03/31/2025
Its been a while since we posted one of these, but here's another installment of....
This week in Things Fudds Say and Other Fuddlore:
"A well placed 22 is more lethal than a poorly placed 45"
This bit of fuddlore is most often regurgitated during one of the Online Battles Of The Calibers, where fuddsters man the walls of Boomerville and protect the Great Shrine of Saint John Moses Browning from the Austrian hordes outside.
The sentiment is that if you place your shots well, even the most anemic rounds are lethal. There are THREE measurables in that sentence, all of which must be true for it to be situationally true:
Shot Placement
'Stopping' Effectiveness
Cartridge Power
Regarding shot placement, this is where the Fuddlore runs deep. As in over your boots deep and running down your socks and into your feet deep. Anyone who has EVER taken any form of training knows full well that shot placement isn't a guarantee.
Just INTERNALLY, the stresses of mind and body are greater than most people will ever experience. In a firefight most people will internally feel the "Am I doing the right thing? Will my loved ones be OK? Am I going to die?" and every other bit of anxiety that comes with a self defense shooting. Fast escalation events are actually easier to deal with mentally because your brain short-circuits a number of these things compared to slow-escalation events (where there's yelling, finger gestures, etc leading up to violence).
Unless you're training a lot, AND with stress induction, you will not perform at the John Wick levels you do when you're at a static range or pwning 3rd graders of Call of Duty. Relying solely on optimized shot placement is foolish.
Now let's look at shot placement from EXTERNAL factors. Believe it or not, no one wants to get shot. You'll likely be moving to cover, bad guy will be moving to cover, or trying to get away, or anything he perceives as making his situation better. Unless you're TRAINING in moving and shooting, again, with stress induction, you're not getting the shot placement you think you will.
Now let's look at 'Stopping Effectiveness'. There are a number of factors to consider here, and no one really knows definitively what makes 'effectiveness'. Some say kinetic energy, some say momentum. Either way, some rounds have a proven track record of effectiveness and some don't.
We know that to be effective, shots need to be delivered to the correct spot on a human....
"But you just proved us lowly Fudds correct!!!" we hear the boomers cry out in unison.
No, we didn't... because "correct spot" can vary with the cartridge used. As can the debilitation incurred. Let's call the immediate shutdown targets in the body the "true vitals", i.e., brain case and heart.
If we manage to hit a true vital, a 22 may get the job done, but a 9mm is going to do a lot more damage and the time from hit to neutralization is increased.
Alternately, if I shoot Bad Guy in the HIP (not a true vital) with a .22 because that's all I could achieve with stresses, training, movement, and all other situational factors, the shot is not likely to debilitate Bad Guy in any way. That structure can take a ton of damage, and adrenaline is taking care of the rest. Now, if I hit Bad Guy in the hip with a rifle round or 12g slug, it's an entirely different story. The amount of damage administered to Bad Guy is significantly increased, which has a far greater chance of neutralizing Bad Guy or at least making his ability to continue violence greatly reduced. Exact same shot placement, very different results.
The fact is that with more power, the options for 'effective shot placement' are increased. The silhouette targets you train with that have the chest area delineated is intended to be used with defensive-intent calibers and cartridges. If you are Fudding the trend of using suitable guns, those target zones can decrease in area.
This all of course leads to cartridge. We've already discussed how a more powerful cartridge is more debilitating (duh). Now let's take a moment and talk about 'what you have on you'. If you're going to carry a firearm for self defense, why would anyone advocate for picking a 22, when for just a few ounces more they can have a defense-intent firearm? Why rely on perfect performance, perfect placement in a dynamic situation, and the hope of it all overcoming anatomy, adrenaline, and chance? Keep in mind while you're scrolling through the magazine until the shot comes that puts badguy down that you're likely taking incoming fire, are in melee contact with bad guy, or any number of other factors.
With a proper defense-intent firearm, all shots on target are somewhat debilitating, and the 'effective zone' is greater because damage to those areas can cause internal effects to the true vitals. Relying on perfection in performance is not a defensive strategy.
