JimConway
Instructor
Morrigan Consulting
“Condensed Combat Ballistics”
(A short essay on what you really need to know about gunfight ballistics.)
In all seriousness, ballistics can be an arcane science to the novice, and even to some who have been at the game for some time. For the defensive shooter, a few key points may suffice and save a lot of reading, unless you wish to study more deeply for your own interest. Consider the following simple precepts:
1.“IT’S WHAT YOU HIT, STUPID!”
Simply put, a hit in your attacker’s foot with a .44 Magnum is NOT better than a hit in his heart with a .22 rim-fire. Consider the cartoon above. It is funny, but no less true for the humor. Many students want to know what type of ammunition is best. the most powerful “man-stopper”. The bad news is, there is no magic bullet. The good news is, someone’s working on it. Until it arrives, the only magic bullet is the one in your gun … the one that you have trained with sufficiently to put into a vital area of a human attacker (fairly large target) at pistol-fighting ranges (pretty close, usually) consistently, under high-stress conditions. Pick the most powerful pistol you can control, and practice, practice, practice until you can hit something important consistently on demand.
Then practice some more!
2.“BIGGER BULLETS MAKE BIGGER HOLES”
The folks who design high-performance defensive handgun ammunition have a very difficult job. There have been many stumbles on the journey of seeking the perfect combat pistol ammo. If a small caliber projectile can be made to expand at the proper rate, it can be made, in effect, into a larger caliber projectile when it hits the target. When this works, it is a sound idea. When it does not, you still have a smaller caliber projectile. Additionally, when these smaller projectiles are manufactured, the usual mechanism employed to try and make them expand is a cavity in the front of the bullet. If it fills with clothing, drywall, or some such material, it becomes essentially a “ball” round and may not expand at all. It may also over-penetrate due to higher velocity and small frontal area.
One solution is to start with a bigger bullet. Dispense with any idea, sometimes propagated by the makers, that some mystical force is implanted in these projectiles by holes, posts, lumps of plastic full of B.B. shot, and so on. A pistol bullet does not cause movement of the tides or re-alignment of the magnetic field when it hits the troll that is trying to kill you. It just penetrates his body and crushes and cuts tissue. How deeply it penetrates, and how much tissue it crushes and cuts, depends on the bullet. Which tissues, and how important they are to the continued operation of the troll, depends on you and where you place the shot. Since the outcome of a gunfight is highly problematical under the best of circumstances, consider starting with the biggest caliber bullet that you can shoot efficiently. If it has a hollow point in it that makes it expand, great! If it doesn’t expand at all … well ... it was a bigger bullet to start with. More stuff cut and crushed, and with luck, quicker incapacitation.
3.“AIR IN - JUICE OUT”
Your attacker is a biological mechanism that is powered by electric impulses from a battery (brain) and operated by a sealed, pressurized hydraulic pumping system (heart and lungs) that delivers a vital compound (oxygen) throughout its varied parts. To make it stop working (attacking you), you usually have to break it. This can be accomplished by attacking the hydraulic system, to break the pump and induce leaks. Once you start letting air into the system and hydraulic fluid (blood) out, that vital compound (oxygen) fails to reach the areas where it is needed in sufficient quantity. The more air we let in and the more fluid we let out, the quicker we induce failure in the mechanism. And bigger bullets make bigger holes, and more holes will mean faster leakage. The problem here is that this process takes time, and it may very well take more time than you have.
The other option is to turn off the electricity at the source (brain). The problem here is that this target area is the best protected in the body, being the most vital. It is also more mobile than the center of the chest, and much smaller and harder to hit. For this reason, if we absolutely must shoot, we will usually initiate our defense with several rapid shots to the center of visible mass (usually upper chest) as a “Plan A”. If this does not terminate the attack, place a careful shot (much more difficult) to the center of the head as a “Plan B”.
4. DON’T FORGET THE “X-FACTOR”
You have chosen the most powerful pistol you can control, and loaded it with quality defensive ammunition with a good record of success in actual shootings. Further, you have trained diligently until you can consistently hit an area the size of the center of a human chest quickly at reasonable ranges under stress. All this is to the good. Your feeling of personal security has climbed.
