Bluedreaux
"So what are you basing your decision off of, if not studies and statistics?"
Killing things with both. Not people, thank God, but a ton of feral dogs and several car hit deer as a police officer. I'm convinced - with normal self defense handguns, as opposed to specialty handguns that shoot rifle calibers or ultra speed-demon rounds, that mass and penetration is superior to speed and alleged tissue disruption. I don't have to convince you as that's not my place. I simply report my experience.
"Of course the data is based on diverse scenarios, it's hard to get bad guys to pose the same way every time they get shot."
Which is precisely the reason the data is suspect. The vaunted .40 caliber of the 80s has been responsible for significant failures to accomplish that which it was intended to. So has the 9mm and the .45! When the central nervous system is disrupted, it doesn't matter what the caliber or velocity. The problem is precisely that which you state, you can't get the bad guy to pose for you, so you have to be able to draw a direct line from the exterior of the torso, to the target area inside the 3 dimensional being. Those intrepid souls who used to hunt elephants with inferior calibers like the 7mm, understood this. The bullet had to travel in a direct line to the intended spot in the 3 dimensional head. Penetration is superior to tissue disruption with inferior weapons, and most handgun calibers are technically inferior when compared to rifles.
"The rhino / gazelle analogy doesn't hold water, because neither a rhino or gazelle are penetrating my body, expanding and expending energy within me. Basing your decision on a theoretical animal charge is why these discussions are never valuable."
Do you understand the one inch punch? As for expanding, if tissue disruption was your only aim, then expansion is desirable. If reaching the important organs and components of the central nervous system are the key, then expansion is moot.
Why not use a caliber that is both "pre-expanded" and can reach those components?
