Mar 2008
Self defense, stopping power, and caliber, Part 2
(For convenience, you can access all the installments of this series at this link.)
If it doesn't get somewhere, it can't do something.
OK, so we know about the Twin Tasks, the two things that a bullet has to do in order to stop an attacker:
1) It has to get to something the body finds important, and
2) It has to do rapid and significant damage to that thing when it arrives.
Today we'll be taking a look at Task #1: getting to something important.
Let's start by pointing out that the user of the bullet must be capable of putting it on a course that will lead it to something important. If the cartridge in question presents too much of a challenge for the shooter to handle with the requisite accuracy, it doesn't make any difference how "good" the cartridge is!
This is only given lip service by trainers and enthusiasts; they'll repeat the mantra "a hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .45", then in the same breath give some arbitrary limit on "acceptable" calibers for self defense. Folks, there are people in this world who do not wish to, or simply cannot, practice to become proficient with a "correct" caliber. When the time comes that they need the weapon, wouldn't it be better that they possess a bullet that they can send where it really needs to go? Of course!
Step One, then, is pick a cartridge that is within your ability to control.
Once the bullet is in the air, it has to negotiate all obstacles to reach a vital organ of some sort. This requires that it get through any outer shell (clothing), past the skin (which is a lot tougher than you might believe), and alternating layers of bone and muscle. It has to have what's known as 'penetration'.
Penetration is dependent on several things: the weight of the bullet, the diameter (caliber), the velocity, and the shape. If we were to take two bullets of different weight, but of the same caliber and shape and traveling at the same velocity, the heavier one would penetrate further. We can do the same comparison for any of the factors, as long as the others remain the same. If we had two bullets of different shapes - a round nose and a wadcutter - with everything else the same, the more streamlined bullet (the round nose) would penetrate further. Simple, right?
When we look at expanding (softnose or hollowpoint) bullets, which increase their diameter at some point in the target, the situation changes. The increased frontal are of the expanded bullet acts like a parachute, slowing it more rapidly and reducing penetration. Sometimes penetration can be reduced so much that the bullet will not reach anything important, and we're back to that unreliable psychological incapacitation thing again.
Remember that too much penetration can be as bad as too little. Having a bullet that sails through the target without doing much work, or (worse) encountering another (possibly) innocent target beyond, is not a good thing. Hence it behooves us to have a bullet which demonstrates sufficient penetration, but not an excessive amount.
It's not uncommon to find a cartridge that, when loaded with streamlined, roundnosed bullets, goes through multiple targets - but when loaded with expanding bullets stops inside the desired one. As it turns out, this behavior has major benefits in terms of terminal effects, which we'll cover next time.
<--- Click here for the previous episode ..................... Click here for the next episode --->
-=[ Grant ]=-
|
FRIDAY SURPRISE: "Somewhere, WIllard Whyte is playing Monopoly with real buildings."
Friday, March 28, 2008 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, Completely
irrelevant
When I was a teenager, I took a trip to British Columbia, Canada. Aside from the fact that they couldn't pronouce the "ou" combination correctly ("Grouse Mountain", one of our stops, was pronounced "Groose Moontain"), what struck me about the country was the currency. Where our was the time-honored and respectable green and black combination, theirs was colorful - garish, to my young eyes.
I gave my good-natured hosts no end of ribbing about their "play money", and by the end of my trip I was happy to be back in the U.S., with our familiar greenbacks. This happened well before the adoption of their famous bird-themed coin, but to this American kid Canadian money has always been "loonie."
Today, of course, even the staid U.S. dollar is becoming more colorful in an attempt to thwart counterfeiting. Most of the other countries in the world have long since adopted colorful bills, and some of them are gorgeous.
Check out The Color of Money from Around the World.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Turned out to be more work than I anticipated!
I'd hoped to have Part Two of the Self defense, stopping power, and caliber series up today. As I was writing over the last couple of days, I found myself adding more and more information to try to make sense of it all. That's a problem when trying to explain a complicated subject in a manner that is clear, concise, and still readable. It's proving to be a challenge for this amateur wordsmith, but I'm not giving up!
