Author Topic: Video: .38 Special revolver stopping power (Read 4478 times)

sixgun_symphony · « **on:** October 20, 2009, 11:18:25 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBc35iwQ8kk

The comments say that she only shot him once. It just goes to show that the .38 Special revolver is the most underrated weapon.

Mikey · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2009, 02:42:19 AM »

I don't know about hitting him only once, it looks like she fired twice or possibly 3 times. The first shot knocked him down and I think she may have followed up with another while he was down and the second may have rolled him a bit. Good for her.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2009, 02:53:16 AM »

Wild Bill H. used two 36 navy cap and ball revolvers . Watt E. carried a 38 Colt thunderer in a shoulder rig under his coat and used it as it was faster i read somewhere. A 38 of some sort has been used for over a century . It makes alot of sense as a carry gun . Low muzzle flash , low recoil for power , most any size gun aval. whats not to like .

Ak.Hiker · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2009, 01:39:45 PM »

Plus we have some of the best loads ever put together for the 38 Special to choose from. Older loads like the 158 grain LSWHP +P are still a good choice as is the newer loads like the Speer 135 grain Gold Dot +P.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2009, 02:27:52 PM »

She should of kept shooting. He could have been going for a gun.

Cheese

bobg · « **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2009, 02:33:02 AM »

I lost a lot of respect for the 38 when i watched our counties finest shoot a man at 20ft. and couldn't even put him on the ground. This was after the wacko had already shot one deputy.

bobg

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #6 on:** October 23, 2009, 02:56:50 AM »

I watched a video of a Ga. state trooper shoot a guy at spitting distance with a 45 ACP 230 hydra-shock and the guy then attacked the trooper , the trooper when he knew he was over powered threw the gun away and hit his emg backup button . the guy beat the troo[per until 2 more troopers showed up . He ran out of the camera view and later was brough back into view hand cuffed . You could tell the other troopers had been in a fight . The guy died later in the hospital . He was using pcp at the time . The trooper was over 6 ft the guy was maybe 5'8" .
One failure to stop with 1 shot tells very little .

coyotejoe · « **Reply #7 on:** October 27, 2009, 04:06:10 AM »

Well when a .38 fails to stop there will be hundreds of voices chanting "see, I told ya" but when a .45 fails you can hear a pin drop.

blhof · « **Reply #8 on:** October 27, 2009, 06:53:25 AM »

That pcp is some bad stuff, while in the Phillippines as an emergency room medic, we had a female security policeman come in wearing only her gunbelt and boots. She tried to stop a mental patient on pcp and he went for her gun, she held it in the holster while he ripped all her clothes off, all the time being beaten with batons from 2 other sp's. It took 8 to bring him in and he had at least 6 sets of handcuff's on. The Dr. wanted the cuffs removed and the sps handed him the keys and drew their guns. He left them on and he was returned to the psych lockup in cuffs.

kynardsj · « **Reply #9 on:** October 27, 2009, 08:45:45 AM »

I keep my 357 Security Six truck gun loaded with 38's but they're not your every day 38 +p. They have a home grown load of a 158 gr SWC GC sitting over 14 grains of Lil Gun. They are accurate and they are scooting. No signs of pressure either.

Tonk · « **Reply #10 on:** November 22, 2009, 08:15:29 PM »

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Mikey · « **Reply #11 on:** November 23, 2009, 01:40:17 AM »

Tonk: we found the VC to be tough customers when they were juiced up. When 'aimed fire' was not a luxury the 5.56 would not immediately put them down, but when we had the luxury of 'aimed fire', chest shots through the breast bone would stop them; those men we shot either stopped and fell over or began staggering blowing mouthfuls of blood, and dropped - they responded somewhat like chest shot Whitetail, if they got up at all after being hit or if they stayed on their feet.

When the VC and NVA would begin some of the 'human wave' assaults, non-fatal wounds with the 5.56 did not seem to have a immediate effect unless the rounds busted arm or leg bone. One VC literally lost his right arm to a 5.56 round and dropped his AK as a result, but stood there for a moment trying to figure out what had happened - when he bent down to pick up his rifle with his left hand and stood back up he was simply shot again. When they would come at us in waves we found our heavier 30 caliber machine guns, the 1919s and 1919A4s and M60s, would lay them down. In closer quarters the M3 and M3A 'Grease Guns' and Thompsons were the choice. With the M16, if you could place your shots into their chests they would go down - but sometimes their bandoleers or magazine pouches strapped across their chests would deflect the bullet into a non-fatal area, so you would just have to shoot again.

I have no doubt our troops in the middle east might be experiencing the same thing. jmtcw.

williamlayton · « **Reply #12 on:** November 23, 2009, 08:49:46 AM »

YUP
Blessings

teamnelson · « **Reply #13 on:** November 23, 2009, 09:25:22 AM »

Got a .38 S&W Iver Johnson 5-shot break-open that a relative carried daily around the SW in the late 19th early 20th century. My understanding from the family is that it was an everyman's carry gun at the time, giving more power than a .36 in a manageable handgun. The Brits used a 200gr version of it in their Webley's after WW1 until 1963 when it was replaced by the 9mm; they had previously used a .455 but found that difficult to train for effectiveness. Given the .38spl is an upgrade from the .38 S&W, and the +P on top of that, I find it hard to discount its lethality and manageability to an average sized shooter.

