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Believe me I'm aware of how this is partially beating a dead horse, but I just made my own little quick reference/comparison chart of foot pounds of force. In short:

Caliber - Grain - Speed - ft⋅lbf (all averages)

9mm - 124gr - 1150fps - 364 ft⋅lbf

45ACP - 230gr - 830fps - 351 ft⋅lbf

40mm Sponge LTL - 398gr - 325fps - 93 ft⋅lbf

MLB / Fastball - 2187gr - 134fps - 87 ft⋅lbf

This isn't to spark debate of 9 vs 45 yaddy yadda, just to reference that (with full energy delivery) getting hit by a 9 or 45 is the equivalent of more than four MLB pitches. Theoretically.
 
Believe me I'm aware of how this is partially beating a dead horse, but I just made my own little quick reference/comparison chart of foot pounds of force. In short:

Caliber - Grain - Speed - ft⋅lbf (all averages)

9mm - 124gr - 1150fps - 364 ft⋅lbf

45ACP - 230gr - 830fps - 351 ft⋅lbf

40mm Sponge LTL - 398gr - 325fps - 93 ft⋅lbf

MLB / Fastball - 2187gr - 134fps - 87 ft⋅lbf

This isn't to spark debate of 9 vs 45 yaddy yadda, just to reference that (with full energy delivery) getting hit by a 9 or 45 is the equivalent of more than four MLB pitches. Theoretically.
and one round of 2 3/4" 12 gauge #00 Buck is the equivalent of getting hit with 9 rounds of .380 simultaneously. At 4-5 rounds per second, a saiga 12 or clone can deliver the equivalent of 36-45 .380 rounds in one second. Puts handguns in perspective. Don't know how many baseballs that's equivalent to, maybe 90-100 baseballs in one second? One 20 round drum magazine would be equivalent to being shot with 180 .380 rounds in 4 seconds or so.

Rifle rounds similarly will dwarf pistols by a mile.
 
Last Edited:
Remember......most importantly.....shot placement.

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Stopping power , in regards to self defense....

If what you did stopped the threat , then it has stopping power.
Please note that the above , does not mean that one has to actually shoot to stop a threat.
Ones actions , which avoid or stop a threat....is what I am talking about.

Thinking of bullets and such....
Bullet placement as well as the design and construction of the bullet is important to consider...
Maybe even more so than the caliber.

In any event....
Do everything you can to avoid having to shoot...
If you do need to shoot , shoot well , shoot with something that you are comfortable with / able to make hits with ...
And shoot without regret.
Andy
 
Theres no way to quantify stopping power but years ago out of curiosity I averaged the muzzle energys and then the highest top 3 muzzle energys of several common pistol calibers.


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