If you notice in the above photo, there is little difference between 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP in regards to both temporary and permanent wound cavities, and overall penetration. Now lets talk about wound cavities caused by different caliber handgun rounds. Go for the high percentage shot based on the center mass of the available target area. Don’t get me wrong, enough combat effective hits on a target will stop the threat sooner than later, but nothing should be considered to be absolute. If an attacker is motivated enough and/or chemically impaired, even multiple rounds can be ineffective at immediately stopping the threat.

Rounds to the center mass of a target often do not stop the threat immediately. There is only one way that a single round is going to stop a threat every time: hitting someone in the ocular cranial cavity (technical term for face) inducing instantaneous de-animation (technical term for turning out someone’s lights). If a round were to be able to stop a man in his tracks it has to overcome the energy being presented by that man, while imparting an equal and opposite reaction to the person firing the shot. My friend and fellow Jarhead, Josh VanSteenwyk of J&J Tactical hit the proverbial 10 ring with his responses: kinetic energy has nothing to do with threat stoppage. One thing kind of stuck in my mind as something that needed to be addressed and that is this notion of kinetic energy being the cause of threat stoppage post bullet strikes. Now we had a few interesting responses regarding what caliber people prefer and I agree with the majority of them, or at very least can see the point of the person responding.

Post by Tactical Dynamics Firearms training LLC.

9mm vs 380 diameter