Only consistent one shot stopper I've ever seen is a M32 40mm revolving carbine

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #14 on:** November 23, 2009, 11:01:20 AM »

What holster for the M32 ?

teamnelson · « **Reply #15 on:** November 23, 2009, 11:47:03 AM »

We speculated about moonclips for it ...

mechanic · « **Reply #16 on:** November 23, 2009, 12:24:47 PM »

Don't know if you are aware of it, but she shot the guy in the genitals. I won't elaborate as this is a family friendly forum..........

teamnelson · « **Reply #17 on:** November 23, 2009, 01:06:52 PM »

Quote from: mechanic on November 23, 2009, 12:24:47 PM

Don't know if you are aware of it, but she shot the guy in the genitals. I won't elaborate as this is a family friendly forum..........

aim small miss small

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #18 on:** November 24, 2009, 07:16:59 AM »

well that shot ended a crime and maybe future criminals ?

LouisianaMan · « **Reply #19 on:** December 12, 2009, 03:01:14 PM »

Mikey,
I've only read about it, not been there. . .but US personnel who used the range of weaponry you name in your post (above) were in SF. Grease guns & Thompsons, plus .30 cal MGs. . . .AND M-16s thrown in for good measure. (Or were they AR-15s or XM-16s? :-)

The only other likely possibility would be some sort of US advisor to ARVNs, or more likely RF/PFs. Besides the USMC pacification efforts, however, I believe the Army personnel involved in that were commonly SF.

Is my guess accurate?

Mikey · « **Reply #20 on:** December 13, 2009, 01:20:21 AM »

LouisianaMan: Your guess is accurate.

jlwilliams · « **Reply #21 on:** December 13, 2009, 01:34:34 AM »

Now that we know where he was hit, I have to wonder if the lowly 25acp might also have been effective if it hit him the same way.

I like the 38 special. I think it may have the best balance between felt reciol and delivered impact. There are milder recoiling rounds, and there are harder hitting rounds, but I can't think of any with better punch AND less kick in one round. The happy medium.

Maybe this footage should be shown to more 'at risk' youths. Dont rob, or you may get shot.

HAMMERHEAD · « **Reply #22 on:** December 25, 2009, 12:38:50 PM »

All calibers fail and all of them work, too many variables.

I feel pretty confident in the FBI load (158 SWC-HP +P) in this. (cheezy excuse for posting a pic of my new revolver

)

LouisianaMan · « **Reply #23 on:** December 27, 2009, 06:20:54 AM »

Very nice revolver, Hammerhead. Pass some more cheese this way, and Happy New Year!

teamnelson · « **Reply #24 on:** December 27, 2009, 07:22:18 AM »

Just watched it 5x over and it appears to me she had little training, and may not even be using her strong side hand. So I'm even more convinced in the adequacy of the .38 in the hands of someone who practiced.

Skunk · « **Reply #25 on:** December 27, 2009, 07:26:01 AM »

Quote from: HAMMERHEAD on December 25, 2009, 12:38:50 PM

I feel pretty confident in the FBI load (158 SWC-HP +P) in this.

+1, that's what I run in my SP101, .38 Special. I have a high degree of confidence in its potential for stopping power.

Dee · « **Reply #26 on:** December 27, 2009, 08:49:24 AM »

Quote from: bobg on October 23, 2009, 02:33:02 AM

I lost a lot of respect for the 38 when i watched our counties finest shoot a man at 20ft. and couldn't even put him on the ground. This was after the wacko had already shot one deputy.
bobg

bobg, don't let that discourage you on the 38 special. A friend of mine's brother in law (now deceased) was down and being beaten with his own baton, when he fired 4 41 magnums thru the chest of his assailant. The other officers running to his aid gave statement that every time they heard the revolver go off, goose down came out the back of the vest the perp was wearing.
He was shooting clean thru him and he kept beating the officer. By the time they got him cuffed, he was dead. 3 of the 4 shots each would have been fatal. PCP was the catalyst that kept him going. He was dead and didn't know it.

mechanic · « **Reply #27 on:** December 27, 2009, 09:42:13 AM »

There are lots of folks in graves from pipsqueak guns like the 22, and others walking around after taking powerhouse rounds. Part bullet placement, part luck of the draw. Thats why my Dad taught us boys never to stop shooting until the bad guy was down and submissive or dead. The 38 and it's big brother the 357 account for a lot of dead men. If you place 2 in the torso and one in the head, he's down and dead, with almost any round that will penetrate the skull.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #28 on:** December 28, 2009, 02:26:22 AM »

Keep shooting until they stop doing what ever it was that caused you to start shooting in the first place . Your gun will be taken for evidence in most cases so shoot up all your ammo while you can .

HAMMERHEAD · « **Reply #29 on:** December 28, 2009, 06:38:51 PM »

Quote

with almost any round that will penetrate the skull

Unfortunately, that's one area that .38 spl does not do as well as other calibers. Famous NYPD detective Jim Cirillo had several shootings where he hit perp's in the skull only to have the bullets bounce off and the perps continue on. The loads were issue .38 spl LRN IIRC. Later he and Lee Jurras experimented and found that high speed, sharp edged hollowpoints were much more likely to penetrate the skull than slow, heavy bullets.
Jurras founded the Super Vel company and promoted high speed bullets. IIRC, they even came out with one completely hollow bullet pushed by a nylon wad at very high speeds (someone correct my fuzzy memory if I'm wrong).