Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What you REALLY need from a personal protection handgun

I'm not sure that I see the relevance of the two deer example as the hunter is on the offense vs. being on the defense--were they attacking grizzlies, charging buffalo, adrenaline charged wild boar coming towards you I think that it would change the conclusion that you drew--but, it's really a moot point.

Jim Higginbotham had a handout at this year's tactical conference held at the US Shooting Academy called "Fire for Effect-Training for the close encounter of the worst kind" Bear with me as try to copy some of the content which seems relevant to this discussion:

"The following cases count ONLY the "Center Mass" hits before the subject ceased to be a threat. Note that many subjects were hit many more times--this is only C.O.M. hits

--San bernardino--50+ hits--9mm JHP (total hits 106, over 50 were considered lethal)

--Tulsa--13 hits-- .40 JHP including 5 to the heart*

--Memphis--11 hits--.40 JHP

--Louisville--11 hits-- .40 JHP

--NYC--14 hits--.223

--Rural KY--12 hits--.223 JSP*

--Afghanistan--7hits--5.56 NATO OTM JSP*

--Rural SC--5 hits--.357 Mag. JHP*

--Miami--2 hits--9mm JHP (both unsurvivable)*

--Louisiana--10 hits-- .357 Mag. JHP (incliding the head)*

--Location unknown--4 hits--.45 JHP (27 total hits, 4 of which were "Q" zone)*

*Subject injured of killed others after or while being shot"

"...It is true enough we should prepare ourselves for the most likely events, since to do otherwise would be to be unprepared for norm. The overwhelming majority of lethal encounters in which you are the intended victim, will occur at conversational ranges (well within 10 feet), will be over in two to three seconds, and will involve one or two assailants (about even odds on either) and will end without you having to fire a shot if you merely demonstrate you are armed and intend to fight back. That said, we run into exceptions to this rule regularly...Preparing for the vast majority of lethal encounters is simple and easy (be alert, have a gun, be ready to use it). Preparing for the minority of cases in which you have to shoot for your life is not quite that easy. While it is probably a waste of time, or at least a misallocation of time, to prepare for the truly arcane situation (the dreaded attack of the aliens or the human wave invasion from the Duchy of Fenwick) it is a good idea to spend some time preparing for the really difficult - but reasonable - situation....Over my years in law enforcement and military training I have watched several hundred lethal encounters at close range that were caught on film. What I saw in these is shocking and disturbing. Not only in the human sense of the loss of life and limb but disturbing as to the contrast between real life encounters and the assumptions that we make as trainers and students. Without going into great detail I will tell you that, while the outcomes were desirable for the good guys in the majority of cases, that outcome was decided by the bad guy. In less than 10% of those cases the attacker(s) were rendered incapable of taking lethal action within 5 seconds! The obvious conclusion here is that the good guy survived not because of his skill but because of the lack of skill or determination on the part of the attacker!"

Jim ran an inspiring, no BS class---when it was over he bottom lined it by advising that you carry the largest caliber that you can shoot accurately and "keep shooting until the target changes shape or catches on fire." :-)