.25 or a good knife?

Bears carry knives by choice?

.300H&H
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With that being said, however, a 'knife' can be far superior to a .45 - if one knows how to use a knife.<unless of course one is just very lucky/unlucky>
Think of it this way: A Grizzly Bear carries 'knives'<teeth>and uses'em quite well! A knife can be used quite skillfully and go directly to an incapacitating deadly spot.
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Interesting comparison. Apples to rocks.

A Grizzly Bear does carry knives. In its mouth, end of the paws. It also carries clubs (the paws) crushing tools (the mouth) can run 35 miles per hour over broken ground and (if it could bench press) could bench a half ton easily (my estimation, all the rest of these are documented facts).

But probably the reason a bear would prefer his "knives" over a 25 is that the bear's fingers won't fit in the trigger guard. And loading the magazine is completely out of the question.

Having said that, I apologize for departing from the thread. The image of a pistol-paking bear was just too rich to pass up.

Lost Sheep
 
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Which is more mind boggling....

Someone actaully asking if they should bring a knife to a gun fight or 5 pages of people debating this?

Actually I'm still tying to figure out why I just spent 10 minutes of my life reading these 5 pages. Oh well, I needed a good laugh.
 
It is legal for me to carry a 25acp. It is NOT legal for me to carry a knife with a decent sized blade. Even if it weren't so, I'd still go gun.
 
Distance is your friend

Back in World War I, they studied the factors that made for wins in airplane dogfights. The single most predictive factor was speed. Not skill, not firepower, not armor, not maneuverability. Speed, which meant distance.

You could outrun a fight if you were overmatched. You could pursue a fight if you had the advantage.

Basically, speed meant that you controlled the distance.

Distance is your friend.

A .25 or a .22 has a lot greater reach than any knife.

Lost Sheep.
 
Due to circumstances...

.... IE, catch dog still tangled up with hog in some briars, I ended up using a khukri knife to end a hunt a while back. In the group I was with, others had used 12 ga slugs and a .44mag lever carbine, and the hogs ran some distance after being hit. 12 ga slug hit broadside, center chest. .44 slug deflected off a shoulder. Both required head shot finishes, when chased down.

In my case, shoved the knife in behind the shoulder, between the ribs, and the hog dropped immediately. Ceased twitching in under 30 seconds. Quickest kill of the day.

I'm not so sure the .25 would have dropped the hog as fast.

Granted, an A-1 khukri is a honking big knife, and creates a serious wound channel; my usual field knife is a Busse HG55, and is significantly smaller, but still pretty thick. I have limited training with knives in Filipino Arnis; I have more training at taking away knives than at employing them.

In those states where I legally can, I carry both a .38+P / 9mm+P or bigger and a knife.
 
The best advantage to the knife, even in self defense, is the element of surprise that it can bring.

I am trained in escrima. There was different training for sparring and "street." For real world application of skills, were not taught to brandish and rush in like a tribesman to get shot, but rather to run first and then if being chased with reasonable fear for one's life, gain some distance and set up an ambush, er, self defense scenario.

In 2006 in Atlanta, former Marine and then current waiter Thomas Autry was mugged by five teenagers armed with a shotgun, a .380 pistol, and at least one set of brass knuckles. He had a folding knife in his backpack. He initially ran and then he fought back with the knife, eventually killing one DRT and critically wounding another.

Point is, he didn't wave it around, or yell at them that they were going to get cut. He just stabbed them as he disarmed the one with the shotgun. The. 380 misfired. I'd much rather have even a Buck 110 folding hunter than trust my life to a Bryco. I am pretty certain his assailants didn't expect a guy who ran to fight back when cornered, and even then to fight back lethally.

All that said, I'd still rather have a quality .25ACP than a great knife and would much prefer having both.

I guess my point is that a knife wielder with determination and a modicum of smarts is going to most likely kill or gravely wound even better armed assailants by setting up circumstances favorable to his weapon if at all possible.

The Tueller drill is a joke in the sense that the first real world indication some gun carrier is going to have that a smart and determined opponent has a knife is in the second before he gets stabbed. Don't let a suspicious person close distance with you if the encounter feels confrontational.

So, just about any useable gun is better than a knife, but a knife in skilled and determined hands is not going to be detected until it is too late. Stay out of condition white.
 
if I was an attacker,I would be less likely to attack someone with a gun pointed at me than one who is holing a knife.Plus a .25 is usually a very tiny gun,mostly pocket self defense guns,if you had to use it to defend your life,what looks better to a prosecutor,shots fired or multiple stab wounds?
 