However, there is another consideration here, which I refer to as the “X-Factor”. It is simply people’s reactions to being shot. It is the one intangible that your choice of firearm or ammunition or degree of training cannot control. You may do everything right and still become a statistic if you do not address it.
Different people react differently to being shot. There is a distinct difference between an attacker breaking off his attack because he decides to, and his doing so because he can’t do otherwise. We are talking about the difference between a psychological stop and a physiological stop. A determined human being who is really motivated can absorb tremendous amounts of injury and still carry through with his plan. We have seen many illustrations of this, but one that is pretty well known is the April, 1986 F.B.I. shootout in Miami with bank robber /murderers Platt and Mattix. According to medical experts, Michael Platt was “killed” by the first 9mm hollow point that hit him in the chest. If the fight had been stopped and he had received the best medical care known to man, he would have died. It is tragic that he proceeded to take the fight to the agents long enough to kill two and wound five more before being convinced that he had undergone a change of status.
What I refer to with the term “X-Factor” is simply people’s attitudes about getting shot. Some get hurt and want to quit. Some get hurt and get really upset with the ones that hurt them, and will fight harder and with more determination until they are physically unable to do so any longer. Herein lies the problem. There is no amount of ballistic gelatin testing or load chronographing that can predict how your attacker will react to being shot. Bad people can be motivated too. Therefore you should accept that your pistol, or carbine or shotgun for that matter can fail to stop an attack. It happens, at least with the initial hit, on occasion and you should not be surprised or shocked into inaction if it happens to you. Anticipate that it might happen, and be prepared to continue the action until you have achieved a physical rather than a psychological stop. Why do you think we call them “small arms” anyway?
Be prepared in your mind to shoot carefully and quickly and to continue to do so until the subject attacking you is no longer a threat. If you place your trust in your own mind set and training rather than some “magic bullet”, you
can prevail. If you can avoid a gunfight, by all means do so. If you cannot: think, shoot, and win it! Lots of people are depending on you.
“Condensed Combat Ballistics”
(A short essay on what you really need to know about gunfight ballistics.)
In all seriousness, ballistics can be an arcane science to the novice, and even to some who have been at the game for some time. For the defensive shooter, a few key points may suffice and save a lot of reading, unless you wish to study more deeply for your own interest. Consider the following simple precepts:
1.“IT’S WHAT YOU HIT, STUPID!”
Simply put, a hit in your attacker’s foot with a .44 Magnum is NOT better than a hit in his heart with a .22 rim-fire. Consider the cartoon above. It is funny, but no less true for the humor. Many students want to know what type of ammunition is best. the most powerful “man-stopper”. The bad news is, there is no magic bullet. The good news is, someone’s working on it. Until it arrives, the only magic bullet is the one in your gun … the one that you have trained with sufficiently to put into a vital area of a human attacker (fairly large target) at pistol-fighting ranges (pretty close, usually) consistently, under high-stress conditions. Pick the most powerful pistol you can control, and practice, practice, practice until you can hit something important consistently on demand.
Then practice some more!
2.“BIGGER BULLETS MAKE BIGGER HOLES”
The folks who design high-performance defensive handgun ammunition have a very difficult job. There have been many stumbles on the journey of seeking the perfect combat pistol ammo. If a small caliber projectile can be made to expand at the proper rate, it can be made, in effect, into a larger caliber projectile when it hits the target. When this works, it is a sound idea. When it does not, you still have a smaller caliber projectile. Additionally, when these smaller projectiles are manufactured, the usual mechanism employed to try and make them expand is a cavity in the front of the bullet. If it fills with clothing, drywall, or some such material, it becomes essentially a “ball” round and may not expand at all. It may also over-penetrate due to higher velocity and small frontal area.
