This is the never ending quest for what SHOULD work. People get shot with guns in funny places and die instantly. Others get shot to hell and walk into the ER wanting to get stitched up.
My office partner was shot in the arm 5 years ago with a .45 ACP 230gr? Hydrashok that penetrated a wall first. Blew his arm all to hell, severed the artery, broke the bone, so on and so forth. The guy then went out on a balcony and shot a city officer at a great distance as he got out of his car, nailed him in the leg and dropped him like a rock. One shot each cop, both out of the fight.
My former Sergeant, 1975, large Virginia police agency...bad guy on PCP, armed with a gun. Sarge, young a dumb, decided to chase him in the dark. They had a very up close encounter.....Sarge hit him 4 times at about 15 feet with a Remington 870 12 gauge wtih #4 buck dead center in the chest. Each shot would completely take him down, he'd get right back up, gun in hand. The final shot was between the eyes....and no, he didn't get back up. The "rat hole wound" in his chest was a large gigantic hole described as between a softball and a honeydew melon, that came out the back. Now someone tell me how the bad guy lived as long as he did, much less get UP?
WWII....friend of ours was a USMC infantry Lt. Japanese did a banzai charge, Lt turns to his Sgt and says "drop him"...but Sgt is dead. Lt. pulls his trusty 1911 and hits a samurai sword wielding Japanese with an entire mag of hardball dead in the chest....they finished it up hand to hand and our friend looks like he got carved in a pumpkin carving contest. Go figure.
my dad tossed his Colt .45 the day he took a Browning High Power 9mm off a German non com. Browning held 13 in the mag, one in the spout, dead krauts with machine pistols were a ready supply of ammo, Browning shot circles around the Colt. Claimed the penetration with the machine pistol ammo was much superior on Germans wearing heavier winter clothing, gear, etc. According to him, it dumped them with one shot. Yet he got shot while on guard duty by a sniper using a K98 8mm at about 300 yards....whose bullet failed to penetrate his M1 rifle stock. (hehehe then a jeep came around the corner and the guy manning the .50 cal lit up the kraut who was up in a tree.....all the way down...) On that day pops was gonna be the bug...but it turned out the kraut was the bug and not the windshield.
On duty I am stuck with a Glock .40. Killed hogs and nutria with it, I know what it will do to a two legged beast and plenty of ammo to go with it. Off duty, summer wear a 5 shot revolver is better than nothing.
I just think that there is no correct answer, fun to argue over, but sometimes we're gonna be the windshield, other times we might just be the bug......no matter what we do. Shoot straight as many times as it takes. Running like hell has been known to work too.
Have a good holiday!
RR