Stopping Power

Ah yes, I also shall chime in on this subject. Now I realize that I'm trying to follow The LawDog on this and that he's probably wiser than I but I'm going to put it into my own words and let the chips fall as they may.

Let me ask you a quick question. Do you know why the military uses the calibers that they do? Wounding. You see, the military uses the thought process that it takes anywhere from 2-4 soldiers to remove 1 casualty from the battlefield. The dead, they leave. so you see, military weapons are not the best benchmark to use when discussing stopping power.

The battlefield is a completely different arena than the street. On the battlefield they throw out 100's of rounds to achieve a few hits. You can't do that on the streets. so what it all comes down to is shot placement. On the street, it's not enough to shoot at the assailant, you have to hit them and hit them in a spot that makes them fall down. On the street, you shoot to stop the threat.
At the end of the day, bullet size, weight and speed aren't as much of a factor as dead accurate hits.

Example, my primary concealed carry piece is a Springfield Armory 1911 A1 in (drum roll please) 45 ACP. I can throw 7 rounds quickly into a fist size area accurately at 15 feet. Now contrast that with Joe Blow who carries the Ubercruncher 9000 in 650 magnum but can't hit the broadside of a barn. Who wins here? My back up carry is a Bersa Thunder in .380. It's easier to carry in the summertime. But shot placement is critical with a round like that. I would actually shoot lower with that than the 1911.

So if shot placement is the real "king of the fight" then where does one place said shot? Well a good sure take down is a round through the pelvic girdle. Yep, shoot them in the crotch. Here's why. The pelvic girdle is the primary weight bearing structure for the lower body. If you can collapse that, the assailant goes down...and stays down. And to be honest, since most defensive firearm uses end about the time you present...how froggy do you think Mr Bad Guy is gonna be when you aim dead at his twig and berries? I bet not at all. Guys are kinda protective of that region. The size of the gun/round will no longer matter, all he's gonna see is your gun, under an evil grin, aimed at his testes. You can now aim at the wet spot. Now look at something else here.

I call this my "modified" Mozambique Drill. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking about this either. The Mozambique Drill involves 2 rapid shots to center of mass (usually the center of chest) followed by one aimed round to the head. This was developed to stun an opponent wearing body armor. Nice trick, but you lose all of your fine motor skills in a high stress situation so as you shoot, your gun muzzle will naturally rise. So the modified Mozambique Drill puts the first round into the pelvic girdle, the second, using the natural muzzle rise, goes about center of chest and the third can be aimed to the head. If they're still standing. The advantage? Look at the common types of body armor and tell me what they cover. Heart and lungs. No protection for the twig and berries.

Cruel? Maybe. Effective? You bet your ass. And you will be too as you've been thrust into a position where you're defending yourself or your loved ones from immediate harm. It's not the time to start worrying about being PC or showing mercy. It's time to stop the nonsense and right fucking now! Put the goblin down as hard and fast as you can. Remember this though. With the Mozambique Drill, the third shot is fired only if the first 2 don't work. Stop not necessarily kill. The first 2 are rapid fire, the third is a slower, more deliberate shot. If you don't need number 3 because the first 2 stopped him, then you need to hold the 3rd shot.

There is absolutely NO way to achieve this with out training and training and more training. I say, you should shoot as much as you can afford to. I like to shoot at least 100 rounds per gun, per session. I like to shoot and I do it as much for stress relief as I do for training. Don't neglect off hand shooting either. Trust me, I hate shooting offhand, but it is a necessary skill to develop. Another good skill to develop is shooting on the move. Not really possible where I shoot. In fact, I think there is a terrible shortage of places where you can do this kind of training so I think that in order to develop some of this, I'm going to try some local 3 gun matches this summer. I think it might be valuable training and it just looks fun. Truth be told, I want to shoot some steel plate matches too. Speed and accuracy training in a fun environment. I got to shoot in my first PPC type shoot in early November and it was pretty fun. I asked the guy in charge about maybe doing some 100 yard AR work for the next one as well as the pistol and he was very receptive to it.

Dammit, I did it again, I wandered off topic.

Practice as much as you can afford to. If even only 50 rounds a payday, it's still practice time that you will need if it all goes into the crapper some dark night. Remember this always...under stress, one will not rise to the occasion but will default to one's level of training. Train to stay alive. One more tip...at least in my opinion, make sure your practice ammo is the same weight as your carry loads. I shoot 230 gr hardball for practice because I shoot 230 gr JHP's for carry so the bullet hit point is going to be pretty much the same. It works for me anyway.