Stay tuned, it's coming...in the meantime, take a look at this story. What an idiot.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Self defense, stopping power, and caliber
I've gotten a bunch of emails recently regarding the choice of an appropriate self-defense caliber and/or bullet. Around this one topic swirls more misinformation - and outright inanity - than any other I can think of. And now, here's mine!
What follows is a layman's understanding, backed by research of available literature and years of hunting and shooting experience, of the practical mechanics of wound ballistics. It is not intended to be a complete and exhaustive study of the subject. Instead, I hope to give my readers - who are, in all likelihood, laypersons themselves - a solid base of information to help make good decisions when choosing self defense ammunition.
Let's start by understanding that in a self-defense scenario our goal is simply to cause the perpetrator of a crime to cease immediately his/her antisocial activities. That's it - we want the miscreant to quit doing whatever it was that caused us to draw our gun in the first place. The closer to "immediately" that this occurs, the better for all concerned.
There are two mechanisms by which this can be accomplished: psychological incapacitation and physical incapacitation.
The first - psychological incapacitation - is the least predictable of the two. Some people will stop and run when grazed by a well-thrown rock, others will soak up all manner of chemical, electrical, and physical deterrents without so much as flinching. Since it's all in the mind, and minds vary significantly (especially when intoxicated in some form), we cannot count on delivering a reliable jolt to a criminal's psyche. We must instead focus on doing enough physical damage to cause cessation of action through reduction of motor skills.
On this subject has been constructed all manner of measures, each attempting to quantify the unquantifiable: "One shot stops." "Knockout index." "Wound channel volume." There are more, and none of them ever seem to agree (at least most of the time) on what actually works.
Well, folks, hunters have known something for a very long time, and it has been proven in the field again and again: to reliably put the brakes on a living entity, a bullet must do what I call The Twin Tasks.
1) It has to get to something the body finds important, and
2) It has to do rapid and significant damage to that thing when it arrives.
That's it. Either, by itself, simply won't deliver the results we seek (at least, not in the physical sense.) If the projectile fails at either of these Tasks, any success that occurs is in fact a product of psychological incapacitation, which we already know to be both unpredictable and unreliable.
Keep in mind that as the bullet traverses the target, it may repeat the Tasks; in other words, it may encounter more than one thing the body finds important. The more times that it does, and then completes the second Task, the faster the incapacitation is likely to occur. (Note that I didn't say "will", only "likely to". Handgun rounds are underpowered things, and with them nothing is ever certain.)
Within certain limits, it doesn't really matter what the caliber is or what the bullet is made of or how fast it travels, as long as it does both of the Tasks. That's why there seems to be such a wide range of calibers, weights and velocities that have shown "good" results in self defense shootings, and why arguments about "stopping power" rage on the gun forums: there is, as the saying goes, more than one way to skin a cat.
Remember, as long as both Tasks are accomplished, the envelope of "how" they are is large enough to encompass a variety of approaches.
The reason that the "heavy and slow" and "light and fast" bullet camps exist is because, generally, their choices just happen do both of those Tasks on a fairly regular basis. Arguing about which is the "better" approach is really quite silly, because when they work it's because they did both Tasks, regardless of the actual mechanism; when they fail, it is simply because they didn't do one (or both) of the Tasks, again regardless of their physical attributes.
It's at this point that someone invariably chimes in "but my cousin is engaged to a girl whose brother-in-law heard about a guy who saw someone shot fifteen times with a 9mm, and the victim was still able to walk into a French restaurant, order a 5-course meal, eat, chat with the sommelier, and stiff the waiter before finally collapsing on the sidewalk while waiting for his cab! That's why I carry a .467 Loudenboomer Ultra Grande - if it hits them in the pinky the hydrostatic shock wave will knock them down!"
I'm exaggerating, you understand, but if you regularly haunt the gun forums you'll recognize that it isn't all that far off.
Yes, small caliber bullets fail. Guess what? Large caliber bullets fail, too. As someone once told me, "put on your big-boy pants and deal with it!"
A good friend gave me a first-hand account of a battle incident wherein a fellow absorbed several very large caliber, solid torso hits, and was still able to jump from his vehicle and cross a road before finally collapsing.
