Whats more powerfull than a .44 magnum bullet?

[Cable God]

<< Sgt. Carlos Hathcock (&quot;Marine sniper&quot used a modified Browning M2 .50 machinegun with a scope to snipe in Vietnam. It was fascinating to hear him talk about it. >>




Ah, good 'ole WhiteFeather. He was known by the VC for wearing a white feather in his hat to taunt the VC Sniper trackers. I believe they credited him with a kill close to 2000 yards away with the .50 cal, right Andrew?

 

[Flanders]

The answer to the question that you desire. Wooo! where is my coffee and krispy kreme doughnut.

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

.44 Magnums are really pretty winpy, a medium size rock will raise a bigger welt. Now consider if you fire them out of a gun, then they hit hard.

 

[fdiskboy]

Where can I get info about that marine sniper? That sounds like good reading material!

 

[fdiskboy]

<< ...they say u know when ur getting shot by this .50 caliber sniper gun...makes a whining sound that gets louder as it gets close to u >>



I'm pretty sure getting knocked down by the impact, finding you have a hole somewhere on your body, and find blood everywhere---yep, you should know when you're getting shot by that particular gun.

The only gun I'm aware of that you might NOT know you're being shot by it, is a .22. As there are stories of people who have been shot and did not realize it.

 

[ratkil]

Those of you who have shot a 44. magnum may find this story as unbelievable as me, but there have been at least a couple incidents. First one was a guy walking up to a bull and emptying a 44. magnum point blank between its eyes, the slugs flattened on the skull and did not penetrate, they were able to flick them off with a pocket knife after putting it down. Here is the link to another story like that. Just thought you may find these interesting

As far as hearing the bullet, for you not to hear it you have to stay subsonic, otherwise you will hear the crack of the slug breaking the sound barrier. As another side note, they are making a movie about that Russian sniper that had like a 100 some kills in the battle of Lenningrad (sp)

 

[Demon-Xanth]

600 grain .410 rigby rounds can pack quite a whallop

 

[BeHeMOTH]

I'm sure getting hit by the seals sniper rifle would rip you in half, so I'm sure you would know or atleast the lose of a bodypart would give you a hint.


Static911: Before you rush out to buy a glock look around, glocks are good but need to be respected they tend to be short tempered plus if your going to spend the money look into a getting a HK 9mm USPc better for the bucks and alot more dependable and safe.

 

[Dean]

Almost any high powered hunting rifle is way more powerful than a .44 magnum handgun. I used to own a savage 110e 308, a browning BAR 30:06 and a browning BAR 7mm magnum.

As for the guy who said a you might not realize when you get shot by a 22. let me tell you something, i'd still pass on it because that little cartridge is right up there with causing as many deaths as a 9mm. It literally will deflect widely inside a human body and cause injury to many areas to a human torso.

 

[Preyhunter]

<< The .44 mag is one of the most powerful handgun cartridges. The .45 is NOT. The .50AE and .454 Casull have more punch. Not to mention old favorites like the .357 and .45LC Then new ones like .357 sig. All have more speed than than the old trusty .45 >>



Not much of a handgun enthusiast yourself, are you? For one thing, speed does NOT equal power. That is exactly why a .45 is better for personal protection than a 9mm. The high velocities of a 9mm can carry the bullet completely through someone, whereas a .45 is going to transfer all of its energy to the mass of the person, effectively planting the person flat on his bum. I don't know of any other caliber that is practical for personal defense (which excludes calibers such as the .50, .454 Cassull, and .475 and .500 Linebaugh) with a better one-shot stop ratio.

 

[BoberFett]

For the guy who's getting a Glock. Shoot one before you buy it. I rented a Glock 17C (the compensated model) and I didn't like it at all. After firing my Sig P226 .40, the Glock felt like a cheap toy, IMHO.

 

[ratkil]

&quot;I don't know of any other caliber that is practical for personal defense (which excludes calibers such as the .50, .454 Cassull, and .475 and .500 Linebaugh) with a better one-shot stop ratio. &quot;
12 Gauge, now you know of one

I know you meant handguns, just couldn't resist

 

[rahvin]

<<As far as hearing the bullet, for you not to hear it you have to stay subsonic, otherwise you will hear the crack of the slug breaking the sound barrier.>>

Ya know a hunter saftey person told me something similar to that and I about told him he was an idiot. Bullets pass the sound barrier in the about the first millisecond of acceleration in the barrel of the gun. It's a closed air system with higher preasure behind than in front, there is no sonic wave. The sound of a gun firing is the rapid exhaust of high speed gases. A silencer achieves it's silencing by allowing a more gradual release of those gases that results in less noise.

The sound a bullet makes while traveling is a result of friction in the air. All bullets have noise to them as they pass through air because it creates vibration in the air to have a high speed object go by. I have had bullets fired toward me from a distance and I know the sound, it's very distinctive.

 

[Russ]

<< For one thing, speed does NOT equal power. That is exactly why a .45 is better for personal protection than a 9mm. The high velocities of a 9mm can carry the bullet completely through someone >>



Wrong. Velocity is a major part of stopping power. If I throw a large rock at you, it will knock you down, but it will not penetrate and likely will not kill you. If I fire a 125Gr pebble at 1500FPS, you're dead.

