.45 Hardball?

I'll jump in here although I'm sure more qualified people will give a better answer. 1st, any weapon that you can hold in your hand is a pathetic popgun that has limited "stopping" power. The purpose of a bullet is to make holes in things and the "stopping" power comes from either a central nervous system shutdown or by causing hypovolemic shock (loss of blood pressure). Pretty much, any bullet that penetrates deeply enough to accomplish either will stop someone but not necessarily as quickly as Hollywood portrays. FMJ .45 will likely penetrate and could in fact overpenetrate. It also has the advantage of being the most reliable in terms of feeding. I personally carry hollowpoints but I feel comfortable that my guns function reliably with them. I'd carry whatever your gun functions with every time because the important thing is that your gun goes bang.

mm9

Originally posted by blinder:
I'd carry whatever your gun functions with every time because the important thing is that your gun goes bang.

Click to expand...

This is the key point that blinder makes. A .45 FMJ that feeds/ejects reliably in your gun is the key. A FMJ bullet will still leave at least a .45" hole in your target. That is bigger than most 9mm HOLLOWPOINTS expand to.

Blinder also hinted that all handguns are not the best platform if you really need to stop someone fast. ALWAYS count on multiple hits, with whatever gun and ammo combo you choose. A well place FMJ round delivered to COM, spinal column, or ocular/cranial cavity will always have better results than a HP that hits the extremities.

When push comes to shove, and you are able to deliver multiple hits to the vital areas using FMJ, the benefit of a hollowpoint round starts to diminish. The main advantage to a HP round is if you can only hit once or twice. The temporary wound cavity created by the expanding hollowpoint is often the deciding factor in ending a fight. The flatter, irregular edge of the "mushroomed" bullet will displace more tissue, and cause more dynamic shock than a FMJ round delivered to the same spot. As previously mentioned, this advantage disappears if you can deliver multiple hits with FMJ.

My advice would be to learn how to deliver multiple hits accurately and quickly if you do decide to carry FMJ (not that you shouldn't be practicing that anyway regardless of ammo type!!!). Concentrate on double and triple taps. There is no such thing as a "one round fight stopper" in any handgun ammo. Accept that, and your FMJ will work even better for you.