The weapon used is nearly irrelevant to a self defense inquiry, being more of a variable than an essential element.

If a prosecutor thinks you should have run given having only a knife, the same would hold true had one relied upon a gun, a flamethrower, a rock, or a pipe. In a stand your ground jurisdiction you have even more latitude to rely upon what you have at hand.

The relevant standard is whether you had a reasonable fear for your life or that of another in employing deadly force to stop an assailant. The form of that deadly force is secondary so long as you know that a knife, tire iron, rock, pool cue, etc., rises to the level of employing deadly force.
 
This strikes me as a dumb question. How fair would any of you feel about a duel, you with a knife, choose your best and me with my 25 Browning? Yeah, it is not a 45 or 357 but it is a gun, fires a projectile and is the thing to have.
 
Which is more mind boggling....

Someone actaully asking if they should bring a knife to a gun fight or 5 pages of people debating this?

Actually I'm still tying to figure out why I just spent 10 minutes of my life reading these 5 pages. Oh well, I needed a good laugh.
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You said it brother.

Ya want a better comparison........A good club is better than a knife.
 
LOL :D

What a goofy thread! :D

But it got me to thinking. With a knife I can: open a can of tuna, clean my fingernails, field dress an elk, whittle a work of art, play mumblypeg, dig a splinter out of my finger, or cut up my steak. With a .25... hmmm... I can't think of what I would ever use it for.
 
ah,c'mon.using a .25 is an adventure too.You can get shoot targets and defend yourself,as long as the BG isn't wearing a thick leather coat!I admit it is a weak round,but it's still a gun and gun beats knife
 
I have an old Excam .25. It's really not a bad little pistol. I'll take the .25 pistol loaded with quality .25 defensive loads any day over a knife.

Look at these ballistics for the .25 acp:

25 ACP Factory loads

Remington 51 grain FMJ, MV 789 fps, ME 71 ft./lbs.
Winchester 50 grain FMJ, MV 852 fps, ME 82 ft./lbs.*
Hornady XTP 35 grain hollowpoint MV 1004 fps, ME 78*

.25 ACP Handloads

Remington 51 grain bullet, 1.6 grains Unique, MV 853 fps, ME 82 ft./lbs.
Remington 51 grain bullet, 1.2 grains Bullseye, 728 fps, ME 60 ft./lbs.
Rem. 51 grain bullet, (can't tell-it's a secret) Unique, MV 933 fps, ME 99 ft./lbs.

I'll take my .25 with good factory defensive loads over a knife any day! Also, .25acp feeds and fires more reliably than .22.
 
You guys ever hear of Jim Bowie? Once he was challenged to a duel. The other guy let him pick the weapons and place. He said to meet inside a local warehouse, midnight, stocking feet, with whatever weapon you wanted to use. The guy came with a gun, Bowie came with his knife. Bowie is the one who walked away.
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Nope, never heard that story about old Jim, but I did hear about the Sandbar Fight where even Jim used a pistol as well as his knife. He also managed, despite his prowess with a knife, to get himself shot twice, impaled with a sword cane, and stabbed with a knife although he did manage to survive the fight which is more than can be said for at least one of other participants whom Bowie did kill with his knife.

You also have to remember that Bowie died in 1836, so whatever gun the guy had in the warehouse duel was likely not a six or seven shot semi-automatic pistol.
 
When I walk in the woods on the game preserve near my home, as firearms are forbidden, I tuck either my Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie, my Western Bowie, or my HB Forge Throwing knife (a big old 1820's Mountain man style knife), in my belt, behind my right hip. I have modified the sheaths so that they are held in place by the belt, tucked into the pants, and covered with my coat or shirt tail. No where near as comforting as a .380ACP or .38 snub with hot loads, but in my mind, MUCH better than a .25ACP if a critter w/fangs comes after me.

If I'm paraniod, it's due to all the "Big Bad Wolf" storys that my folks used to read to me as a kid...LOL!!!!

We live in a gun culture, and have all but forgotten how deadly a sharp piece of steel is. On the street I prefer a legal (CC) gun. In the woods however, against an animal on 4 legs, if I can't carry my pistol, a long sharp, heavy blade used in a downward slash or chopping motion would be pretty effective.
 
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why not both?

The first rule of a gunfight is to have a gun. I carry my pistol and a knife. Caliber of pistol and brand of knife really do not matter. Just make sure both are of a good quality.
 
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