What is your favorite handgun caliber for self-defense?

@freemo depends. 9mm for carry because of size and weight versus power balance, .45 for inside my home for less over-penetration... Plus I just shoot 45 better in general.

@flab are you suggesting a .45 acp has less penetration than a 9mm?

@flab Do you have any experimental sources for that? The significantly higher energy woukd seem to offset that, but im only speculating.

@freemo the thing is penetration relies on speed, but a broader projectile will dump the energy into a soft target faster. Same principle behind JHP ammo. Defense on a soft target is both more effective and safer if you dump energy all at once, the sort of "punch" effect.

You want a certain amount of penetration, enough to inflict a good wound channel, but *too* much poses a danger to anything behind your target. In a perfect scenario, the round penetrates your target completely and not one inch further. A higher speed, narrower projectile is more likely to go beyond that point than a broader one, regardless of total energy.
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@flab well no, if we are talking theory then its a bit more complicated than that...

More velocity for the same weight projectile will obviously be more penetrating, but thats because it has more energy. But a higher velocity projectile at the same energy (so lighter) will be less penetrating. A 9mm is faster but has less energy thus shoukd be less penetrating in theory.

Let me try to find some ballistic gel tests on this to see if i can find a good real world answer though. Theory isnt always correct.

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