.38 spl for self defence? man shot 5 times in face lives

Status
Not open for further replies.
I just don't have any confidence in the .38 Special from a snubbie.
Click to expand...

You should definitely be confident of yourself with your weapon system, whatever that system may be at any time. I have confidence in myself armed with a butter knife if that's what's available at the time.


Sgt Lumpy - n0eq
 
The old NYPD stake out squad has a similar incident. Two officers in the backroom eating pizza instead of watching the store. Knock on the door and the pharmacist gets pushed through by a perp with a gun to his back. Upon seeing the officers the perp fires his starter pistol and the lead officer thinks he's shot. Both officers open fire with their revolvers ( 5 & 6 shot 38spl,) Perp goes down for the count. When the ambulance got their the perp sat up and was walked out to the ambulance with eleven GSW to the face/head. All rounds skimmed the skull and failed to penetrate.
 
.38

And Jack Ruby dropped Lee Oswald like a sack of wet laundry with one round of 158-grain lead round nose fired from a 2-inch barrel...probably about 650 fps...and Oswald died 5 minutes later while en route to the hospital.

One incident isn't a good yardstick to prove or disprove anything.
 
Home-breaker; .38spl wounds....

To my understanding, the wounded subject is in ICU & not doing well.

I would be surprised if the crook lived to the end of Jan.
Many people don't understand that handgun bullets can kill or be lethal they just don't have the "knock down" power like Hollywood films & TV crime shows.

Clyde
 
it should be noted that ammo makes a big difference and many people might agree the .38 is a prime example. some of the cheap( sometimes twice of the amount in the box) ammo is more for just practice even though all ammo can be deadly. It attracts a buyer trying to save money or someone that doesn't realize that not all bullets do the same damage. You have a much better chance for survival if someone has these loaded rounds rather than hollowpoints in the old cia/fbi rounds. I treat all ammo as SD/HD ammo, but some ammo is more of target shooting, practicing, etc if someone wants to maximize their buck or if he/she uses different ammo for different occasions/purposes.
 
Congrats to her for stopping the invader. I'll venture a guess though, that the 38 wasn't loaded with premium self defense ammo.
Very likely it was lead round nose.

Perhaps it is now loaded with 135 gr Speer Gold Dot for Short Barrel +p.;)
 
OK, looks like SHE was in the crawl space, he was in the home proper. She lit him up when he opened the door, which means that he was standing, so again I say that no all of the rounds hit him in the head and essentially did nothing.
 
I routinely carry a snub, a 2" S&W 042.

I've been carrying 125-gr. +P Speer Gold Dots in it for the last several years.

In summer 2010 I had the chance to test some of the rounds by firing them into a trash can filled with water from 10-15 feet away. Not the best analog in the world, but it was what I could do at the time, and Martin Fackler indicates that water testing (via the Fackler box) does give valid penetration information.

9 out of 10 mushroomed perfectly to about .50, "penetrated" about 20 inches of water, and dented the opposite side of the can. The 10th one I didn't recover as it hit above the dropping waterline in the can and sailed into the dirt bank beyond the can.

The Speer ammo is specifically designed to both penetrate deeply and expand reliably at .38 Special velocities, including when fired from a snub.
 
Everyone knows a hit in the finger with a .45 will take your arm off.
Click to expand...

Only if you rack the slide several times while you're wandering around in the dark warehouse, AND if you hold the gun sideways, parallel to the floor.


Sgt Lumpy - n0eq
 
Only if you rack the slide several times while you're wandering around in the dark warehouse, AND if you hold the gun sideways, parallel to the floor.
Click to expand...
Our quarterdeck watch did that when he was sent to investigate a man with a gun up forward. He pulled his 45 and started to work the slide on his way up the starboard side. The young man left a trail of cartridges on the deck behind him, apparently he was a little nervous. When he got to the disturbance he had an empty gun. A visiting chaplain took out the gunman. Good thing he was there. All he wanted to do was have breakfast with a friend of his.

Melinda Herman and her husband Donnie had been to the range recently. Bad luck for Mr. Slater, She was on the phone with her husband and he told her to shoot him if he opened the door. Slater did and she did. I don't really care what kind of gun it was or what kind of bullets she used. She was ready, her 9 year old twins are safe and this is one home bad guys would do well to scratch off their list of places to go.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20536626/911-call-released-in-loganville-home-invasion
 
Melinda Herman and her husband Donnie had been to the range recently. Bad luck for Mr. Slater, She was on the phone with her husband and he told her to shoot him if he opened the door. Slater did and she did. I don't really care what kind of gun it was or what kind of bullets she used. She was ready, her 9 year old twins are safe and this is one home bad guys would do well to scratch off their list of places to go.
Click to expand...

ABSOLUTELY!
 
^^^^^^^^^^^

To me your opinion the matter sounds like you are saying " Believe me not your lying eye's". If I HAD to use a 38 it would be loaded with +P 158 LSWC's or +P+ 147 JHP's.

None of the shootings I have seen with 38's have been impressive at all. Where do you gain your perspective and opinion Skad? If you let me know what lead you to base your opinion thus maybe we can discuss it.

Either way 5 shots into the BG and some bluffing stopped the fight.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top