What has the best stopping power?

Question

Bullets that are slow and heavy or fast and light?

(357 sig or 357 magnum vs .40 or 45acp)

Answer 1

Desert Eagle 50. cal

Answer 2

There are several theories about this, so no one knows for sure. In old magazines, there was reference to General Julian Hatcher's system that used momentum (mass times velocity), bullet area and a cofficient for bullet type. Colonel Jeff Cooper swore by this system but made his own short form of it. He wrote for "Guns & Ammo" and "Soldier of Fortune" magazines. John "Pondero" Taylor used weight, velocity and diameter of bullet in his system. Ballistics expert Homer Powley developed a complex theory using ballistics coefficients of bullets. Elmer Keith and Jeff Cooper favored the .45ACP in this group. I forget what John Taylor said about them. Homer Powley's system seemed ridiculous to me, so I wouldn't use it. Evan Marshall of Detroit PD wrote a book about cases of actual shootings and said the .357 Magnum with 125 grain hollowpoints was best. I was just a kid then, but my father was a hunter and had many old and new gun books and magazines that I read. My friends can give you figures for various loads in all of these calibers by the main systems. You can decide for yourself.

Answer 3

The .357 Magnum with its 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow point is still #1.  The .45 acp follows.  The .357 Sig and .40 S&W are somewhere below these.

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Answer 4

Slow and heavy seems to have more stopping power. Let's think back to the days when the U.S. Army first acquired the need for a heavier round...during the battles in the Comoros islands, I think.  The U.S. Army was still using the .38 Special I believe in a revolver. Islanders got hopped up on local intoxicants, which may have been some sort of loco weed, but that's immaterial and I digress. This is the point where the U.S. Army adopted the M1911 pistol in the .45 caliber.

You'd think that a High Velocity round would have more hydro shock value, yes?

Think...in ballistics... What causes more damage...a BB or a Brick?

Now think...what's the energy source behind it? Your Arm?

Honestly...it you threw a BB at me only using your arm...would that hurt? Or would a MARBLE hurt more it you threw it at me...How about a Brick? But it's not just all in the MASS of the object being hurled on the other side of the propellant. There's also the metalurgy involved...the amount of grooves cut into the barrel and so forth. So...a 9mm round has not quite as much propellant behind a lighter round, but the round moves faster because it's lighter than a .45 caliber round. If you were to knock over a stack of milk bottles at the fair...would you want to do it with a cotton ball or a golf ball?  A football? Ah... a football is thrown with a spiral! Yes! More accurracy with more force! See what I mean?

Now that I've had my Mr. Science moment...May I have a star? Oh...by the way...Josey W had the right idea... .50 caliber Desert Eagle...but Remington makes a .50 Caliber revolver as well...look it up and there's also the .50 caliber bolt action sniper rifle (MacMillen) I think.

Answer 5

Out of those the two .357s will be on the top and pretty close to each other. SIG developed the .357 sig to be comparable to the mag, in a smaller, less recoil intensive round. Between the two .4 cals, the .45 will have more "stopping power".

There's not really a slow vs. fast vs. heavy vs. light rule of thumb, but alot of times, lightweight fast rounds tend to over penetrate and do not usually create a very large wound channel. One of the biggest complaints with the M16/M4 is the .223 rounds tendency to over penetrate soft tissue, and it's lack of knock down power.  

Answer 6

It seems that there's little difference between 357 Magnum and 45 ACP. As a matter of fact, the old blackpowder Colt 45 loads seem to be in the same category! Though Marshall and others have tried, there's really no way to do reliable studies, so the controversy will be with us for a long time. That said, even rudimentary study requires large enough numbers that 357 Sig is not in the same class as the others, simply because it isn't used enough to generate any kind of numbers for even basic analysis. And as soon as you begin to speculate/extrapolate, you're off the path.

Answer 7

The tried, true, tested, and proven no-nonsense man stopper the 357* Magnum.* Use 125 grain jacketed hollow points for self-defense ammo.*  

Answer 8

.45 ACP    most "stopping power".

Answer 9

Well for starters, stopping power is a bull$@*% term made up by gun magazines to sell the latest and greatest super duper self defense ammo with "35% more stopping power" than the other guys.

What you're looking at is rapid loss of blood pressure(aka big holes through important organs), damage to the central nerves system(CNS), and pain reactions. The actual force of a bullet hitting a person does not stop them.

For me its big and slow, mostly because of the 'big' part. It creates larger wound channels which equates to more bleeding. For a CNS shot it doesn't really matter what bullet you use thats about aim and luck. As for pain reaction...i think no matter what you actually shoot someone with there's going to be a good pain reaction and they're not going to want to have anything to do with you.

Answer 10

There are too many variables to answer your question.

You can easily calculate how much energy each projectile has. That is a function of of the gun/cartridge combo.

(A .357 round from a 2" barrel will have much less velocity and, therefore, much less energy than the same cartridge fired from a rifle.)

How much of that energy is transferred to the target is a function of projectile design and construction as well as shot placement.

(A .22 hollow point to the eye will have much more "stopping power" than a .357 armor piercing round to the hand even though the .357 projectile carries about 5-7 times the energy of the .22 projectile.)

Shot placement is almost always the number 1 factor.

As the famous man once said, "A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44".