Which center-fire rifle cartridge would you not trust for self defense?

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I personally wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of any rifle bullet. I've seen the lowly .22 do some decent work at close range. I've seen the .17 do some pretty impressive things, too. I depend on the .223 loaded with V-max bullets to do the nasty in a self defense situation. They have a tendency to deposit their energy into whatever they hit without exiting. I would not want to depend on anything much larger than 7.62x39 for HD simply because of weight/ movement/recoil issues and the inability to make multiple hits rapidly and get back on target.
 
So you think 9mm is more effective than 223 for home defense???
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I was thinking rifle you are thinking pistol, to answer your question truthfully it depends but for bump in the night just woke up and rubbing sleep out of my eyes then yes I would prefer the 9MM. Real life I would prefer a gauge larger than 28 rather than any caliber but he asked for a caliber. Daytime shooting give me a 30-30. While you are pumping .223 rounds into boogerman I only need one bullet. 150 gr, flat point, lead. Shoot what you want, Op wanted to know our opinion on rifle caliber and I gave mine. You have yours and ain't it a wonderful world we live in when we have a choice.

Just to be clear, if you are thinking about a 9MM carbine I would still choose the 30-30. :D Same reason, I only need one bullet.
 
The two that come to my mind are the 32-20 and .22 Winchester Centerfire. The 4.6x30 and the 5.7x28 are probably 3rd and 4th from the bottom of the list. I'd use them if I had to, but I would not purposely choose those four.
 
They'd all be fine. Although I agree with whoever said he'd skip the stuff that was so expensive you coudn't practice with it. And I'll add to that, I'd skip the stuff that recoils so bad I wouldn't practice with it.

Then this about the .30 carbine round:

1stMar --- Yea...agreed. But at what approx. distance, did the 30 cal. carbine bullets, bounce off the coats of the attacking North Korean hordes, during the Korean War?
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It reminds me of conversations like this:

"Man that M4 sucks! I shot that guy three times and he didn't even notice!"

"How do you know you hit him?"

"Man he was only 50 m away. I don't miss the 50 m target."

He missed. Anyone who has ever gone hunting knows you can miss at any distance. And getting shot at doesn't improve your aim.

However, if anyone wants to volunteer to put on a pleated jacket and get shot at by an M1 carbine at 100 m, please take a video. We'll try and get you a Darwin Award.
 
There is some evidence that rapid multiple hits from pipsqueak cartridges have an effect beyond the usual expectations.
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Hey Art, by any chance can you point me to any info on this. I have some hypotheses about why this would occur but I'd enjoy reading about it.
 
multiple hits

Not really scientific, but Audie Murphy, in his book "to Hell and Back" relates several episodes of shooting enemy soldiers multiple times in a sort of "double and triple tap" (my lingo) with the M1 carbine, with the expected results. The mild shooting carbine likely helped him do that. He was likely a good combat shot too.

Murphy wasn't a big guy (physically) , I suspect that was one reason he liked the carbine, easy to tote across Europe.

One of the men on my genuine hero list.
 
my answer is none.
I have seen more than one village idiot kill themselves by cleaning a loaded 22lr, possibly the most under powered round available in firearms. I would trust every centerfire round all the way down to 204 ruger to do the job.
 
Id trust any centerfire with the right ammo, but certain bullet types is a different matter. Ive seen several deer hit with (just for example) 30-30 lead tip bullets that go right through with no damage and keep going for several minutes, also same goes for 35 whelen and other calibers like these. Low velocity, lead tips that have minimal expansion will leave an intruder on there feet I think
 
With a 223 varmint bullet you will turn your attacker's insides into garbage... One bullet.
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And with my 45 if I hit a boogerman in the thumb the shock will be so bad it will cause a brain aneurism and massive heart failure due to the shock. Yeah I heard the stories, it still comes down to what you shoot best and where you hit him. my 4'10" 85 pound granny who was an expert with her iron sighted Henry 22 and her Win 94 30-30 is going to trump Doofus with his semi auto 30-06 with muzzle brake, laser, mag light, bayonet and 12X50 scope. Even if Doofus has loaded Double Uber Ultra High velocity tungsten core tank killer bullets. :D
 
. Ive seen several deer hit with (just for example) 30-30 lead tip bullets that go right through with no damage and keep going for several minutes, also same goes for 35 whelen and other calibers like these. Low velocity, lead tips that have minimal expansion will leave an intruder on there feet I think
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This is where the 30 30 got a bad reputation with some hunters. A slower bullet needs a thinner jacket to expand properly. The 30 30 has plenty of energy to take a deer, or stop an attacker. If the manufacture used the same jacket thickness for a 30 30 as they did for a 06, it wouldn't expand near as well.

Actually a good defense round would be a double barrel shotgun with cut shells. They perform like a glazer using all the energy in the attacker.
 
I have seen more than one village idiot kill themselves by cleaning a loaded 22lr
How is this relevant?
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it is relevant because 22lr has less than a quarter of the energy as it's nearest centerfire competitor the 22 hornet. if Bubba can blow his own brains out with a 22lr then what do you think the likelihood of being able to stop BG from harming your family with a 22 hornet? pretty darn good if you ask me. I always love these discussions because you always end up with the following absolute truths:

1. every person that breaks into your home is going to be a 300 pound body building crack addict wearing kevlar.

2. the roughly half million combatants that have died while engaged in hostilities against the US since the adoption of the M16 have all been tragic cases of friendly fire apparently since the M16 is a horribly underpowered rifle, incapable of taking life.

3. the word "tactical" is used to describe everything from flipping on a lightswitch to changing your underwear.

4. some kid that is barely out of highschool and never seen live combat will rant about how our military is so poorly equipped and lament the "good ole days" where we had "man killer" guns instead of "man wounder" guns.

5. we will all agree that bacon is a delicious accompaniment to breakfast lunch and dinner.

6. thread will be reduced to name calling and bitter arguments(usually between 2 individuals) that will eventually cause this thread to be closed.

this year alone I have seen deer drop from horrible gut shots with so called under powered rounds and I have seen textbook kill shots with 300 magnums that got away. using healthy animals that have developed the ability to secrete large amounts of adrenaline at the slightest sign of trouble is not an acceptable analog to an unhealthy human specimen that has destroyed their body with drugs so I laugh at all the people that think that a drug addict rifling through your stuff is not going to drop if hit by a bullet of any size.
 
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