The gun in question? A .50 caliber heavy machine gun.
Yes, you read that correctly. Sometimes, folks, nothing works.
Our job is to choose those calibers and bullets which seem to do the Two Tasks fairly reliably, and prepare to deal with the times that it just isn't enough. With handgun rounds, those times are more common than the gunshop commandoes would have you believe.
In the next installment, we'll take a layman's look at the physics involved.
Click here to go to the next article --->
Or, you can access the series index at this link.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: eCommerce Kudos
Today I thought I'd give you some feedback from my Adventures in Online Shopping.
When I factor in my diminishing free time, the price of gas, and the distance between everything in my locale, it becomes faster, easier and often cheaper to shop online. From clothes to chainsaw parts, before I do anything else I check the net - and very often, I choose the BBToJ* over my Suzuki.
Most of the time my virtual transactions occur without a hitch, but on occasion there are problems. Of course, at the other end of the bell curve are those companies that go out of their way to make the faceless exchange a surprisingly pleasant experience.
Size and reputation have no bearing on the shopping outcome, even online. I've had some of my worst purchases from some of the biggest web stores, and some of my best from little mom-and-pop sites. It's tempting to think, on encountering a small, amateurish site, that it is not a place you want to spend your money. Like those great yet undiscovered restaurants, what you see on the outside may not be a good indication of what ends up on your plate!
Take my favorite knife seller, Ragnar's Ragweed Forge. This has got to be the ultimate example of a minimalist site, put together on the cheap and devoid of the e-commerce niceties we've come to expect. No shopping cart here - just a (secure) online form you fill out by copying and pasting the catalog number of the items you want! (Back in the '70s, there was a local chain, a precursor to the Costcos of the world, called Prairie Market. Its claim to fame - remember, this is pre-UPC code times - was that you had to write the shelf price on every item with a grease pencil, so the checker could ring you up.) What you get for your work at Ragnar's is a superb selection of hard-to-get knives, terrific prices, reasonable shipping charges, and fast delivery. Ragweed Forge is almost a legend on the knife forums, and for good reason.
One little place I've come to like is Sage Creek Outfitters. Located in Idaho, it's a small outdoor and hunting supply company with a nice website that belies the personal service they deliver. Their prices are generally good, they actually have the items in stock, and they are FAST! I've never had such fast shipping from an online vendor; part of that is their proximity on our eastern border, but it's still surprising when their packages show up long before I expect them. Great folks, and their customer service is as good as anyone's.
I recently discovered Have A Life Outdoors, a small retailer that handles primarily Gransfors Bruks and associated products. (Gransfors needs their own blog post, but in the meantime - if you want the best axes and hatchets in the world, Gransfors Bruks is the choice.) Again, they're working hard to make a success of their little niche, with a good stock and rapid order turnaround.
We heat our house with a woodstove, and with 11 acres of woodlot I'm always buying some sort of logging equipment or chainsaw part. My two favorite stores are Bailey's and Amick's. I've never had a problem with either, they always ship promptly, and their pricing is better than I can get locally - if I can even find the item. (That's the reason I started doing business with them in the first place - my local outlets rarely have what I need in stock. I hate to hear the term "I can order that for you" - my response is "so can I!") Bailey's stock is aimed primarily at arborists and loggers, while Amick's is more of a general outdoor power equipment source. Both are great places to do business.
Then again, all of the companies I've mentioned have been terrific. Kudos to all!
-=[ Grant ]=-
* Big Brown Truck of Joy, aka UPS. A generic term for any delivery service.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Supreme Court
From Kim du Toit comes this gem.
Heh.
***
Everyone with access to a keyboard is blogging about Heller v. D.C. today. The level of insight varies from brilliant to "yesterday I couldn't spell blogger, today I iz one."
Lest I be thought in the latter category, I will refrain from commenting on the proceedings. I will, however, leave you with this quote from Gun Law News:
That, folks, is the only certainty in this whole case!No matter what the outcome from the Supreme Court, the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center will declare victory. Then they will initiate fund raising based upon their "victory".
