{"id":114817,"date":"2026-01-27T18:49:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114817"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:49:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:49:55","slug":"114817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114817","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Stop Overthinking Self-Defense Bullets<\/a>
\nTime to Move Past the Small Stuff
\nWritten By Brent Wheat<\/p>\n

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The other day, I was unloading my handgun during retiree pistol qualifications at the police department when one of the instructors commented on the fact I was carrying, by his reckoning, a bullet that was designed sometime in the sixties \u2014 the 1860s.<\/p>\n

I just laughed and then proceeded to shoot a perfect score, just to show those of us on \u201cthe senior tour\u201d still remember how to use them newfangled shootin\u2019 irons.<\/p>\n

In truth, this exchange awoke a major pet peeve from among the thousands on my huge peeve ranch, one of the largest in the lower 48 states. Among this fine and well-fed herd of irritations, there is one which stands shoulders above the rest: all the incessant talk and debate around defensive handgun bullet design and performance.<\/p>\n

I understand, really I do. It\u2019s understandable when you consider the only actual physical connection between yourself, the heroic good guy (or gal), and the target is a bullet.<\/p>\n

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To have a good understanding of how a particular bullet performs when it reaches a target, you need to perform tests \u2014 lots of them! Most shooters and gun writers won\u2019t invest the time and money needed to have the data on which to base an opinion.<\/p>\n

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The Needs<\/h3>\n

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When you are legally and morally justified to stop a troublemaker, there are few better ways to do it than sending along some copper-jacketed love. It\u2019s not hard to un-grudgingly admit handgun bullets are pretty darned important in the scheme of things, but here is my plea: can we just stop all this debate, chatter, argument, pseudo-scientific introspection and general discourse for five minutes??<\/p>\n

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Rifles bullets generally don\u2019t suffer from the same overthinking problems as handgun bullets.
\nBigger, faster and packing much more kinetic energy, a well-placed rifle bullet of nearly any design will quickly cause a bad person to change their ways!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Rifle bullets are just as important for social work, but don\u2019t get the same attention because virtually all centerfire rifles pack enough kinetic energy to do exceptionally rude things to an assailant. Thus, the whole argument is rendered moot because, with reasonable marksmanship, the bad guy\u2019s entire chest cavity looks like leftover corned-beef hash when hit by a rifle bullet.<\/p>\n

But handguns are a different kettle of fish because they are an underpowered weapon carried primarily for convenience rather than \u201cultimate stopping power.\u201d Being barely adequate, it stands to reason we want a handgun bullet to perform as well as possible when it hits someone, which is why we talk, talk, talk and talk some more about handgun bullets.<\/p>\n

However, stop and listen to what we just agreed upon: handguns are an \u201cunderpowered weapon.\u201d This is highlighted by the somewhat dubious but still reasonably accurate urban legend that says 80% of handgun wounds are non-lethal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Clearly, we\u2019re engaging in ballistic naval gazing when it comes to defensive handgun bullets, but we\u2019re collectively determined to squeeze one last ounce of \u201clethality\u201d (whatever that is) from the designs. This is all well and good, but there are a few points I\u2019d like to bring into the discussion.<\/p>\n

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Even the lowly .22 LR out of North American Arms micro-revolver (bottom) can be fatal, while the 9mm Springfield Hellcat (top) is chambered in 9mm, a cartridge which has come a long way ballistically but is still underpowered when it comes to stopping bad people quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Voodoo at 1000 fps<\/h3>\n

There are very few people who truly understand terminal ballistic performance in flesh. Many make claims, but even leading scientists don\u2019t often agree on important characteristics when focused on the infliction of maximum damage.<\/p>\n

Also, there is such a thing as a \u201ctechnological plateau,\u201d in which a field of knowledge reaches the point where further improvement is evolutionary, not revolutionary. I would humbly suggest handgun bullets have reached this stage.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, you personally have not performed scientific, repeatable bullet testing on calibrated ballistic gelatin in a laboratory under controlled conditions. I haven\u2019t, and I write about guns for a living.<\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t a cop, soldier in a combat zone or emergency medical person, your real-world experience with fresh bullet wounds is (thankfully) limited. Even if you are experienced, such evidence is useful but highly anecdotal.<\/p>\n

Taking all this into account, I would say that everything most of us \u201cknow\u201d about \u201cthe best handgun bullet\u201d is pure hearsay driven primarily by marketing and\/or gun media spin.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve shot a lot of handguns, hung around with real experts on the topic and had occasion to ponder the few people I watched die from bullet wounds. And yet, in spite of a well-rounded career, I don\u2019t have the slightest idea of the \u201cbest\u201d or \u201cultimate\u201d bullet for a particular handgun caliber.<\/p>\n

And be very, very skeptical of gun writers who write such prescriptions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stop Overthinking Self-Defense Bullets Time to Move Past the Small Stuff Written By Brent Wheat The other day, I was unloading my handgun during retiree pistol qualifications at the police department when one of the instructors commented on the fact I was carrying, by his reckoning, a bullet that was designed sometime in the sixties … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gun-schtuff","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114818,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114817\/revisions\/114818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}