Of course it's possible, but how realistic of a scenario is it? Any bullet capable of taking down a crazed 300 lb guy is also capable of over penetration. I can easily find plenty of videos/stories where an under powered bullet fails to perform, and you can't find one instance where an innocent is hit after the bullet pass through a bad guy. It would seem to be a logical conclusion that under performance is a more realistic problem vs. over penetration.
What are the best non-JHP .38/.357 bullets for self defense?
- Thread starter TruthTellers
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Of course it's possible, but how realistic of a scenario is it? Any bullet capable of taking down a crazed 300 lb guy is also capable of over penetration. I can easily find plenty of videos/stories where an under powered bullet fails to perform, and you can't find one instance where an innocent is hit after the bullet pass through a bad guy. It would seem to be a logical conclusion that under performance is a more realistic problem vs. over penetration.
I don't know about you guys but my karma makes it a certainty that if I use a FMJ that is likely to over penetrate . It will , and some how make a U-turn and come back and hit me right between the eyes . But that's "my" karma . If I'm so lucky and it misses me it will fly by and hit Jesus Christ him self .
That would be your best way to find the info you are looking for . Police shootings up until they were allowed to use HP will likely have the most threw-n-threw shots that hit bystanders . How ever that would likely be hard to prove only because there tends to be multiple shots fired . Making it very hard to know if a bullet went through a person before hitting another . Unless only one shot is fired It would be pretty hard to know for sure each bullets trajectory in a shoot out . You can conclude each shots trajectory but it would be harder to know what path each individual bullet took . Which is what is making it hard to find that data .
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Jim Watson
New member
Yes, but...
How many have been hit by misses? Their percentage of hits is very low.
We were already off topic a little bit . If we start talking misses well then does it really matter what bullet you’re using . If we are taking misses into account then we should really consider not shooting at all .
It is an it’s interesting thought experiment. Do you have the right to defend your self with a gun if there’s a likely hood bystanders will be injured? Should you have to die because one of your shots may miss the bad guy and hit someone behind him ?? I guess that’s something cops have to deal with every day .
It is an it’s interesting thought experiment. Do you have the right to defend your self with a gun if there’s a likely hood bystanders will be injured? Should you have to die because one of your shots may miss the bad guy and hit someone behind him ?? I guess that’s something cops have to deal with every day .
In 357Magnum id avoid any bullet less than 110 grain unless it's just for plinking. I would certainly avoid relaoding ammo for self defence. I'm not a fan of plastic bullets or even compressed mettle bullets. Yeah I have tried a few but I admit I am not an expert of specialty ammo.