-=[ Grant ]=-
Can you hear me now? Part Deux
As I mentioned a while back, I recently decided to acquire new hearing protection to replace my aging Peltor electronic muffs. Durability and water resistance were at the top of my list, followed by sufficient clearance to comfortably shoot a rifle.
I chose the Swedish-made Sordin Supreme Pro-X unit, based on rave reviews from other users (and a very good friend.) Sordins have a great reputation in the "tactical" community for ruggedness, which is what I wanted. I also paid extra to get the ultra-cushy gel earmuffs, which (in my estimation) was money well spent!
The Sordin circuitry is a big step up from the old Peltors. (In all fairness, so are the current Peltors!) Instead of completely shutting down the electronics when a sound over it's threshold is detected, the Sordins simply reduce the volume to match that of the background. This is a great improvement, and makes for a far more natural sound than my old muffs.
What really surprised me was the sound quality: it is superb, far better than my old Peltors. When the earpiece volume is set to normal - that is, no amplification relative to the environment - the sound is crisp, clean, and darn near like not wearing the muffs at all. In contrast, my old muffs had a bit of a hollow sound, and a greatly attenuated upper register. Compared to the Sordins, they literally sound like a cheap AM radio!
The gel earpieces, as noted, are incredibly comfortable - well worth the premium over the standard foam one, which themselves are quite comfortable compared to others I've used. The gel pads, though, are just in another league altogether - and they seal around the ear for better protection to boot!
All in all, I'm happy with the Sordins (so far...we'll see how I feel about them a couple of years from now!) I got mine from a company called CSUK (yeah, I know, but keep reading.) Not only did they have the best price, their delivery was lightning fast. Frankly, of all the online companies I've dealt with, these guys are by far the fastest; incredible, actually. I've placed three orders with them so far, and all have been delivered before I ever expected them. That's service; CSUK gets two thumbs up from me!
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Cloak and dagger, circa 1860
There are very few things that can start a raging debate like politics, religion - or the Civil War. Get a few people together, perhaps with some adult beverages, ask them what started the war, and wait for the fireworks.
(Personally, this Yankee reserves his invective for President Lincoln. Regardless of the actual cause of the conflict, the fact remains that he was the first President to invalidate whole sections of the Constitution to further his schemes. That modern day leftists rail against President Bush's encroachments on civil liberties, but give the far more Machiavellian Lincoln a free pass, never fails to astonish me. But I digress...)
Anyhow, the actual conduct of the war itself is fascinating. In just a few short years, we leapt from smoothbore muzzleloaders to self-contained metallic cartridge rifles. (There were times when both would serve on the same field of battle, a clash of technologies that would be roughly analogous to having Sopwith Camels and F-15s serving in the same theater of operations.)
Espionage, sabotage, psychological warfare, and manipulation of public opinion as tools of war saw similar advancements. Not all of the operations would work out too well, though, and the story of Captain Thomas Henry Hines is a great example.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Who knew - besides us, of course?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Filed in:
Other
resources, Political Action
This Reuters story about "normal" gun owners has been getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere - as well it should. The condescension in the text is palpable, as if the reporter really wanted to do a hit piece but couldn't come up with the slimmest of excuses to do so.
Need proof? How about this quote:
Yeah, that's objective.The owners are not just urban criminals and drug dealers.
Check out the comments over at Say Uncle.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
Monday, March 10, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Shooting
industry, Other
resources, Techniques &
Training
From Michael "Fashion Plate" Bane comes a story about cops and the 'Triangle of Death' (no, not THAT 'Triangle of Death' - this one is serious.) If you're a cop, you need to read it.
Reed and Malloy were in constant danger and didn't even know it!
---
After my lament last week, I went to a gunshow this weekend and found - of all things - a stainless Ruger Speed-Six in 9mm! The owner and I are dickering about the price right now, but (unfortunately) there is little recent sales data to go on. If you've seen such a beast sell in the last 6 months, please drop me an email and let me know what it went for. Much appreciated.
---
Crazy Rumor Department
Hey, Bane, you missed this one! Overheard at the gunshow: Colt has been sold to Norinco, so that they can have a domestic plant to get around import restrictions.
