What's "stopping power" term mean?

Answer 1

Generally it means the kinetic foot pounds of energy or the force at which the bullet or arrow hits the target. The higher the better obviously. It means the power it takes to stop an animal pretty much dead in its tracks. Thus a 375 H&H has way more stopping power than a 22 and a bow shooting a 450 grain arrow at 275 fps has considerably more stopping power than an arrow weighing 350 grains shot at 225 fps. Make sense? I hope so.

Answer 2

I use the term "man" to define human beings, because as someone else said, it's shorter. Plus, people automatically understand what you mean. As a woman I am in no way offended by that, it's not a preferential statement, meaning that it does not place the term "man" above the term "woman." When will people stop worrying so much about being politically correct in their speech and give a damn about the things that matter? The facts about women being paid less than men, the facts about middle-aged white men losing jobs to minorities simply because they're minorities. Let's focus on the things that need changed, as opposed to catering to everyone's sensitivities.

Answer 3

The ability of a particular cartridge to immediately stop a threat. Usually the larger the diameter the round, the heavier the weight, and the faster the projectile travels produces better stopping power.

Answer 4

in lay mans terms the bigger and faster the bullet is the more stopping power it has
it is kinda impossible to calculate because all the foot pounds of energy in the world don't mean anything if the shot placement is bad
for example a 700 nitro shot at a charging elephant has enough power to stop said elephant if the shot placement is good but a shot thru the ear will not stop it

Answer 5

Stopping power is a realtive term that relates to the ability of a cartridge to stop whatever you are shooting at. When used in relation to a defense round, it refers to the ability of the round to stop a human from continuing their attack. It does not necessarily mean that a cartridge with little stopping power is less deadly than one with a lot of stopping power. For instance, a .22 rinfire round has very little stopping power meaning that when you shoot a person with a .22 rimfire round, it will probably not stop their attack but it is notorious for being a killing round because it will essentially riccochet all around inside the person doing extensive damage. You may well kill them with a .22 wound but they will last long enough to possibly kill you before they die. A round with a well earned reputation for stopping power is the old tried and true .45 ACP. It does an excellent job of taking the fight out of an attacker. Hence, much stopping power.

Answer 6

Does the bullet knock down and stop a threat? A person can be wounded fatally in a gunfight. Sometimes that wound does not stop the criminal from continuing attacking. Even if the wound kills him 20 minutes later that gunshot lacked "Stopping power."
It goes the other way though, sometimes you can have a bullet with stopping power hit an assailant and he can drop what he is doing and keel over immediately, and that wound does not have to kill him to be considered a man stopper.

Answer 7

Simply put, it's the ability of a particular round to stop an animal or a person in it's tracks.
It's not something you can easily express numerically as such.
You can measure the foot-pounds of impact as it relates to stopping power, you can measure the bullet-weight to speed ratio as it relates to stopping power, and you can also compare bullet types as to their relative stopping power via transfer of energy and tissue penetration.
In reality it's an intangable combination of all the above factors, as well as other factors such as grains of powder, barrel length, distance from target, target mass, etc.
To say a gun/round combination has considerable stopping power, is to speak of it's effectiveness.

Answer 8

Stopping Power to me means the ability and capacity to disable or prevent or interfere or terminate a physical threat to ones life.*

Answer 9

Both got a good answers there.

I like to think of it as the relative time between my bullet going into the target and when said target is lying on the ground dead or dying.

Answer 10

basically how well and fast it will stop what ever your shooting at usually referring to deer and all that is is how much energy the bullet creates