9mm seems inferior to me. Why?

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fallhunter

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I guess I have a mental block. I can't help but to think that the 9mm is an inferior round. The .380 even more so. I love the .40 however. The .45 is ok also but not as fast as the .40. So that said, I like and only own semi-autos. What could this mental block possibly be?

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Probably just opinion like anything else.

The whole 'stopping power' thing is much more perception than reality. There are cases of people being stopped by one shot from a .22 and others of people absorbing an unreal number rounds from heavier calibers that keep coming.

I don't think I would want to depend on a .22, but if it's all you have it is better than nothing. I think any thing from .380 up in a gun that you're comfortable with and shoot well is adequate.

And that's why there are so many cartridges and guns available. So everyone can have the ones they want.
 
Just mental.

Here's a good video comparing the 9 to the 45 ACP, both with Corbon DPX. As they tested (if you go all the way to the end) "Terminal Performance is Functionally Identical"

9mm vs 45ACP PART 1: Cor-Bon DPX - YouTube

I love my M&P 9 FS. Have shot different 45s including the M&P, but for me I always come back to the 9.
 
Shooting well is the key! If you have to shoot some one with a full power .357 you will probably have to deal with collateral damage the bullet will cause after it passes through the original target! You can shoot an intruder in your living room and accidently kill the little old lady sleeping next door.
 
You've read too much baloney. :D Just kidding. Seriously, the people who have the opportunity to know first-hand about this stuff almost invariably will tell you to buy the best equipment you can afford (gun and ammunition) and to practice so you have a reasonable chance of putting your shots where you want them. If you do that, agonizing about one caliber over another (if both are using the best modern ammunition) is probably more of a waste of time than it is productive. That said, if you are more comfortable and confident with a particular gun and caliber, what's wrong with that? It's bound to be an aid to your shooting.

All the usual auto pistol rounds seem a bit wimpy to me, compared to my early pistol shooting days when about the only guns I fired were .44 and .41 Magnum revolvers. :)
 
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9MM Round Inferior?

The 9MM round is used by the military/police so not a lot of recoil and to stay on target better. That round has killed many.
 
You've read too many posts and books by "experts" who know little would be my guess.

Anything from .38 up is a good self defense round. Are some rounds a little better than others? Maybe, it depends on the situation, person using it etc, but the 9mm is a fine SD round.

I'm surprised these threads don't get the instant lock, if for nothing else, the sheer redundancy of the subject. But, since we are here, let me ask a couple of questions:

If a Bear were carrying a 9mm, would he be better off with one in the chamber? What caliber is best for defending yourself from Grizzlies carrying 9mm's?

:D :D
 
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Maybe your eye sight is so bad you need the biggest holes possible in your targets to see what is happening ?

Could be that you are very tired when you are shooting and need the heavy recoil to wake you up, so you can fire the next shot ?

Sure hope you find out what the problem is...........
 
fallhunter said:
I guess I have a mental block. I can't help but to think that the 9mm is an inferior round. The .380 even more so. I love the .40 however. The .45 is ok also but not as fast as the .40. So that said, I like and only own semi-autos. What could this mental block possibly be?

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Click to expand...

Hum... evidently you think that size matters.

Seriously, when one uses modern high-performance ammunition, there is little if any real difference between the 9mm, the .40 S&W and the .45 ACP. None of them are nuclear weapons. Marginal hits with any of them will produce poor results. Nice center hits with the .45 ACP... or the .40 S&W will get the same results as the 9mm. However, when it comes to getting those nice center hits under the stress of a HD/SD incident, lots of folks do better with the 9mm. In very light weight pistols, control will be an issue the same as with the .40 S&W or .45 ACP. However, in decent service weight pistols, the 9mm is easier to control... and easier to use for getting hits.
 
7shooter said:
Here is some interesting research on this topic by Greg Ellifritz. His conclusion is that in the common handgun calibers there is little difference in the real world. He found that shotguns and rifles give a much more effective bang.

An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power | Buckeye Firearms Association
Click to expand...

No offense, but you kind of misread the study.

What says is that the average number of rounds to incapacitation is similar. In other words, of the people a handgun stopped, what is the average rounds fired? They are comparable. What it also says is that the majority of rounds had a similar lethality percentage. What is not contained in that study is the time it took to kill. There is a difference between a fully functional BG firing at you who dies 12 hours later and one who dies 10 seconds after being shot and did not have the time to kill you.

The main finding you overlooked is one of the critical ones, % of people not incapacitated and there is a sizable difference in those percentages once you go below the .380 according to the study.

As far a rifles and shotguns being better than a pistol, in most calibers, that's a given.
 
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