One thing great about social media is the assistance it lends to the ongoing battle for wire content. One thing bad about social media . . . wait, how to keep it down to “one bad thing?”

This time it was the “wadcutter in the snub revolver” question. Except it’s not a question. It quickly devolved into the “stopping power” eyewash with people chatting up their favorite loads and explaining why wadcutters will “get you killed in the street.”

It’s all about myth and magical thinking. Every scenario that ends with a shot resulting in cessation of action predictably leads to “what was used?” and the resulting “that must be good stuff.” Except it’s essentially meaningless.

When you have (1) an animal weighing between 150 and 300 pounds, (2) in full-tilt rage behavior, (3) loaded with abused substances or just loaded up with rage induced hormones and (4) fully intending to exterminate you, should you expect something weighing less than a pound projecting a fraction-of-an-inch size missile at 1900 fps or less to induce a complete shut-down, regardless of where the round hits?

If you have that expectation, that’s magical thinking. "Magical thinking” – “irrational belief that one can bring about a circumstance or event by thinking about it or wishing for it; normal in preschool children, it also occurs in schizophrenia.”
Don’t get irritated with me; it’s far more common in adults than it should be and, embarrassingly, I can call myself out on it. I once thought the .45 Auto was significantly better than the .38 Special in terms of self-defense. It’s not. The data don’t support the conclusion.

I recommend the ammo triumvirate. These are the top three aspects of commonly employed handgun cartridges for defense use – and I do mean the top three. Once you get past these characteristics, criticality plummets catastrophically to the point that they likely just don’t matter.
The triumvirate follows:

1. Does the round possess ignition reliability?

2. Does it function in the gun?

3. Does the round strike to your sights?
Everything else is just stuff.

In order, ignition reliability is critical; if the round won’t reliably ignite, you get a “click” when you need “BANG!” Nothing could suck quite so much as the small noise when the big one is needed.

Next, if the round chokes the gun, it’s worthless. It has to chamber, extract and – with autoloaders, work the action. It has to reliably work within the system to provide the entire cycle of operation.

As to point of aim versus point of impact, a round that doesn’t hit to the sights can create a miss on the range. On the street, it’s not a “miss” – it’s an unintentional hit. And you’re responsible for it. I don’t care how much Jello the round ploughs through after perforating a range of barriers nor how big it expands – or if it doesn’t. A round that misses (1) wastes time in a fight, something you have little of; and it (2) creates the moral, ethical and legal problem of the errant missile clattering around the neighborhood.

Why am I not a fan of 22 LR for personal defense? Ignition reliability – and it works quite often. Otherwise, it can turn the trick especially from a rifle. I do practice quite a bit with 22 caliber DA revolvers. They tend to have rather difficult triggers, making the practice a chore – but making the employment of centerfire guns a relative cakewalk.

Why am I not a fan of low-cost, bulk packed ammo for defense? Aside from ignition reliability – something I’ve not noted a lot of problems with – functional reliability can be compromised. They load lots of bulk-packed ammo. Premium defense stuff seems to have greater reliability in both (1) and (2) factors. It still has to hit to your sights on your gun looking through your eyes. That is a variable.

For me, I check zero on a B-8 repair center from 10 yards, standing, two-handed. That tells me what I need to know for commonly employed defense guns. As I went to a (slightly) smaller gun for purposes of wandering in and out of less-than-permissive environments, I shot up the old carry ammo from a pair of S&W M&P Shield pistols.

I reloaded with current ammo, checking the point of impact at 10 yards. As I had some extra ammo, I checked my ‘asym’ drill from fifty yards on a BC-zone analog steel target. I went three-for three.
Cleaning both guns and reloading with fresh ammo from the same batch, I was ready to go. Which round?
Why does it matter? ;-)

- - Rich Grassi

https://www.thetacticalwire.com/feat...b-0d54c5bdd569

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