The Best Handgun Caliber - A Real World Study

[MrRob96]

I'm just gonna have an AK pistol and conceal that everywhere instead.

Nah, I'll use what I got.

Clown costumes probably break up any printing really well.

 

[bbbass]

Yes it is! No it's not! Yes it is!! No, it's not!!!

Now that we've figured this out, can we tackle climate change?

 

[bbbass]

 

[OldBroad44]

Yet another study that ignores bullet design. Drives me crazy. Sometimes when the results of your study say that the factor you are focusing on makes no difference it really makes no difference. But much of the time it doesn't mean that at all. It means your whole study is garbage because one or more other factors also matter or even matter more than the one you focused on and confounded the results. My guess is bullet design matters much more within the range of 9mm, .38, .357, 40, and .45acp than caliber per se, and is so important that without controlling for it, the results are meaningless.

Amazing that people make such a big deal about caliber and neglect bullet design. I regularly see YouTube videos where they compare penetration of two different calibers, where one bullet is a fmj and one is jhp or jsp. That is, a very penetrating design from one caliber and an expanding design of the other. Meaningless.

 

[Ruger Rich]

I pretty much agree with Andy. Being comfortable and confident with the gun in your hand is huge. I own a ton of rifles and hunt every year as much as I can draw tags. Of all those rifles only two go with me hunting. They have me hooked after years of compatibility with me. I believe the same thing holds true with a home defense weapon.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Yet another study that ignores bullet design. Drives me crazy. Sometimes when the results of your study say that the factor you are focusing on makes no difference it really makes no difference. But much of the time it doesn't mean that at all. It means your whole study is garbage because one or more other factors also matter or even matter more than the one you focused on and confounded the results. My guess is bullet design matters much more within the range of 9mm, .38, .357, 40, and .45acp than caliber per se, and is so important that without controlling for it, the results are meaningless.

Amazing that people make such a big deal about caliber and neglect bullet design. I regularly see YouTube videos where they compare penetration of two different calibers, where one bullet is a fmj and one is jhp or jsp. That is, a very penetrating design from one caliber and an expanding design of the other. Meaningless.

Good posting.
Bullet design is very important...yet can be over looked...which is weird to say the least.
A study say on
The various 230 grain .45acp bullet designs vs. 185 or 200 grain versions of the same...
How they each preformed thru or on various media...
Maybe caparisons on the different guns using those loads...just to see how compatible a given load is with a specific gun...
All testing done with each gun and load using the same set of variables...
Something like that is a good start to a study.
Andy

 

[titsonritz]

All handgun calibers suck, shoot placement is the key, deal with it, see how simple that it?

 

[Certaindeaf]

All handgun calibers suck, shoot placement is the key, deal with it, see how simple that it?

Worked for David..

 

[P7M13]

Yet another study that ignores bullet design. Drives me crazy.

I didn't look at the sample sizes for the different calibers, but if you consider they are in the hundreds or thousands per caliber, the effectiveness of the different bullet designs averages out over the sample.
Above all, as said before, it's the user that makes the difference.

The @Stomper slide:

 

[Stomper]

I didn't look at the sample sizes for the different calibers, but if you consider they are in the hundreds or thousands per caliber, the effectiveness of the different bullet designs averages out over the sample.
Above all, as said before, it's the user that makes the difference.

The @Stomper slide:

View attachment 488367

 

[Oya]

May I put in a good word for .357 Magnum? Best all around caliber ever! There are a lot of fine hand guns that shine in that caliber. Works well coming out of a rifle too.

 

[DuneHopper]

 

[BATTERY]

Don't care what others carry. I choose the caliber I can put on target quickly, accurately and can afford to train with. 10 mm is my favorite, but cannot keep that sucker on target as well as others.

I feel like this has been hashed over a million times. Flame on like its 2001!

(2001 Because that's the first flame war I can remember about caliber on a gun board)

 

[DuneHopper]

I have in my hand a picture of the very best firearm ever, showing the best firearm ever made and ideal in the world for every condition.
Please see photo below.

 

[Stomper]

I have in my hand a picture of the very best firearm ever, showing the best firearm ever made and ideal in the world for every condition.
Please see photo below.

View attachment 488390

It's probably best if you keep doing that in the dark....

 

[DuneHopper]

It's probably best if you keep doing that in the dark....

now I made it weird....

 

[Stomper]

now I made it weird....

Your work here is now complete!!

 

[AK0perator47]

Everyone knows that the pistol only allows you to fight your way to a long gun! Now that we solved caliber issues; I would suggest that modern ammunition is "better" than what it was is the contributing factors. I believe that older types dropped/ stopped more baddies than modern ammunition. My reasoning is based on the fact that the rounds don't mushroom and they are bonded now so the doctor can just pull it out and patch you up.

 

[jim97701]

Air gun to cannon, I wouldn't stand in front of any of them.

 

[brokenarrow]

All handgun calibers suck, shoot placement is the key, deal with it, see how simple that it?

As my dad would say, " it's not the noise that kills them.."