May Rangemaster Newsletter

[Tom Givens]

The May issue of our monthly newsletter has been posted. We wanted to get this one out a few days early so you could all shoot the Drill of the Month this weekend.

https://d74722.p3cdn1.secureserver.n...Newsletter.pdf

[SWAT Lt.]

Thanks, Tom. Totally agree with your thoughts on carrying a .22 for self defense.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Sounds like not a fan of the wave of new 32 HR mag J frames - that's my interpretation - very interesting edition.

[idahojess]

Thanks for mentioning Chris Bird's book. He is a good writer and journalist, and his book has a good amount of analysis of things that can go right and wrong.

[Andy in NH]

No FB for me, but I did three runs today (and also a series of three runs of Pat Mac's One to Five Drill).

#1 - HF 10.37
#2 - HF 11.12
#3 - HF 10.39

[Ed L]

My favorite entry in the newsletter was Tom's fine piece on what he feels are the follies of carrying a .22 for Self Defense. I am reposting it here with his permission.

Tom wrote:

Recently, I have noticed a number of posts on gun forums and Facebook pages about carrying a small (j-frame) .22 rimfire revolver for self defense. Of course, the primary objective for these folks is a very small, extremely lightweight handgun, for convenience.

Several people who should know better have stated that the .22 bullet from one of these revolvers should be perfectly adequate, citing adequate penetration in ballistic gelatin. Several have tried to make it sound like penetration is the only factor involved in getting people to stop attacking. Of course, that is not the case. Note in this photo, for instance, the size of the recovered .22 Long Rifle Punch round and a 124 grain 9mm HST round, fired into the same gelatin block. The 9mm bullet has many times more frontal area. Frontal area X depth of penetration = wound volume. Higher wound volume lets more blood out and more air in, thus, is more effective.



Perhaps as importantly, the expanded hollow point 9mm bullet now has multiple sharp cutting edges, which will cut and tear flesh as the bullet rotates as it passes through the target. This is much more likely to cut a nerve trunk or artery than is the smooth, rounded .22 bullet. According to Dr. Vincent DiMaio, .22 LR bullets from handguns almost never expand in actual bodies (Gunshot Wounds, Second Edition). Dr. DiMaio also said wounds from .22’s fired in a handgun are often mistaken by surgeons for an ice-pick stab and vice versa. Not encouraging. Also, according to the International Wound Ballistics Association, most .22LR bullets fail to penetrate bare gelatin beyond 10”, less than the optimal 12”-18” penetration called for by the FBI test protocol.

Next, penetration all by itself is a poor indicator of performance. The 158 grain lead round nosed .38 Special load quite often exited on torso shots, but was widely known as a very ineffective load. Read The Search for an Effective Police Handgun, by Allen Bristow.

Finally, the .22 fans say things like, “I’ve seen a lot of dead people who were shot with .22’s”. Totally irrelevant. When we shoot in self defense, we are trying to immediately stop someone’s aggressive actions, not kill him. If he completes his attack, kills or cripples you, and dies thirty minutes later, he was “killed” by the .22, but that was of no value to his victim. In a single five year period ending in 1994, 33 deaths from BB guns and pellet guns were reported to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. That does not mean I want to carry a BB gun for self defense.

President Ronald Reagan was shot in the armpit with a.22 revolver in his assassination attempt. The bullet deflected off internal structures twice, and wound up in the lung right next to his heart. The surgeon who worked on him said he would have died without the immediate medical intervention he received, but Reagan was not aware that he had been hit until a Secret Service agent found blood on Reagan’s shirt.

Carry whatever you wish, it’s your butt. Just be careful about whose advice you heed and remember why we carry a gun in the first place. “I’m just running to the grocery store” does not mean you will only be 60% engaged by the armed robber on the parking lot there. I assure you, you will be 0% or 100% engaged.

[Shawn Dodson]

What you hit is more important than what you hit with.

"Aggressive action by a determined adversary can be stopped reliably and immediately using a handgun only by a shot that disrupts the brain or upper spinal cord. Even the most disruptive heart wound cannot be relied upon to prevent aggression before 10 to 15 seconds has elapsed.​

"Given this limitation, massive bleeding from holes in the heart or major blood vessels in the torso causing circulatory collapse is the fastest and only other reliable mechanism available to the handgun user."

