In the Random Shots column in the October issue of Handguns, Editor Jan
Libourel quotes from, and muses on, the second volume of Marshall &
Sanows books, STREET STOPPERS.
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Another addition to the new book is results for rifles and shotguns.
Jim Cirillo had told me that NYPD Stakeout Squad rarely experienced
instantaneous stops with buckshot, and Marshall's findings tend to bear
this out.  Number 4 buckshot, often recomended for defense, is about an
82 percent stopper, or no better than a pretty good 9mm Parabellum
hollowpoint.  Even 00 buck loads are no better than the best combat
pistol loads, ranging from 88 to 96 percent one-shot stops.  Shotgun
slugs are all 98 percent stoppers when the thoracic cavity is hit.
Again, this corroborates Cirillo's comments that the Stakeout Squad
found slugs far more decisive than buckshot.
. . . In all, I think the research of Marshall, coupled with the
predictive calculations of Sanow and Fuller and corroborated by the
Strasbourg Tests, has given us far greater insight into what works and
what doesn't in defensive handgun loads than we possessed even as
recently as 10 years ago.  My own view can be summed up succinctly that
handgun effectiveness is almost entirely based on impact energy and
bullet design.  The optimum balance between power and controllability
in a defensive handgun seems to come with loads generating about 400
foot-pounds of energy, with a 50 foot-pound tolerance in either
direction.  Caliber counts to some extent.  Other factors (bullet design
and energy) being equal, the larger bullet will be more effective but
not nearly to the degree that the older generation of gunwriters
supposed.  Bullet weight and ensuing momentum, things the old timers set
great store by, seem to have at best a negligible effect.
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