Originally Posted by
Dave T
My department issued Rem 125g SJHP for their 357 Mag carrying Deputies. We had a number of revolver shootings while I was the firearms instructor and when I could I went along with Homicide, who handled the investigations, to see what happened and figure out if there was something we could learn from the events.
First one I remember was a weapon's qualified Corrections Officer, assigned to prisoner transport (court, doctors, etc). An intruder broke into his home and when he heard the commotion, jumped up with a 4" M-66 in hand and went to the bedroom door. He told me later, when he saw the bad guy in the hallway he slammed the door thinking it would better protect his wife. As he was telling her to call 911 the door crashed against him. As he was going down he got off one shot through the hollow core door and into said bad guy. He said he couldn't get his arm out from under him and the door before our bad guy ran out of the house, only to lie down under the neighbor's bushes where responding officers found him. This was 35 years ago and I frankly don't remember if the guy died of his single wound or not.
Second was kind of like the first in that only one shot was fired. A deputy in a rural area made a traffic stop on a felon who had violated his parole numerous times. This bad guy knew he was going to jail so he followed the deputy as he turned to go run the name. He jumped the deputy and as they rolled around on the dirt/gravel road he got the deputy's 5-cell Kel-lite away from him and started beating him on the head and shoulders. The deputy told me later he knew he was going unconscious so he reached under his arm-pit and fired one round into some portion of the assailant's torso. When I asked him why he only fired one shot he said he said there wasn't anyone there to shoot at after the first round, and then he passed out. Responding officers found him unconscious in the road and the bad guy dead.
The final 357 Mag shooting during my tenure as firearms instructor involved a detective carrying a 2.5" M-66. He and a uniform deputy were watching the back of a motel while other detectives, backed by SWAT, served a warrant on an armed felon. Our two heroes didn't really think they were going to get involved as the only windows on the back of the building were small bathroom windows. Sure enough the intrepid felon managed to crawl out of his bathroom window and drop to the alley behind the building. when confronted by the two deputies he pulled out a 4" 38 Special and pointed it at them. As might be expected they opened fire. The uniform guy missed from about 10 yards and hit the back end of a Porsche 911. Yes the county did pay for that one. The detective, made of sterner stuff and a bit closer put two rounds of 357 Mag in the suspects torso. Said suspect turned ran about 10 yards, put his revolver to his head and took his own life. WE speculated the none center of mass hits combined with the reduced performance of the Rem 125 SJHP out of the 2.5" barrel resulted in the failure to stop.
FYI,
Dave