The myth of "shot placement - shot placement - shot placement"

[David S.]

Bug-a-salt FTW.

[Duelist]

Well into the 90th percentile the presentation of a gun chases off the bad guy. (Kleck)

A single shot that misses cause even more to disengage.

A hit, anywhere will psychologically incapacitate nearly any resource criminal.

At this point, a well placed hit that enter the upper thorax will stop all but the most determined attacker. Lots of gelatin testing indicates that .32/.380 ball

will zip right through and exit 16-20 inches.

Multiple hits, well placed but failing to end an attack is so anomalous as to be nearly unheard of. How many failure modes are left? Only the most crazed

or drugged up can withstand this.

We're into Black Swan events now, and we haven't reached 9mm ball.

There is a reason we still talk about Michael Platt 34 years later.

I am 48. In my life, I have indicated to an antagonist that I had a weapon, by word or gesture but without producing it, a handful of times. In each case, the antagonist reconsidered their course of action. In two instances I can think of overseas in a combat zone, I pointed my weapon at a person with deadly intent. In both cases, that person reconsidered his course of action. I have held a gun in my hand inside of a locked house (once), apartment (Several times), and hotel room (twice) while waiting for a drunk or confused person to figure out that breaking down my door was a maybe not good idea. I have also, this past summer, rolled off my bed from a dead sleep and grabbed my rifle because I heard a flurry of shots outside.

Just having a gun (or knife, in one case) and being ready and willing to use it if need be has, so far in my life, solved every single incident where violence may have ensued without it.

I do own a .32. I can’t remember the last time I carried it. I usually carry a 9mm or .38 with proven ammunition.

Now, for crickets and nasty spiders: I use a .177 Crossman air pistol. If the critter has a heavy exoskeleton, I will use a pellet. If not, just the sudden burst of compressed air will tear it to pieces. That pistol will kill a mouse or rat as well. A steel spatula has proven to be a deadly mouse chopper of opportunity.

[Caballoflaco]

I can’t count the number of days I spent as a kid with a crossman .177 BB gun hunting grasshoppers in my grandparents’ garden as a kid. It was fantastic fun, like miniature quail hunting, though truth be told I shot far more on the ground than on the wing.

I’m glad this thread took the turn it did, I haven’t thought about that in a few years and it’s making me smile while enjoying an early autumn night on the porch.

[ArgentFix]

Well since you mentioned it. I always thought they pretty much kept hopping in a certain direction once you started chasing them. Turns out that if you stick a giant (to the cricket) suction stick down in their direction, they turn into maniacs and literally jump in every direction, spazzing out until they hop into something they can't hop out of faster than your slow human reflexes can react and redirect the suction wand. Until then though, you are randomly stabbing at your floor with the wand exactly 0.75 of a hop behind the cricket, who does not possess an OODA loop at all, apparently, while you do. The cricket, meanwhile, materializes next in the last place you expected it. It literally can do this over and over again while you are attempting, after each hop, to rationalize why it went that way, and now thinking you understand it's little cricket brain, where it might next attempt to go. Sometimes you even attempt a Chronicles of Riddick-type stab at the area you *expect* it to end up in, only to find that it's now 2 feet away and 270 compass points off of your guess.

I hope that this information is of some help in your hunt.

Once again P-F delivers beyond practical advice and deep into cricket/human psychology. I'll never not renew my subscription here.

Thanks for the chuckle

[Caballoflaco]

@TBone550 ‘s post also reminded me about having to crawl up under those same grandparents crawl space one time because I was little and we were running some tv cable from their new satellite dish. And....the entire crawl space area was filled with hundreds of camel crickets, which are harmless, but unpleasant company when one is squeezing themselves through the 2.5” feet of space between the dirt and floor joists of an older house at the age of 9 or 10 years old.

[Welder]

Dude, not cool. I hate bugs that go snap crackle squish with bunches of goo. They're always the ones that I plainly see are about to whack my motorcycle visor, but there's not enough time to act before they're a big smear in front of my face. After dark I sometimes slow down and see how fast I can go and still have enough reflexes to move my head out of the way and avoid them. Sometimes I come home with neck cramps because of that really smart game.

[Shoresy]

I wish y'all would let this play out.

I have spent the day waiting to shoot a groundhog under my shed who never showed his face, and just now spent 2 minutes chasing a cricket around in my living room with a vacuum cleaner so I didn't make a mess of him but also don't have to listen to him tonight.

I'm bored and you should let the man speak. Let's hash this out.

We need a devil emoji.

So are you a Bissell guy or a Dyson guy?

[rob_s]

I would wager that more “real world” gunfights have been won with calibers, and guns, that most here would turn their nose up at.

I’d guess a Taurus .38 and something like a Bryco-Jennings .380 or .32 at the top of the list.

If you’re the “victim” and you survive, you win.

[mtnbkr]

I wish y'all would let this play out.

I have spent the day waiting to shoot a groundhog under my shed who never showed his face, and just now spent 2 minutes chasing a cricket around in my living room with a vacuum cleaner so I didn't make a mess of him but also don't have to listen to him tonight.

Switching tools would have been more amusing.

Chris

[mtnbkr]

Once again P-F delivers beyond practical advice and deep into cricket/human psychology. I'll never not renew my subscription here.

Thanks for the chuckle

MUC=Managing Unknown Crickets?
Apologies to @SouthNarc



Chris