Gun Death Statistics by Caliber: A Review of Calibers and Crime in 2024 [More]
It’s important to know not only for everyday carry decisions, but because the antis will use it against us every chance they get.
Size Matters
3 thoughts on “Size Matters”
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There are some glaring inaccuracies/inconsistencies in this article. Caliber is the diameter of the projectile. 38 (Special?), .380 ACP, 9mm Parabellum and .357 Magnum all have .355 inch diameter projectiles. What is different is the length of cases, amount of propellant, weight of the of the projectiles and the resultant chamber pressures, muzzle velocities and muzzle energies. The same can be said for the .40 S&W and the 10mm which use the same projectiles but have differing case lengths that hold differing amounts of propellant.
Some firearms will cause hollow point ammunition to expand better than others. A center-fire primer ignited rifle round will generate more muzzle energy than a pistol round because the rifle rounds contain more propellant. A pistol round fired from a rifle barrel produces more muzzle energy than from a pistol barrel because the longer barrel captures more of the expanding propellant gas resulting in higher muzzle velocities.
The proportions of non-fatal to fatal indicates that the pistol rounds to the right of 9mm (inclusive) in the graph can yield more fatal than non-fatal results. However, what is more important is how many rounds of any caliber is required to stop malevolent activity regardless of non-fatal or fatal result. Greg Elifritz has written on caliber and “stopping power” and I recommend that you read his articles on this topic. Remember that you must have a firearm on you or immediately accessible to obtain these results. Proficiency helps. A more effective caliber and firearm left at home under lock and key will not help when you are out and about.
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I’ll forward your comment to them and invite them to respond.
I’m a reloader. While at the range, I police up the brass around my position to help keep the mess under some control and to have something to reload. While sorting it out back home I tend to find that upwards of 70% of what I collect while on the pistol side of the range is 9×19 (Luger) with the rest being about evenly split between .45ACP, .40S&W, and 10mm.
I wouldn’t expect brass recovered from crime scenes to be any different.