One solution is to start with a bigger bullet. Dispense with any idea, sometimes propagated by the makers, that some mystical force is implanted in these projectiles by holes, posts, lumps of plastic full of B.B. shot, and so on. A pistol bullet does not cause movement of the tides or re-alignment of the magnetic field when it hits the troll that is trying to kill you. It just penetrates his body and crushes and cuts tissue. How deeply it penetrates, and how much tissue it crushes and cuts, depends on the bullet. Which tissues, and how important they are to the continued operation of the troll, depends on you and where you place the shot. Since the outcome of a gunfight is highly problematical under the best of circumstances, consider starting with the biggest caliber bullet that you can shoot efficiently. If it has a hollow point in it that makes it expand, great! If it doesn’t expand at all … well ... it was a bigger bullet to start with. More stuff cut and crushed, and with luck, quicker incapacitation.
3.“AIR IN - JUICE OUT”
Your attacker is a biological mechanism that is powered by electric impulses from a battery (brain) and operated by a sealed, pressurized hydraulic pumping system (heart and lungs) that delivers a vital compound (oxygen) throughout its varied parts. To make it stop working (attacking you), you usually have to break it. This can be accomplished by attacking the hydraulic system, to break the pump and induce leaks. Once you start letting air into the system and hydraulic fluid (blood) out, that vital compound (oxygen) fails to reach the areas where it is needed in sufficient quantity. The more air we let in and the more fluid we let out, the quicker we induce failure in the mechanism. And bigger bullets make bigger holes, and more holes will mean faster leakage. The problem here is that this process takes time, and it may very well take more time than you have.
The other option is to turn off the electricity at the source (brain). The problem here is that this target area is the best protected in the body, being the most vital. It is also more mobile than the center of the chest, and much smaller and harder to hit. For this reason, if we absolutely must shoot, we will usually initiate our defense with several rapid shots to the center of visible mass (usually upper chest) as a “Plan A”. If this does not terminate the attack, place a careful shot (much more difficult) to the center of the head as a “Plan B”.
4. DON’T FORGET THE “X-FACTOR”
You have chosen the most powerful pistol you can control, and loaded it with quality defensive ammunition with a good record of success in actual shootings. Further, you have trained diligently until you can consistently hit an area the size of the center of a human chest quickly at reasonable ranges under stress. All this is to the good. Your feeling of personal security has climbed.
However, there is another consideration here, which I refer to as the “X-Factor”. It is simply people’s reactions to being shot. It is the one intangible that your choice of firearm or ammunition or degree of training cannot control. You may do everything right and still become a statistic if you do not address it.
Different people react differently to being shot. There is a distinct difference between an attacker breaking off his attack because he decides to, and his doing so because he can’t do otherwise. We are talking about the difference between a psychological stop and a physiological stop. A determined human being who is really motivated can absorb tremendous amounts of injury and still carry through with his plan. We have seen many illustrations of this, but one that is pretty well known is the April, 1986 F.B.I. shootout in Miami with bank robber /murderers Platt and Mattix. According to medical experts, Michael Platt was “killed” by the first 9mm hollow point that hit him in the chest. If the fight had been stopped and he had received the best medical care known to man, he would have died. It is tragic that he proceeded to take the fight to the agents long enough to kill two and wound five more before being convinced that he had undergone a change of status.
What I refer to with the term “X-Factor” is simply people’s attitudes about getting shot. Some get hurt and want to quit. Some get hurt and get really upset with the ones that hurt them, and will fight harder and with more determination until they are physically unable to do so any longer. Herein lies the problem. There is no amount of ballistic gelatin testing or load chronographing that can predict how your attacker will react to being shot. Bad people can be motivated too. Therefore you should accept that your pistol, or carbine or shotgun for that matter can fail to stop an attack. It happens, at least with the initial hit, on occasion and you should not be surprised or shocked into inaction if it happens to you. Anticipate that it might happen, and be prepared to continue the action until you have achieved a physical rather than a psychological stop. Why do you think we call them “small arms” anyway?
Be prepared in your mind to shoot carefully and quickly and to continue to do so until the subject attacking you is no longer a threat. If you place your trust in your own mind set and training rather than some “magic bullet”, you
can prevail. If you can avoid a gunfight, by all means do so. If you cannot: think, shoot, and win it! Lots of people are depending on you.
