.223 vs .45 ACP?

In a house though all rifle cartridges a serious over penetration hazards.

Shotgun is the answer for defending the house.
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One word. False.

The 5.56/.223 using defensive ammo penetrates much less than 12 ga 00 buck.

That has been proven over and over again, and yet people still see the word "rifle" and assume the round will go through 3 walls, a TV set, destroy the chicken in the fridge, bust out the front door, and kill neighbor Susie while she takes a shower...

I prefer using my 5.56 for defense for the precise reason that it will penetrate less than both JHP pistol rounds and 00 buckshot...

WTH? Really? Any reported stopping issues with the .223 and pretty much any other cartridge man has devised has to do with the crappy ass solid and FMJ bullets. Clear back in the day of the .45colt everyone but the military figured out that solid pointy bullets zip right thru things doing very little damage along the way as compared to alternative bullets. .223 with good bullets = good, .223 with crappy bullets equals crappy. FMJ = crappy. Who'd a thunk it?
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Let me tackle this one too. While FMJ is not my first choice, 55gr M193 ball ammo is not a bad choice if it is all that you have. The FMJ ammo that has a tendency to make a straight line through a combatant is the 62 gr M855 round. The lighter 55 gr has a tendency to yaw and fragment fairly quickly after encountering a barrier or flesh.
 
An Air Force sergeant at Pleiku AFB attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself with his AR 15 on my watch. Blew a hole in his side but, he survived and got an early return to the Big BX. Never could get enthused about that round.
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He wouldn't have survived if he had shot himself in the head. The caliber wasn't the issue.
 
I like the heavier .223 projectiles. The ones that are like big game bullets in miniature. The 70 grain Speer, 60 grain Nosler Partition, 64 grain Winchester, 75 grain Hornady. I have my AR loaded with 28, 70 grain Speers. I'm forever the optimist and I have a never say die attitude, but if I can't take out the threat with 28 .223 70 grain Speers, projectiles whose wound profile is very similar to and virtually indistinguishable from a 100 grain .243...then I guess I'll have to reload. :p
 
Any one gets hit with a .223 /5.56 soft point, hollow point, ballistic tip, amax, vmax, varmint grenade and so-on so-forth, at home defense ranges, is going to be in serious trouble.
 
After World WarII and The Korean War, the U.S Military started looking at the way infantry battles had been / were being fought at the time. They found that most infantry engagements happed at about 50 yards distance give or take a few yards. They then considered the 30-06 caliber which hit it performance envelope at about 600 plus yards, give or take a few yards. The military decided that they wanted a caliber that had the 30-06 knock down power at 50 yards. After much experimenting they came up with the theory if you propelled a 22 caliber at blistering velocities you could acheive this. I remember reading about the Laos Incursion in 1971 and how some network news reporter came up to the battefield after the shooting was all over and saw the dead vc who she thought had been mutilated by the Marines after they were dead by axes or machetes. She was planning on filing a complaint with the international war crimes commission when the LTC in charge of the battalion told her none of his marines did anything like that. The 5.56 had just worked really at the up close and personal distances. The writer of the book who was him self a retired LTC said it gave him some relief to when this woman no longer showed up to cover the news stories about his marines were in. The 45 ACP is a great round and a person using it could stand a good chance of winning if it were an up close and moving type of fight with no cover to hide behind, however if it is a fight where there is lots of cover to shoot from, best to exfil out of the area then and there. There is an old saying that a man is a fool to take a knife to a gun fight, well a man is fool to take a pistol to a rifle or shotgun fight.
 
After World WarII and The Korean War, the U.S Military started looking at the way infantry battles had been / were being fought at the time. They found that most infantry engagements happed at about 50 yards distance give or take a few yards.
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They were a bit late doing that the Russians and Germans figured that out during WW2.
 
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