Gary Reeder
the main thing is carry what you are comfortable with and
Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 17:42

what you are confident with. As I get older I think more and more that the caliber really doesn't matter. And precise bullet placement isn't as necessary on 2 legged varmints as it is on 4 legged ones. A friend who was a cop in Florida told me once that it is not the bullet that kills, it is the mind. A bad guy accosts you with a gun and you shoot him in the chest, even with a piss ant caliber. He looks down, sees the blood and thinks "Oh God, I have been shot, I'm gonna die". And he goes into shock,and dies from a non lethal wound.

At first I thought my friend was loony but more and more as I learn more about shootings, I begin to believe him. So I always carry what is comfortable to carry and in places where I am not supposed to carry a gun, I leave the 45 in the truck and carry that little Budischowsky in 25 ACP. It is small, flat and double action and works every time and it drops right in my pocket. And yes it is a small piss ant cartridge but a shot in the upper chest or in the face will change the mind of most bad guys real quick. It also helps to know that Colleen has at least 2 guns in her big duffle bag size purse, just in case.

I also don't believe much in jacketed hollow points. I know that sounds sacrilegious but contrary to what some gun writers write that the various hollow points do great damage to the bad guy, my tests proved otherwise. Plus Lee Jurras told me years ago that if the round was under 1100 fps it probably wouldn't open up at all. If that hollow point is wide it picks up bits of clothing and fat as it enters the body. That slows it down or in some cases, stops it. So unless you are accosted by a skinny naked guy, forget the "flying ash cans" or "flying ash trays" as some folks used to call them.

The other JHPs tend to collapse on themselves and turn into a FMJ type bullet. This tends to go deeper into that naked skinny guy but if it is going to do that, why not just carry a FMJ round in the first place. It feeds much better and does at least as much damage.

If you feel better running JHPs in your carry gun, alternate a JHP then a FMJ, then a JHP and so on. I feel better doing that and have forever. Somebody I trust told me to do it that way long ago and I remember his advice more than I remember who gave me that advice. Probably Lee Jurras. A lot of my gun knowledge in my much younger years came from Lee and my almost nightly probably annoying as hell phone calls. But Lee was the gentleman he was til the end and never told me to take a hike. If I had been smart I would have written them down so I would remember them better.

What this rambling gets to eventually is carry what you feel good about carrying and pay no attention to what the "experts" on the internet tell you to do. And forget the new whoop de do cartridges that are being released almost weekly that are guaranteed to put that charging rhino on his nose. Go with what you trust and what cartridge feeds perfectly thru your carry gun.