Could you trust your life to plain ol' .223?

[sevenhelmet]

I agree with the fact that most people- myself included- train and revert to shooting center of mass in a stress situation. So what's with this CNS deal? Are you advocating head shots? If you are, just say so.

Either way, I don't think it adds anything to the .223 vs. 5.56 discussion.

[Doc Safari]

I agree with the fact that most people- myself included- train and revert to shooting center of mass in a stress situation. So what's with this CNS deal? Are you advocating head shots? If you are, just say so.

Either way, I don't think it adds anything to the .223 vs. 5.56 discussion.

I am not a SME, but I believe that logically the point is to stop your target from taking any further actions against you.


Shot placement is only one side of the coin. Incapacitation is the other.

Since assailants can often be hyped up on drugs, your ammunition must be effective enough that the attacker can't simply "absorb the damage" and keep coming. Your shots should incapacitate as quickly as possible.

I believe, personally, that you are therefore better off using a man-stopping round like 62-gr Fusion rather than standard ball ammo.

I have to point out, however, that not being an expert on ballistics that perhaps even .223 ball ammo has some characteristics (like fragmentation and yaw) that might make them effective as a man-stopper.

What we need is for someone with some background and extensive knowledge to address the effectiveness of "hunting" .223 versus target grade ball ammo.

I suspect I know the answer, but I'll wait to see if anyone chimes in.

[sevenhelmet]

Doc, I think those are good points. I also think another variable comes into play, and that is the ability to take follow-on shots. The effectiveness of a single bullet matters, but any caliber and bullet type has more strength in numbers (obviously there is a line in the sand somewhere, since we don't generally consider .22LR a good defensive round). But we have semi-automatic rifles for a reason.

Given all the variables in shot placement, etc, I thought a comparative discussion about differing bullet effects based on type (ball vs. bonded, etc.) and velocity/energy (5.56 vs. .223) seemed more germane to the subject than simply generalizing about effective shot placement.

I'm not a SME either, but I enjoy the discussion boards