A 9MM will NOT go completely through someone unless you are stupid enough to use FMJ ammo for self defense. A well designed hollow point will stop in it's target.



<< I don't know of any other caliber that is practical for personal defense with a better one-shot stop ratio. >>



Wrong again. Corbon +P+ 9MM has a one shot stop of 91%, while the best .45 is 89%. You also have nearly twice the magazine capacity in the 9MM.

If the 45 were actually as good as you 45 fanatics thought it was, the Armed Forces would not have dumped it in favor of the 9MM.

Russ, NCNE

 

[ratkil]

Rahvin, you didn't actually call me an idiot, so I will be nice and just post a link

You gotta wonder if the circumstances that lead to that picture warranted a doh! =D

 

[Dean]

Russ is correct...the faster a projectile travels, equals the more &quot;explosive&quot; power it has. A slow bullet may cut a path, but a really high velocity bullet will also destroy surrounding tissue and cut an effective hole much larger than the diameter of the bullet itself. Which in turn will create much more instant trama to what or who it hits.

 

[AndrewR]

cablegod: One of the instances when he used that gun was when he was supposed to stop a VC leader from reaching a meeting. He initially took out the kid's bike (said he was probably 16) but then the kid started spraying his AK rounds everywhere in the village since he had no idea where the bullet came from. Since Hathcock was over a mile away, he was in no danger, but he was worried about the villagers so he fired one more round. Took care of that. I don't recall the exact distance he said, but I know it was over a mile because when I did the calculation in my head from yards to feet, I was flabbergasted.

In another instance, he used the gun to kill a rather brutal and infamous woman who was reknowned for taking captured Americans and doing fun stuff like skinning them alive. He caught them on a slope with the .50 cal and splattered her and her entire group of cronies. He said he REALLY took some satisfaction from that mission.

Like it's mentioned, you wouldn't hear the bullet since they typically travel faster than sound. Plus, I always remember reading that part of the problem with noise suppression for firearms is that you have to either reduce the speed of the bullet to subsonic or use subsonic ammunition (like that link states).

I've always been tempted to make a suppressor for my Ruger using some tubing and washers. Of course, there's that whole &quot;illegal&quot; aspect of it.

 

[rgb7]

Some Info on the subject

More Info

Also, check out Jeff Cooper's thoughts on the subject.

Good Luck

 

[MajesticMoose]

a 200 millimeter railgun packs quite a wallup, and fairly accuratley i might add too

Moose

 

[Hecubus2000]

I would have to say Taco Bell after a late night of drinking with friends.

 

[Preyhunter]

Russ,

Though I generally agree with you on most subjects that you discuss in these forums, one thing I never really understood was your staunch affinity and defensive posture for the 9mm round. Maybe it's because you own one and don't want to think that it is inferior to someone else's handgun that has more stopping power . Here is a link in which a 9mm and a .45 ACP were compared head-to-head in stopping effectiveness. 9mm vs. .45 ACP As you can see, when comparing hollowpoint to hollowpoint, the .45 ACP is superior overall to the 9mm. The 9mm comes out ahead of the .45 ACP when using the short barrel AND using the premium loads. The poorest performing hollowpoint for the .45 ACP beats out half of the tested loads for the 9mm. Of course, both sizes can most definitely kill someone and do lots of damage with proper placement, but I would have to say that the proof is in the pudding on this one. As far as the military going with a 9mm over a .45, that can easily be explained by design and economics. A 9mm can hold more rounds than a .45 can due to the size of the rounds. Military personnel would have a need to be able to carry more than 7 or 8 rounds due to the nature of their work, killing a bunch of military personnel. It is also more cost effective to utilize 9mm ammo than it is .45 ammo.

As far as the velocity statement that I made earlier, I stand by it. Higher velocity does NOT mean more stopping power. Anyone that thinks that is a fool. You also have to consider the mass of the projectile and its design. If velocity were the sole determiner of power, the .22LR would be arguably the most powerful handgun round available today.

<edit>Oh yeah, if I am such a &quot;.45 fanatic,&quot; shouldn't my concealed carry handgun be a .45 and not a .40? I guess this is the one time that my signature doesn't fit the topic.</edit>

 

[limsandy]

A dick

 

[fallenoncrack]

I got the Answer: SUPERMAN!!!!

mwhahahahah

 

[AfterBurn]

If you want to stop someone, you will want to pass as much of the energy of the bullet onto the target. How much energy can be transfered depends on weight, speed, and of course how fast it can stop. If you would be able to fire a lightweight bullet at an extremely high speed and have it stop (=transfer all its energy) in the target, you'd shred it to bits. The weight difference between 9mm and .45 isnt as big as the speed difference, so a well working 9mm hollow point should have more stopping power than a .45. So i'd say Russ is right.

However, keep in mind that from FBI training videos, they showed that stopping power isnt as important as stopping someone. A crazy man will not stop by something that would knock a normal human being dead in his tracks (no pun intended). In other words, if someone is coming at you and is crazy enough, you can blow his insides out through his back, but he'll still come at you. Lethal isnt good enough. Dead is. Real stopping power is not a big cannon, but the ability to aim so the target goes down and is not able to get up anymore without the help of God.

 

[Preyhunter]

AfterBurn,

You obviously didn't read the study that I linked in my earlier post.