stop the bad guy. Moreover, it's to stop the bad guy the first time. I have no desire to kill anyone, even the bad guy. However, if my life, or the life of my family, is on the line, I can't afford to take a chance.
Use bird shot if you like.
Use a .380Auto if you like.
It's your life on the line.
Just remember this:
Bird shot
might stop the bad guy and a .380Auto JHP
might expand, but 00Buck
will stop the bad guy and a .45ACP
won't get smaller.