Rank the Power: 44 Mag, 45 ACP, 50 AE

I think you have the greatest chance of knocking someone down my actually hitting them with a Desert Eagle in 50AE. Not the round, the whole freaking gun.
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Yup, even Superman would duck.;)
 
"Knockdown power" is a myth. No handgun round, from .22 LR up to .500 S&W Magnum, has enough energy to actually knock a person down.
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Yes, I agree and I made straight A's in physics, both high school and engineering college.

The impulse, that is force X time needed to stop a bullet is exactly the same as the impulse needed to accelerate the bullet to its flight velocity. This means that if the bullet's momentum can actually knock down a person that stopped the bullet, it would also knock down the shooter who held the gun that started the bullet.

If you want to knock someone down, hit him with a car.
 
Among the three choices, I'd say the .50AE has the most knockdown power....because, if you don't hold it firmly and lean into it, it will knock you down on your butt..... :D
 
Yes, I agree and I made straight A's in physics, both high school and engineering college.......The impulse, that is force X time needed to stop a bullet is exactly the same as the impulse needed to accelerate the bullet to its flight velocity.
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I never took physics in high school or college but I know that that is a vast oversimplification and improper application of Newton's law. If the force imparted by a bullet was equal to the force imparted on the bullet, nobody would be able to shoot anything stronger than a .22LR. As an example, hitting a baseball with a baseball bat is not the same as accelerating a bullet down a bore with a burning propellant.
 
well, I've had no experience with the .50AE, But 44mag has way more arse behind it than 45Acp. For reasons I've never quite figured out, I've always wanted to try .475 Linebaugh.
 
Paper energy isnt a very good way to measure "power" as it's applied to animate beings. Most of the formulas dont allow for different bullet types, (Taylors in particular) and the effect they have. The "tranfer of energy into the target" isnt exactly, well, exact, either. Go shoot a bunch of game with various rounds and bullets, then come back to the table. Tissue damage kills, including damage to structural members of the body, and in particular, damage to the brain and spine are good ways to kill things.

Round nose bullets dont seem to kill well, nor have much shock compared to large flat points or functioning hollow points. Hollow points kill well, as long as the bullet gets deep enough to reach major parts to damage.

People may be easier to stop than animals. Rounds that have a good reputation for people defense arent so great for game killing in my experience. Having shot various game animals with different rounds gives you some different perspectives. After shooting things the size of rabbits, and having had them run away after hits with 45 auto RN bullets, and no particular profound effect on a coyote either, I'm profoundly underwhelmed by the killing or "stopping power" 45 auto ball ammo. The effect of 44 mag and 357 SWC or hollow point loads are decidedly different than RN bullets in 45 auto 44 spl or 45 Colt. I'm deeply impressed with the results of the higher velocity hollow points and SWC's. Large bruised and bloodshot areas in the animals, coyotes looking like they were hit by a baseball bat at impact with even mid velocity 44 swc loads, is quite different from RN bullet impact results. RN bullet wounds don't look bloodshot and bruised, or have large nasty looking wound chanels. 223 FMJ loads don't make real large wounds in jack rabbits (I had one jump up and run away after a chest hit from M-193 ball), 223 soft points make half dollar size holes thru them. Same paper figures. I've blown jack rabbits completly apart with 357 SWC loads. Less energy I believe than the 223 loads.

Just saying, the paper figures don't tell you much about what the bullet is doing to the animal, or whatever, particulalry when different bullet types are used.

As for me, I like expanding bullets at as high velocity as is practical, in weights that hold together and penetrate well, unless we're talking up close bear loads in a sixgun. Then, penetration is the primary objective, with enough weight to go deep and break bones if they get in the way. A large flat point also makes for plenty of tissue disruption.
 
I never took physics in high school or college but I know that that is a vast oversimplification and improper application of Newton's law. If the force imparted by a bullet was equal to the force imparted on the bullet, nobody would be able to shoot anything stronger than a .22LR. As an example, hitting a baseball with a baseball bat is not the same as accelerating a bullet down a bore with a burning propellant.
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Yes, it is an oversimplification. The gun always kicks more than the object that stops the bullet because the gun accelerated the powder gasses along with the bullet.
If you had a bullet proof catcher's mitt that had the same mass as a .44 magnum pistol and you used it to catch a .44 magnum bullet, that catcher's mitt would kick exactly as much by stopping the bullet as the pistol does by starting the bullet if we disregard the recoil caused by the powder gasses and assumed no velocity loss from the bullet going through air on its way to the catcher's mitt.
Before electronic chronographs were invented, bullet velocity was measured by shooting the bullet into a ballistic pendulum of a known mass and the height of the swing was recorded. The weight, not the mass, of the pendulum times the vertical height that it swings is the pendulum's "recoil energy" and that can be used to calculate bullet velocity.
 
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