Ohhhhhh-kayyyyyyy....
---
'It Must Be Something In The Water' Department
Also overheard at the gunshow: the 9mm "doesn't work, so you need to go to a bigger caliber like .38 Special."
A math genius he ain't...
---
So much for my weekend. Back to the salt mines!
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: All in all, I'd rather be in...
As a child of the West, I'm generally not one to get excited about the upper-right quadrant of our country. I've visited the northeast, and in general am not all that attracted to the region. However, one thing the inhabitants of the region have that I'm quite jealous of are layers of old infrastructure, just waiting to be explored.
In the distant past my job occasionally required me to travel to upstate New York. Even the things that residents of the area consider commonplace - say, the remnants of the Erie Canal - just fascinated me, because of the long and storied past of that engineering marvel. Thus I spent a large portion of my "off" time visiting local museums and historical attractions.
On one visit to the Rochester area, I took the time to follow the Canal's path from there to Tonawanda. Since I was in the "neighborhood" - literally just a few miles - I made the short hop up to see the fabled Niagara Falls. (It must be said that even I, somewhat jaded by close encounters with much higher waterfalls, was amazed at Niagara Falls. It's worth the trip.)
At the time I wasn't aware of the history of power generation at Niagara, let alone the extent of the abandoned facilities that were literally right under my feet. I am now, and boy would I like to go back and see some of it!
Courtesy of www.vanishingpoint.ca
Check them out at
vanishingpoint.ca, which
is a great site for urban explorers.
-=[
Grant ]=-
I'm beginning to hate myself
Big gun show last weekend...didn't find anything I wanted.
Another big show coming up soon...doubt I'll find anything I want there, either.
The problem with being "into" something, to the extent that I am (and many of you are) is that the things we want get more and more esoteric. That translates to "hard to find", which usually translates to "valuable" - which morphs quickly to "the seller thinks it's made of gold from King Tut's codpiece, and has priced it accordingly."
The things I'm looking for range from the admittedly unusual (Marlin Levermatic in .30 Carbine) to the mundane (Mossberg bolt-action .22LR) and lots in between. You'd think, with an extensive and wide-ranging list of "wants" I'd get lucky sooner or later.
You'd be wrong.
For instance, a 3" S&W "K" frame (of any model; I'm not picky) shouldn't be a problem - they made scads of 'em, and they were pretty common just a few years ago. Naturally, I haven't seen one in ages.
I'd like a 9mm Speed-Six (yes, I know they're unusual) but I'd settle for a good clean one in .357. Doesn't matter - they seem to be equally scarce around these parts.
How about a simple Winchester Model 67 (their cheap single shot, manually cocking .22 from the middle of the last century) under $225? Not around here. Come on, people, this is a thin-barreled "starter" rifle, not a rare target gun!
Maybe a Browning BLR in .308? Good luck. (I've given up on ever finding one in .358, which is what I really lust for.) Oh, I can find a Winchester 88 in .308 - and I'd like to have one - but I'm not about to pay $800 for the privilege!
For some reason I want a simple, plain, common Marlin in .35 Remington. If I lived in Maine I'd have my pick of 'em, but out here in the West if it ain't a thutty-thutty you won't find it.
And so it goes. Come the next show I'll drag myself into the exhibit hall, knowing full well I'll be disappointed once again - but I'll do it anyway.
Sigh. I wonder if there's a suitable 12-step program for this...
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
Monday, March 03, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Political
Action, Current
Events, Other resources
---
Every once in a while, Tam hits one out of the park.
Read the whole thing - it's good.This is the country where we're supposed to be leading ourselves, not waiting for solutions to be handed down from on high.
---
SayUncle alerts us to this story. Predictable Euro-socialist hand-wringing and whining commence.
(Yes, I would generally agree that brandishing a weapon is both a tactical and legal no-no - but then again, if you're an old, frail lady and someone strange is standing in your yard, refusing to leave, perhaps you are justified.)
---
I missed this until Michael Bane pointed me to it. Hilarious!
---
Happy Monday, everyone!
-=[ Grant ]=-