Shooting anecdote

[500grains]

I will summarize a self-defense shooting that occurred here last Saturday night.

Background: Boyfriend is 6'4" and 270 pounds or so. Girlfriend 5'5 and 130 pounds or so. Girlfriend is pregnant. Boyfriend has been abusive, so girlfriend is trying to get away from him. She gets an apartment with a room mate and moves in.

The incident: Boyfriend goes to the apartment, kicks in the door and demands that the girlfriend leave with him. Girlfriend is on 911 asking for the police, and girlfriend is holding a .45 behind her. Girlfriend and room mate are shouting at boyfriend to leave. Boyfriend takes out out a knife and advances toward girlfriend. Girlfriend fires 1 round of CCI Gold Dot .45 acp 185 grain hollow point into boyfriends abdomen. Boyfriend falls, rolls around on the floor for a bit, then gets up, walks out, gets into his car and drives away. Cops pick him up at the hospital.

The bullet did not exit. As for details about the wound channel, unfortunately I do not have any.

[_rab_]

Not the bullet I would suggest using, or the place I would want to shoot him at, but it made him re-consider his life choices... which is exactly what I want to happen.

If I can't have rapid incapacitation via CNS trauma or physiological incapacitation... having the aggressor leave sounds pretty good to me.

[PatEgan]

"Janie's got a gun..."

[Entropy]

With an abdomen hit, unless she hit the spinal corridor and damaged the spine, or aorta it really isn't going to do much to him. Just a days long death. Even if the bullet impacted the spine, it could have missed the aorta and not damaged the lower lumbar vertibra enough to effect the spinal cord.

Another issue is the 185gr .45acp load. It is a short bullet with a very low sectional density. It used to have the nick name "the flying ash tray". Low sentional density bullets have their mass spread over a wider area, and thus slow down much more quickly. If the bullet hit the spine, it likely didn't have the energy to do much damage to it. A 180gr .40 has significantly better sectional density with a longer bullet. A 200-230gr .45acp is more optimal in my opinion.

What we have in this case, is basically a repeat of agent Jerry Dove's low sectional density 115gr 9mm silver tip hitting Michael Platt in the torso in the 1986 Miami shootout. The bullet did not penetrate deeply enough to take out his heart, and Platt was able to kill Dove, his partner Ben Grogan, and wounded three other agents with his Mini 14. Too little penetration will get you killed.

[200RNL]

The bullet did not penetrate deeply enough to take out his heart, and Platt was able to kill Dove, his partner Ben Grogan, and wounded three other agents with his Mini 14. Too little penetration will get you killed.

One case in which a FMJ bullet would have been more effective.

[Jake'sDad]

Without know what the bullet hit, or didn't, there's not much to speculate on. It could have been any pistol bullet, in any caliber, and had similar results.

[Odd Job]

Trajectory info is required before we can blame ammunition. It's all about placement.
I have a case in my files where the person sustained two gunshots, one to the head and one to the thigh (four distinct wounds, no grazes). Nothing of value was hit, and he was fully conscious. Moved over to the X-ray table on his own steam, went home the same day with dressings, job done.
At first that sounds impressive, but it's a matter of luck: one or two inches difference in either trajectory coud have played out very differently!

[LorenzoS]

This is consistent with the advice we get here on this forum that all handgun loads are relatively ineffective, even the mighty .45.

It did seem to be effective here in getting the bad guy to stop fighting, so I would imagine any round would have performed equally.

[Beat Trash]

I have been an inter-city LEO for the last 18+ years. I have seen people shot with just about every handgun caliber a person can steal. I have seen 25's work and 45's fail. My point is not to say caliber isn't important, but that shot placement is vital.

Shot placement can not be over emphasized. A round to the abdomen will most likely get an individual's attention, but most likely it will not prevent the suspect from doing that which got him shot in the first place.

Many sites would take a shooting anecdote such as this and spend days arguing the merits of their favorite round, and bashing the round used. Thankfully this is not one of them!

While a 185 gr 45 round would not be my first choice of ammunition in a 45 acp pistol, I'd be willing to bet the shooter in this anecdote might have gained more of the suspects attention if she raised her point of impact about 6"-8", and put a round between his two pectoral muscles.

[500grains]

I have seen people shot with just about every handgun caliber a person can steal.

That's pretty funny, in an odd sort of way.

Good luck with those inner city folks. I used to hunt with a fellow who was a DC cop for 10 years and received 3 significant torso stab wounds in that time. He left because he got the feeling his days were numbered.