-- Col. Martin Fackler, M.D., "Wound Ballistics Workshop, FBI Academy, September 15-17, 1987, '9mm vs .45 Auto'".​

[mmc45414]

I agree in principal, only that the either-or question might not be between 22LR and 9mm, but might be between a new shooter that shoots 5 rounds out of a J-frame, or 5k rounds out of a 22LR J-frame.

[Tom Givens]

What you hit is more important than what you hit with.

"Aggressive action by a determined adversary can be stopped reliably and immediately using a handgun only by a shot that disrupts the brain or upper spinal cord. Even the most disruptive heart wound cannot be relied upon to prevent aggression before 10 to 15 seconds has elapsed.​

"Given this limitation, massive bleeding from holes in the heart or major blood vessels in the torso causing circulatory collapse is the fastest and only other reliable mechanism available to the handgun user."

-- Col. Martin Fackler, M.D., "Wound Ballistics Workshop, FBI Academy, September 15-17, 1987, '9mm vs .45 Auto'".​

Shawn,

As I have pointed out to you before, I was an actual member of Dr Fackler's Wound Ballistics Association. One had to be vetted and admitted by Dr Fackler to join.

Note in his quote, "massive bleeding". The larger the tear or hole in the major vessel, the more massive the bleeding.

Read The Search for an Effective Police Handgun, by Bristow.


If .22 were effective, I assure you every police dept in the US would have transitioned to them decades ago to lower both ammo costs and training time/cost.

[Shawn Dodson]

Shawn,

As I have pointed out to you before, I was an actual member of Dr Fackler's Wound Ballistics Association. One had to be vetted and admitted by Dr Fackler to join.

Note in his quote, "massive bleeding". The larger the tear or hole in the major vessel, the more massive the bleeding.

Read The Search for an Effective Police Handgun, by Bristow.

If .22 were effective, I assure you every police dept in the US would have transitioned to them decades ago to lower both ammo costs and training time/cost.

Hi, Tom:

FWIW, I was a Technical Consultant with IWBA, also personally vetted by Fackler. He invited me to test ammunition in his lab at The Presidio in the early 1990s.

During a traffic stop recorded on dashcam video (and can be seen on YouTube), SC Trooper Mark Coates, a former Marine, was shot with a .22 Mini-revolver. The bullet entered his chest through the armhole of his vest and cut a major vessel. He collapsed to the pavement 20 seconds after he was hit and remained conscious for a few more seconds. This was after Coates shot his assailant, Richard Blackburn, 5 times with his service weapon. (Advance to 2:20 in the video to see Blackburn's attack (Coates is shot at 3:06 as he's radioing dispatch)). The Coates shooting is an illustration of what .22 is capable of when a vital structure is damaged.

Compare the shooting of Trooper Coates to the shooting of Chris Mercurio by an LASD deputy. (Video on YouTube) Mercurio also collapsed about 20 seconds after being shot, presumably with 9mm. (Advance the video to about 6:45 to see the shooting).

A few years after the FBI's Wound Ballistics Workshop, Fackler reiterated:

"THE ONLY RELIABLE WAY TO STOP THE AGGRESSION OF A FEARLESS ASSAILANT IS TO DISRUPT HIS VITAL BODY STRUCTURES. This fact has proven itself both on the military and urban battlefields. It should come as no surprise to any experienced hunter.

"THE HEART, MAJOR BLOOD VESSELS, AND UPPER PART OF THE SPINE ARE THE VITAL STRUCTURES OF THE TORSO."

--Fackler, Martin L., M.D., "Police Handgun Ammunition Selection", Wound Ballistics Review, Fall 92, pp. 32 - 37.

Click here to read Fackler's paper.

Solid hits to the torso cannot be relied upon to instantly stop an attacker because blood loss takes time to be effective, even when a bullet(s) pass through the specific vitals Fackler identified (except spine). This is why we see so many police shootings involving multiple shots/hits. If the bullet(s) doesn't pass through one of these vital structures, then there's no physiological reason for an attacker to stop attacking.

I don't suggest .22 as a primary defense gun, unless it's all a defender can handle due to infirmities. A .22 is better than no gun or a larger caliber gun that cannot be shot effectively by the shooter. However, when it comes to caliber wars, I will always repeat: What you hit is more important than what you hit with.

[Edited to update the link to "Police Handgun Ammunition Selection"]