If someone is running straight at you, and you have a pistol, what would the perfect caliber be?2stopthem dead

Answer 1

It takes at least a .40 caliber bullet to reliably stop a man. At close range, the .45 ACP, .44 S&W Special, and .44 Magnum are all good. A hollow-point .357 Magnum will expand to over .40 caliber, so it's also good. At longer range (100 feet or more), I would want the .44 Magnum.

The .454 Cassul and .500 S&W are also fine, but they are more firepower than I like to carry. The .45 ACP won two world wars and the .44 Magnum has taken down every type of wild animal that has been hunted (including elephants, bears, rhinos, etc.), so I really don't see a need for anything more than them.

Answer 2

Most people who are knowledgeable about defensive shooting will tell you that the caliber which is probably the best man stopper is the tried and true .45 ACP. Other calibers will kill but may not stop in time to keep the person from harming you. One Person who answered your question even went as far as to say that a .22 rim fire is a good man stopper if the shot is placed properly. It MAY work if you hit them in the brain but if you hit them any place else they will most likely keep coming. The shot may prove lethal in the long run but probably won't stop them in their tracks as you would want. Besides, you have to ask yourself if you could hit a person in the head under the circumstances as you described. Only a well trained person can do it reliably and if you are not well trained, don't try such a shot. You will probably miss and end up becoming a victim. All defensive hand gun courses teach you to shoot for the "center of mass". The center of mass means the center of the person's torso. The chest and stomach area is the center of mass. There have been many many many cases where a person was shot in the center of mass by a small caliber bullet and kept coming. Many died later but were still able to seriously injure or kill the person whom they were attacking. There are other calibers which are proven man stoppers but for my money the .45 ACP tops the list.

Answer 3

No one is gonna like what I have to say, here, but I'm gonna fall back on real handgun gurus like Jeff Cooper and Massad Ayoob and others that have commented on such questions.
There ain't a perfect manstopper. A handgun is a poor manstopper. Many people believe that the .45acp will knock a man off his boots...this simply is not the case. If a man goes down after being shot with a .45acp, it is only half because of the energy being transfered to his body...and the other half is lack of will-the will to stay on his feet. Great example:
In February of 2005, Mark Wilson (deceased) engaged a madman hell-bent on killing his ex-wife and son outside of a courthouse. Mark Wilson was in his home when he heard the gunfire outside. He knew help would not be there quickly enough, and he had the power to help his fellow humans. He grabbed his .45acp and engaged. He scored several hits in the gunfight, which distracted the madman from his already wounded son, but the hits had no affect. The killer was wearing body armor...which would cause a .45acp to transfer all of it's energy to him, which would make it much more likely to knock him down. He didn't stop, didn't go down. Mark Wilson is a hero, who gave his life, trying to protect others...when he could have stayed on his couch and watched TV.
Another example that would dispute this is an incident ealier this year, in which a police officer pulled over a man for a simple traffic violation. For the police officer, the traffic stop quickly turned into a fight for his life. The suspect attacked him...and, being a very large man, quickly took the officer to the ground. The officer managed to fire three times, striking his assaliant once in the stomach. The man did not stop, instead, he continued to beat the cop. When you are on the ground, and being beaten as this man was beating the cop, you don't stay alive long. At this point, a man with a CCW walked by, saw the fight and heard the cop screaming for help, and went to his vehicle and retrieved his .45acp. He approached the scene, and order the suspect to stop repeatedly. Even warned him he had a gun and would shoot! The man did not respond, so he fired...four times! Four chest shots! It did not stop the beating. Fearing that the cop would be beaten to death, he again ordered the suspect to stop, warning him that he would shoot again. The man continued, and the last round was in the head...it stop the fight.
Two instances, right there, in the last two years, that the .45acp has failed to stop a fight with a body shot.

Now, a high velocity, heavy bullet would stand a better chance...but handguns are only really good for two things...one, to protect you from the wolves of the world, and two...to get you to your long gun!

Answer 4

Y'know, y'all can't just go shooting people for running at you ;-)

Massad Ayoob is one of the top experts on the use of pistol for self defence and he once said that whenever you take a pistol to a gun fight the first thing you should be aware of is that you are underarmed.

You want to render someone not a threat in a high threat one on one? 45-70 derringer loaded with .410 bird shot cartridges. Fire at the face. Unless they are wearing very good quality safety glasses you won't have any further problems, just step to one side and they can run on by.

10mm Glock 20. One of the only two calibres that passed the FBI tests and you get 15 follow up shots if you get a bit nervous and pull the first one out of the 10 ring. Everything that a 357 will do, but nearly three times the ammo without reloading.

The problem with the one shot kill statistics is that they only looked at single hits. If you have an accurate high capacity semi-auto your target is unlikely to make an appearance on the "only hit once" list. My concealed carry piece is a Kimber 45, the Glock 20 is too big to reliably conceal.

Answer 5

It's not caliber that is important, it's shot placement! Despite all the cheerleading about one round being beter than another it's placement that really ends a gun fight. a .22LR to the heart is a lot worse than a .44 mag in the butt. One will kill, the other will be a pain in the ***......

The defense calibers most expert aggree range from the .380ACP on the low end to the .44 Rem Mag on the high end.
To stop a running man you must hit a vital organ or produce shock & tramma close to one. Heart, brain, Spinal cords, lungs, Arteries. Damage any, & the running stops.

Answer 6

To begin, I am a gun enthusiast and always have been. That being said, you need to take into consideration that most of the time it isn't necessary to kill to protect yourself. When it is necessary, don't hesitate to do it. If its only one man running at you, then consider that he still has the choice to run away from you too. in that instance or other similar ones, I'd say use a baseball bat. One well placed whack will stop most anyone or at least convince them of the error of their judgment. Bare in mind that if you're not physically capable of this then don't consider it an option. My point is that in this day and age you need to be careful to only use as much force as necessary to keep you and your loved ones safe. Any more than that will end in the anti-gunners having more ammo against us. Both examples used in the answer above were perfect for instances of doing what had to be done.

Answer 7

Statistically, the all time best stopper in pistols is the .357 magnum with 125 gr jacketed hollow points. But as has been pointed out, it's the same as real estate - location, location, location.

Shoot for the middle of the chest. If you've hit them three times and they're still coming, switch to the head.

Answer 8

I would want at least a 38 special, a World War II veteran and a lot more folks would say their trusty old 45 autos. I like the S&W Model 29 44 magnum myself, but you must be comfortable shooting it. Well that's true with any gun though.

Answer 9

I'm coming out with a new caliber converting elephant gun cartridges to pistol caliber...that's it

Answer 10

Thompson did a ton of testing when he invented his submachine gun. He settled on the .45 ACP