Bigger is better?

[Hokkmike]

You remember when you were a kid and left the baseball out in the rain? Throw that baby hard and it really knocks you back. Catch it without a glove? No way!

Or how about palming a roll of coins just goofing around and slugging your friend? Quite a little extra punch, isn't it?

Every play catch with a medicine ball? Kind of almost knocks you over.

Now, apply some of this simple logic to bullet weight.

[1911shooter]

I'm with you on that one, thats why i love my 1911 in 45acp to carry i've even been known to carry my 44mag and on occasion my 500smith, but now that i have a guncrafters 1911 in 50 GI i hope its big enough.

[Philadelphia]

You remember when you were a kid and left the baseball out in the rain? Throw that baby hard and it really knocks you back. Catch it without a glove? No way!

Or how about palming a roll of coins just goofing around and slugging your friend? Quite a little extra punch, isn't it?

Every play catch with a medicine ball? Kind of almost knocks you over.

Now, apply some of this simple logic to bullet weight.

Remember when you were a kid and got hit in the head with a golf ball going 100mph? Oh, right, that will affect memory.

Anyway, it's not just about size or weight. The amount of force the bullet delivers to the target (without wasting any beyond the target by overpenetrating) is where it's at. That calculation has to take velocity into account.

[Hawk]

Increasing bullet weight of a handgun round doesn't correlate well to your examples. What you are really talking about is kinetic energy (1/2 mass x velocity squared). Those items have much more mass than any bullet and thats what you are feeling when you catch that medicine ball or water soaked baseball. The difference in mass between say a 9MM and a 45 is not a whole lot, whats more of a factor with regards to energy is velocity, as you double velocity you increase kinetic energy 4 times. Therefore, how fast the bullet travels is more of a factor than it's mass when it comes to kinetic energy.

According to Newton's law any action has a equal and opposite reaction. So, to prove to yourself the kinetic difference between say a 45 and a 9mm is to grab 2 Glocks a G17 and a G22 and fire them each with a standard velocity round and notice the recoil difference, this small difference in felt energy is whats transfered to your target, IMHO is not going to matter much. The movies always portray a guy being shot and is knocked back ten feet from the bullets impact, if this was true then according to Newton's law the guy firing the gun would also be knocked back some factor of that distance, as you know, in reality, this is not the case.

This topic has been discussed a bit on this forum and the consensus is that an effective round is placement not caliber (bullet weight).

Hawk,

[Shawn.L]

Increasing bullet weight of a handgun round doesn't correlate well to your examples. What you are really talking about is kinetic energy (1/2 mass x velocity squared). Those items have much more mass than any bullet and thats what you are feeling when you catch that medicine ball or water soaked baseball. The difference in mass between say a 9MM and a 45 is not a whole lot, whats more of a factor with regards to energy is velocity, as you double velocity you increase kinetic energy 4 times. Therefore, how fast the bullet travels is more of a factor than it's mass when it comes to kinetic energy.

According to Newton's law any action has a equal and opposite reaction. So, to prove to yourself the kinetic difference between say a 45 and a 9mm is to grab 2 Glocks a G17 and a G22 and fire them each with a standard velocity round and notice the recoil difference, this small difference in felt energy is whats transfered to your target, IMHO is not going to matter much. The movies always portray a guy being shot and is knocked back ten feet from the bullets impact, if this was true then according to Newton's law the guy firing the gun would also be knocked back some factor of that distance, as you know, in reality, this is not the case.

This topic has been discussed a bit on this forum and the consensus is that an effective round is placement not caliber (bullet weight).

Hawk,

common sense told people the world was flat.

gotta love physics !

[ReefBlue]

Barrett .416 flies further, faster and more accurate than a .50.

[Tokamak]

Your logic is fine as far as it goes, but the energy delivered is not just from the mass of the projectile. It is also from the velocity or speed.

For example, if I toss a .45 bullet at you underhanded you simply catch it. If I throw it straight at you over handed (increasing the speed) it will probably sting you. If it is shot out of a gun, it causes massive damage. The bullet has not changed, only the speed has.

The advantage a small bullet has is a smaller cross sectional area giving better ballistics. I used to pick off ground hogs as a kid with a .222 at 100 yards using head shots. My .222 was dead on accurate.

Also, the .222 had a high rate of spin which further stabilized it and imparted a centrifical force that caused the bullet to shatter on impact. That tiny bullet once gutted a ground hog that I hit in the shoulder.

I believe these considerations are why the army went to the .223 as the standard rifle in the 60s and 70s. You could carry a lot more ammo at the same weight as larger cartridges and you still had a destructive and accurate hit.

Me, I like to carry a .357 revolver. Makes a pretty nice sized bleed out hole when the hollow points expand to over .5" and packs a punch. The .45 is a good round also.

[steamtownwelder]

but now that i have a guncrafters 1911 in 50 GI i hope its big enough.

I've been drooling over one of those..... Any pics? How do you like it? Are you loading for it? Man I want one!

[RoyJackson]

I normally carry a .38 snubby or a 9 mm (soon also a .357 Mag SP101).
But sometimes I'll carry a .32acp mousegun.

I'm one of those guys who thinks it's better to carry a small gun you will carry rather then a bigger gun you leave at home.

All you need to do is slow the assailant down...better to stop him, but if slowing him down lets you retreat out of danger, that's fine too.

[CoyoteJack]

Remember when you were a kid and got hit in the head with a golf ball going 100mph? Oh, right, that will affect memory.

Does not!

When I was 12 I was hit in the jaw by a golfball driven by a 5 wood shot that was still on its upward trajectory. I was safely behind a tree when I heard the other golfer yell four and like a moron I peeked. It knocked me out cold. The doctor looking at the x-rays later that day told me if I'd been hit an inch in either direction it would have broken my jaw. As it was it left a divot in the bone.

Back to the subject though

I read an article about small arms of the future in which there was a thought to use a very light, 5mm or so, hard plastic bullet fired at extreme velocity (10k+fps). Test showed that such a bullet would cut thru body armor as if it wasn't there.

Speed is the key when dealing with energy. Doubling the mass isn't nearly as effective as doubling the speed. Of course if the bullet passes completely through the target then its energy isn't properly transfered to the target so too much speed could be a problem.