The question of handgun caliber normally goes to the same grave: shot placement. True–but not till we get the bullet to some thing it is going to get at. The practical floor in defence is that penetrating which may even be apparent post clothing, angles of embarrassment, and bone. It is the reason why the 1218 inches of ballistic gelatin benchmark continues to reappear in training and test data. It promises no one-stop. It is a consistency test: will the projectile be able to hit critical structures under less-than-optimal conditions?
Next is an examination of seven cartridges that border a handgun that constantly spill onto the rest of a tape. Some are historic. There are tiny gun ones that are popular. Some of them appear threatening on the muzzy end. The only similarity is that it is a performance that requires optimal conditions.
1. .22 Short
22 Short has its place as a low-recoil, low-noise ammunition with a long history of a long-standing tradition of American shooting. In little guns it is manageable and approachable and that is why it has continued to appear in tackle-box pistols and family heirloom revolvers.
Its blemish in actual defensive measure is not a secret–it is ability. Penetration by the light bullet and small speed is hampered, particularly when some heavy garments or bone comes into play. It may harm, it may kill, but it is not dependable enough to deliver the depth necessary to enable hitting vital anatomy when the angle of the shot is not ideal. It is precisely that lack of margin which renders it a poor choice as far as self-defense carry is concerned.
2. .25 ACP
The design of 25 ACP was based on a real-life issue small pocket pistol and dependability of ignition. Being a centerfire cartridge, it does not carry the notorious rimfire misfire in the small .22 handguns.
The performance is the trade performance. Gelatin results in pocket-pistol barrel lengths, especially in lengths below the minimum desired depth in defensive testing, are generally beneath the desired minimum depth and expansion is inconsistent or counterproductive where it does occur. In a test of pocket-caliber only a handful of.25 ACP loads were able to penetrate beyond about 1112 inches with conditions of inconsistent penetration still remaining. The cartridge does not have a lot of energy to spare and therefore does not have many barriers, bad angles, or imperfect hits.
3. .32 S&W (Original)
The very .32 S&W serves as a reminder that common does not mean capable. It had spent decades in small revolvers, as it was simple to shoot and to carry.
The contemporary demands are different. The fact that it is of mild ballistics render it inefficient in intermediate barriers, and it lacks the velocity to be relied on in wounding mechanisms than mere crush. It is also bordered with its own family tree: later .32s provide significantly superior performance. Even in the larger .32 universe, there has been a shift to testing and carry patterns in the cartridge that can hold the penetration standards more reliably in short barrels.
4. .410 Bore (from a handgun)
The platforms of handguns.410 offer a concept: projectiles multiple and their wide pattern. In a hall way situation that would be a slam in the easy mode.
It is not. Shorter barrels slow down and any impressive-looking payloads on paper do not necessarily penetrate clothing on a regular basis. In certain designs, buckshot can reach acceptable depths in bare gel but performance degrades rapidly when barriers are added and light birdshot will tend to prematurely stop. It can also spread counter to accountability–patterns can be opened quick and pellet energy per projectile is confined. The outcome is a system which frequently sacrifices depth to dispersion.
5. .22 LR (for self-defense)
22 LR is all over and in rifles it may be a convenient small-game weapon. In handguns, it has low recoil, high capacity and rapid follow-up shots.
But rimfire ignition is another weakness on small defensive pistols and short barrels may result in marginal penetration with various loads. When working the heavy clothing barriers on controlled gelatin, testers always report that expansion does not occur often, and when it does occur, it can be penetrated. Even a minor increase in barrel length can produce a significant improvement in velocity, approximately 126 fps faster in a 4.4-inch pistol than a 1.9-inch snub in .22 LR but more speed does not correlate with more depth. The cartridge is capable of functioning, and it requires optimum reliability and optimum positioning in the environment of stress.
6. .380 ACP (FMJ)
380 ACP is at the border of the so-called minimum viable and the ammunition option is more important than the headstamp. The full metal jacket loads are normally chosen due to the reliability of the feed and the perception that the loads will guarantee penetration.
The thing is that FMJ is able to produce a thin wound treat and can leave the target with minimal damage, although it does not assure the type of straight-line depth that is required once arms, shoulders, and angled torsos are exposed. Heavy-clothing gelatin testing In this type of testing, .380 often exhibits a split personality: it has good penetration, with minimal expansion, or too much expansion, at the expense of depth. Not a defect in cartridge morality–that warning only, that FMJ is no short-cut to reliable terminal effect in.380.
7. .45 GAP
45 GAP is an engineering fix to a user interface problem: to enable the performance of a .45-caliber cartridge into a smaller grip frame, the package is engineered to reduce its size. It is a real design objective and it is a mechanical design. It is not physical, but ecosystem. The cartridge failed to develop widespread industry backing, and the choice of pistols was much smaller and defensive load selections were reduced compared to .45 ACP. Testing, duty adoption, and constant development naturally concentrates elsewhere in the absence of a strong market. In practice, it implies that there should be less redundancy, fewer platforms, fewer loads, and fewer paths that can be subjected to performance validation as is common in the validation of common service calibers.
All these cartridges are not harmless. What would be more useful is, do they provide enough performance margin when the situation ceases to be clean and predictable? Blastastic gelatin is no crystal ball yet, it does serve to provide a reality check: when a load fails to achieve penetration targets in controlled conditions it takes with it an even lesser buffer when clothes and off-angles and inaccurate hits come into play. Such an excess–beyond their worthiness to be called caliber folklore–is what renders the difference between a historic curiosity and a defensible instrument.
