Well, they're pretty effective manstoppers, always have been. Unless forced by necessity however, I would never opt for my cap and ball over any of my modern guns for self or home defense.
That being said I will relate 2 local self defense shootings I have some knowledge of. In the first, the aggressor was quite legitimately shot through the torso with a 1860 Army, black, and a round ball at about 10 feet. Passed all the way through and the guy was talking all the way to the ER. In the second case, the one brother claimed self defense, the jury thought otherwise. He is out now and on parole. The offender shot his drunk belligerant brother through the sternum with a .44 Remington, black, and a roundball at about 3 feet. Dropped him like a sack of potatoes. The shooter drug his brother's body under a bush so he would be in the shade, took his girlfriend out on the town and to a fancy hotel for the night and turned himself in the next AM at the PD.
Families are tight here in the Ozarks. You just don't leave your kin out in the sun. That wouldn't do at all. Folks would talk and such.
That being said I will relate 2 local self defense shootings I have some knowledge of. In the first, the aggressor was quite legitimately shot through the torso with a 1860 Army, black, and a round ball at about 10 feet. Passed all the way through and the guy was talking all the way to the ER. In the second case, the one brother claimed self defense, the jury thought otherwise. He is out now and on parole. The offender shot his drunk belligerant brother through the sternum with a .44 Remington, black, and a roundball at about 3 feet. Dropped him like a sack of potatoes. The shooter drug his brother's body under a bush so he would be in the shade, took his girlfriend out on the town and to a fancy hotel for the night and turned himself in the next AM at the PD.
Families are tight here in the Ozarks. You just don't leave your kin out in the sun. That wouldn't do at all. Folks would talk and such.