Originally Posted by stray round
We need to remember that the FBI and their protocol choose the 10mm as the ultimate fight stopper too. I don't think street results have proven it to be any better than anything else and after spending money on R&D and shiney new guns.


Actually, SR, the FBI protocol was developed by a multispecialty panel including physicians, engineers, ballisticians, law enforcement, and others before the advent of the 10mm. The 10mm has never, to my knowledge, been described by any credible terminal ballistics/effects expert to my knowledge as "the ultimate fight stopper".

I'm glad you mentioned "street results". Because the fact is that if ammunition that meets the FBI standard didn't work well in the street, the test protocol would be worse than useless.

But the data from police shootings across the nation have pretty much borne out what the gelatin studies have predicted. If a caliber/bullet performs up to the FBI standard in the lab, street statistics show it does pretty well in the street; and ammo that sucks when tested in gelatin tends to suck in street shootings. You have to have a lot of shootings in the database to validate these findings, and getting access to these databases is beyond difficult for non-LE personnel, but the data exist and they bear out the validity of the FBI gelatin testing protocol.

Again, I offer this information only as information for you and others to use in making your own personal choices in caliber and ammunition, not as a judgment for or against anyone's choices. It's your gun, your ammo, and if the flag goes up, your lethal force encounter.


"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars