I was at the local McDonalds one morning. They were throwing away a bunch of empty 5 gallon jugs, they had changed out their oil for the fryers. Hummmm......
These 5 gallon plastic jugs were about the same size as the old "Jerry cans" that we saw on the back of jeeps carrying gasoline.
I fill them all with water and did some Red Neck bullet expansion tests, ALL with full size pistols.
9mm 124 hst Plus P- expanded to 69 caliber, perfect cutting stars
40-180g Hst-expanded to 74 caliber, perfect cutting stars
45-230g HST- expanded to 90 caliber
45-230g Win PDX-1-expanded to 89 caliber
I did all the shooting at 9 yards and I laid the water jugs on their side.
The 9mm jiggled the water jug a little, so I shot it again
Bullets performance was test book perfect for the 9mm, and the bullets did not exit the jug.
40 cal 180g Win White box bonded which I believe is an overrun for Homeland Defense
This round BLEW UP the entire 5 gallon water jug, bullet was captured in the second water jug. Jug was moved around on the table also, water spray was terrific.
45 ACP- This had slightly more dramatic blow up on the water jug with me being wet from the explosion. The water jug was blown off the table. Bullets recovered in the second jugs with both the WIN pdx=1 and the HST were perfect flowers that looked like one of those Ninja cutting stars.
The whole affair scared the aged shooting partner I was with at the time.
My take away is that a 40 S&W and 45 ACP will just blow da mudda up!
Several police depts have gone to the 357 Sig for this very reason.
Most of us build our confidence level on marketing publications, and You Tube Video's. Some of us have cops in our family that can relate experiences of personal shootings that they have been in.
When I was 12, my brother's father in law, Ray Shaw, was a cop in the local town Pd and was killed with one shot through the front door with 00 buckshot from a 12 GA as he was called to investigate a Domestic abuse incident, and this had a profound effect on me...determined attacker.
My brother in law, Smitty, was a sgt in the LAPD in Hollenbeck Division, he shot a bad guy that was on PCP 6 times in the chest and the perp did not even feel it, 38 special. Smitty's partner had to jump out of the car with a shotgun and kill the guy, all of this was at a range of about 15'. This shoot out between Smitty and the bad guy was just like the OK Corral.
Two nephews are cops, neither care much about shooting, one in particular.
Another story, Friend of the family, Jim's first day on the job as a cop in Atlanta, shot a bank robber 5 times in the chest with a J frame smith, and the bad guy almost beat our friend Jim to death after he had ran out of ammo. Somehow, a scuffle ensued, Jim lost his primary weapon, then went to his secondary. Jim, 21 at the time, was a bean pole of a kid at that time, and the bad guy weighed 230 lbs. Jim went to see the bad guy after he got released, bad guy was still recovering. Bad guy told my friend Jim that he wished he had finished the job.
Another story, My cousin is an operating Nurse in a Local Hospital here. He was also a Combat medic. Sometimes, He takes pictures of gun shot wounds. He told me that the 40 S&W is one bad azz round, that often the trauma is so great, that death was eminent. He said this was especially true of the 155g Winchester Silver tip(40) that the police were using 20 or so years ago which is a 155g going around 1150.
I will relate this story about a 45 in WWII combat by a best friend's dad when I was in the 8th grade by the name of Thurmond Rucker...you can check out his Silver Star in the records...unbelievable story. Thurmond had fought through Italy, Belgum, and France. During the fighting in the hedgerows in France, Thurmond encountered a huge field with a road up the middle that was surrounded by inter locking fire from German machine gun nests. Thurmond normally carried an M-1, but wanting to crawl making no noise, he made the decision to leave the m-1 with his squad. Thurmond was armed with two hand grenades and a 45. He told me that he did not realize there were so many machine guns nests, but the Germans has a plan for the several of the nests to act as a back up when the first nests were taken out. Thurmond crawled up the first nest, blew up the crew with a grenade. Same action was taken on the second nest. Third nest 5 occupants were killed with his 45. On the 4 th nest, he realized that he was getting low on ammo. He Wrapped his blouse around his left hand, reached up under the machine gun, grabbed the machine gun by the barrel pulling it forward. He then killed the entire crew with his 45. For this action, Thurmond Rucker recieved the Silver Star.
Thurmond kept on fighting, then came the Battle of the Bulge. Few times in history has our army been caught so unaware. Thurmond's unit came under attack by extreme numbers of Germans and hand to hand combat became Thurmond's undoing. He was bayoneted in the leg by a German after his M1 ran dry from killing Germans point blank range. Thurmond had the where with all to grab the German's rifle with his left hand while the bayonet had him pinned to the ground. Thurmond then drew his 45 while being pinned to the ground, and killed that German with a single shot in the throat as Thurmond held the German's rifle with his left hand. He said he had to pull the rifle with bayonet attached out of his leg. Thurmond made it back to the American lines, but his leg wound took him out of the war.
When I was 13-14, I worked for a commercial reloader, Clyde Moss, and no doubt that this would be illegal today. The man that owned the business had narcolepsy and I did almost all the driving for him and his elderly mother. His brother was the police chief in the small town and all the cops in the small town gave me a pass on a driver's license due to the driving involving taking them to the grocery store or Dr. only. I rode my buzz bike over to their house after school and weekends. A lot of WWII and Korean vets "hung around" in Clyde's Fix It Shop and war stories were always being talked about. I became good friends with one of the Vets and he gave me a 9mm Luger that he had took of German that he had killed. I was proud of the luger, shot it a lot.
When Thurmond Rucker saw that Luger, he immediately told me, "throw that POS away and get a 45"! I was about 16 at this time. So, I found an old Vet that came into Clyde's Fix It Shop that sold me his 45 for $165 which was a heck of a lot of money at that time, it was a monster of a pistol for a 16 year old to shoot with ball ammo. I got paid $10 per thousand of bullets that I cast, otherwise 1$ per hour for loading shot shells, pistol bullets, melting and fluxing alloy for lead pots.
At that time, Mid 1960's in the Deep South, none of the small towns had ever heard of a pound or shelter for unwanted dogs and cats. Wild feral dogs were running the streets in the small town of 2000 all the time. If a dog was aggressive towards people on main street, cops would dispatch the dog on main street. No one thought the cops were doing anything other than their job with shotguns with high brass 6's being their round of choice. People then would have thought you an idiot to drive 250 miles and spend precious money on having a dog spade, better to kill the animal.
Also, all the small towns had an open air trash dump where the public had access to the dump, 24/7. Unwanted pets were dumped at the dump Starving dogs and cats were a way of life, your mind's eye can never forget. At an early age, I learned that anyone dumping an unwanted animal deserved jail time,and I think that our Heavenly Father has a Special Place in [beeep] for those that would starve an animal. My next door neighbor, Mr. B.A. Ashley was a city cop that worked first and second shift. Mr. B.A. Ashley and his wife had no kids, and they had kinda adopted me as their youngster. I cut their grass for free, and helped Mr. B.A. with chores as some took a second pair of hands. In return, Ma made me the best butter milk biscuits and Chicken and Dumplings you could ever imagine. Their hand drawn well had the coolest and best tasting water I have ever had in my life. I rode with Mr. B.A. from time to time in his squad car, and I got him to lock me up in the town jail just for fun.
I watched Mr. BA Ashley dispatch starving dogs at the Town Dump with the 9mm luger I had. 115g FMJ were about all that was available. I could not imagine a more cruel and ineffective round. My Neighbor thought the same, but his 38 special was only slightly better. He bought a 357 Mag and the Super Vels proved to be just dandy on dogs. After I got my 45, I asked Mr. B.A. to take me on a ride to see how my new 45 would kill those starving dogs, I just did not have the heart to do the job. The 45 with WWII ball ammo killed those larger dogs with authority. Mr BA said he could not shoot a 45 well and barely qualified in his Army training. I thought it a bit much also, and got mom to buy me a new Ruger black hawk in 357 Mag 6" for $179, and I shot the Lyman 158g cast wadcutter with 15g of 2400, but I got a box of the Super Vels from Mr. B.A.
Times were much different in the Middle 60's. For someone born after 1980, hard for any young people to even imagine how in 50 years things could have changed so much. Cops shooting dogs, no pounds, no spaying, and I can guarantee you that anyone that turned tail and ran from the cops got shot. The world is not a safer place now with all of our politically correct way of doing things, in fact it is just the opposite.
I pray that Our Heavenly Father will protect all that read this from ever having to take a life. In case I have to protect my own life or the life of someone else, let that caliber start with a number FOUR!
I have read, like you, the FBI statistics. Remember Thurmond Rucker, Remember Smitty's experience, Remember the water jugs, Remember the dogs, Remember my cousin's experience as an operating room nurse, most of all educate yourself to the laws in your state, what you can and can't do, and practice. Your best defense is being aware! IDAP is great practice and you meet and shoot with some wonderful people, if there is a set up in your area.
Or, you can become like my precious friends Gerald and Earline, Fellow Sunday School members that owned a jewelry shop in S. CA. They were shot and killed for the Sport of it in a robbery. They did not own a pistol. Or, you can become like a grave yard clerk of mine, shot nine times trying to keep kids from getting beer after 2 am, legal selling hours. He ran in the back room after being shot, they shot the knob off the door and executed him, in a gang initiation. He was a wresting and foot ball coach, working to get extra money to pay for his wife's pregnancy.
Evil is out there, but for a Thin Blue Line our society would be nothing but total anarchy as we saw in the Rodney King riots.
These 5 gallon plastic jugs were about the same size as the old "Jerry cans" that we saw on the back of jeeps carrying gasoline.
I fill them all with water and did some Red Neck bullet expansion tests, ALL with full size pistols.
9mm 124 hst Plus P- expanded to 69 caliber, perfect cutting stars
40-180g Hst-expanded to 74 caliber, perfect cutting stars
45-230g HST- expanded to 90 caliber
45-230g Win PDX-1-expanded to 89 caliber
I did all the shooting at 9 yards and I laid the water jugs on their side.
The 9mm jiggled the water jug a little, so I shot it again
Bullets performance was test book perfect for the 9mm, and the bullets did not exit the jug.
40 cal 180g Win White box bonded which I believe is an overrun for Homeland Defense
This round BLEW UP the entire 5 gallon water jug, bullet was captured in the second water jug. Jug was moved around on the table also, water spray was terrific.
45 ACP- This had slightly more dramatic blow up on the water jug with me being wet from the explosion. The water jug was blown off the table. Bullets recovered in the second jugs with both the WIN pdx=1 and the HST were perfect flowers that looked like one of those Ninja cutting stars.
The whole affair scared the aged shooting partner I was with at the time.
My take away is that a 40 S&W and 45 ACP will just blow da mudda up!
Several police depts have gone to the 357 Sig for this very reason.
Most of us build our confidence level on marketing publications, and You Tube Video's. Some of us have cops in our family that can relate experiences of personal shootings that they have been in.
When I was 12, my brother's father in law, Ray Shaw, was a cop in the local town Pd and was killed with one shot through the front door with 00 buckshot from a 12 GA as he was called to investigate a Domestic abuse incident, and this had a profound effect on me...determined attacker.
My brother in law, Smitty, was a sgt in the LAPD in Hollenbeck Division, he shot a bad guy that was on PCP 6 times in the chest and the perp did not even feel it, 38 special. Smitty's partner had to jump out of the car with a shotgun and kill the guy, all of this was at a range of about 15'. This shoot out between Smitty and the bad guy was just like the OK Corral.
Two nephews are cops, neither care much about shooting, one in particular.
Another story, Friend of the family, Jim's first day on the job as a cop in Atlanta, shot a bank robber 5 times in the chest with a J frame smith, and the bad guy almost beat our friend Jim to death after he had ran out of ammo. Somehow, a scuffle ensued, Jim lost his primary weapon, then went to his secondary. Jim, 21 at the time, was a bean pole of a kid at that time, and the bad guy weighed 230 lbs. Jim went to see the bad guy after he got released, bad guy was still recovering. Bad guy told my friend Jim that he wished he had finished the job.
Another story, My cousin is an operating Nurse in a Local Hospital here. He was also a Combat medic. Sometimes, He takes pictures of gun shot wounds. He told me that the 40 S&W is one bad azz round, that often the trauma is so great, that death was eminent. He said this was especially true of the 155g Winchester Silver tip(40) that the police were using 20 or so years ago which is a 155g going around 1150.
I will relate this story about a 45 in WWII combat by a best friend's dad when I was in the 8th grade by the name of Thurmond Rucker...you can check out his Silver Star in the records...unbelievable story. Thurmond had fought through Italy, Belgum, and France. During the fighting in the hedgerows in France, Thurmond encountered a huge field with a road up the middle that was surrounded by inter locking fire from German machine gun nests. Thurmond normally carried an M-1, but wanting to crawl making no noise, he made the decision to leave the m-1 with his squad. Thurmond was armed with two hand grenades and a 45. He told me that he did not realize there were so many machine guns nests, but the Germans has a plan for the several of the nests to act as a back up when the first nests were taken out. Thurmond crawled up the first nest, blew up the crew with a grenade. Same action was taken on the second nest. Third nest 5 occupants were killed with his 45. On the 4 th nest, he realized that he was getting low on ammo. He Wrapped his blouse around his left hand, reached up under the machine gun, grabbed the machine gun by the barrel pulling it forward. He then killed the entire crew with his 45. For this action, Thurmond Rucker recieved the Silver Star.
Thurmond kept on fighting, then came the Battle of the Bulge. Few times in history has our army been caught so unaware. Thurmond's unit came under attack by extreme numbers of Germans and hand to hand combat became Thurmond's undoing. He was bayoneted in the leg by a German after his M1 ran dry from killing Germans point blank range. Thurmond had the where with all to grab the German's rifle with his left hand while the bayonet had him pinned to the ground. Thurmond then drew his 45 while being pinned to the ground, and killed that German with a single shot in the throat as Thurmond held the German's rifle with his left hand. He said he had to pull the rifle with bayonet attached out of his leg. Thurmond made it back to the American lines, but his leg wound took him out of the war.
When I was 13-14, I worked for a commercial reloader, Clyde Moss, and no doubt that this would be illegal today. The man that owned the business had narcolepsy and I did almost all the driving for him and his elderly mother. His brother was the police chief in the small town and all the cops in the small town gave me a pass on a driver's license due to the driving involving taking them to the grocery store or Dr. only. I rode my buzz bike over to their house after school and weekends. A lot of WWII and Korean vets "hung around" in Clyde's Fix It Shop and war stories were always being talked about. I became good friends with one of the Vets and he gave me a 9mm Luger that he had took of German that he had killed. I was proud of the luger, shot it a lot.
When Thurmond Rucker saw that Luger, he immediately told me, "throw that POS away and get a 45"! I was about 16 at this time. So, I found an old Vet that came into Clyde's Fix It Shop that sold me his 45 for $165 which was a heck of a lot of money at that time, it was a monster of a pistol for a 16 year old to shoot with ball ammo. I got paid $10 per thousand of bullets that I cast, otherwise 1$ per hour for loading shot shells, pistol bullets, melting and fluxing alloy for lead pots.
At that time, Mid 1960's in the Deep South, none of the small towns had ever heard of a pound or shelter for unwanted dogs and cats. Wild feral dogs were running the streets in the small town of 2000 all the time. If a dog was aggressive towards people on main street, cops would dispatch the dog on main street. No one thought the cops were doing anything other than their job with shotguns with high brass 6's being their round of choice. People then would have thought you an idiot to drive 250 miles and spend precious money on having a dog spade, better to kill the animal.
Also, all the small towns had an open air trash dump where the public had access to the dump, 24/7. Unwanted pets were dumped at the dump Starving dogs and cats were a way of life, your mind's eye can never forget. At an early age, I learned that anyone dumping an unwanted animal deserved jail time,and I think that our Heavenly Father has a Special Place in [beeep] for those that would starve an animal. My next door neighbor, Mr. B.A. Ashley was a city cop that worked first and second shift. Mr. B.A. Ashley and his wife had no kids, and they had kinda adopted me as their youngster. I cut their grass for free, and helped Mr. B.A. with chores as some took a second pair of hands. In return, Ma made me the best butter milk biscuits and Chicken and Dumplings you could ever imagine. Their hand drawn well had the coolest and best tasting water I have ever had in my life. I rode with Mr. B.A. from time to time in his squad car, and I got him to lock me up in the town jail just for fun.
I watched Mr. BA Ashley dispatch starving dogs at the Town Dump with the 9mm luger I had. 115g FMJ were about all that was available. I could not imagine a more cruel and ineffective round. My Neighbor thought the same, but his 38 special was only slightly better. He bought a 357 Mag and the Super Vels proved to be just dandy on dogs. After I got my 45, I asked Mr. B.A. to take me on a ride to see how my new 45 would kill those starving dogs, I just did not have the heart to do the job. The 45 with WWII ball ammo killed those larger dogs with authority. Mr BA said he could not shoot a 45 well and barely qualified in his Army training. I thought it a bit much also, and got mom to buy me a new Ruger black hawk in 357 Mag 6" for $179, and I shot the Lyman 158g cast wadcutter with 15g of 2400, but I got a box of the Super Vels from Mr. B.A.
Times were much different in the Middle 60's. For someone born after 1980, hard for any young people to even imagine how in 50 years things could have changed so much. Cops shooting dogs, no pounds, no spaying, and I can guarantee you that anyone that turned tail and ran from the cops got shot. The world is not a safer place now with all of our politically correct way of doing things, in fact it is just the opposite.
I pray that Our Heavenly Father will protect all that read this from ever having to take a life. In case I have to protect my own life or the life of someone else, let that caliber start with a number FOUR!
I have read, like you, the FBI statistics. Remember Thurmond Rucker, Remember Smitty's experience, Remember the water jugs, Remember the dogs, Remember my cousin's experience as an operating room nurse, most of all educate yourself to the laws in your state, what you can and can't do, and practice. Your best defense is being aware! IDAP is great practice and you meet and shoot with some wonderful people, if there is a set up in your area.
Or, you can become like my precious friends Gerald and Earline, Fellow Sunday School members that owned a jewelry shop in S. CA. They were shot and killed for the Sport of it in a robbery. They did not own a pistol. Or, you can become like a grave yard clerk of mine, shot nine times trying to keep kids from getting beer after 2 am, legal selling hours. He ran in the back room after being shot, they shot the knob off the door and executed him, in a gang initiation. He was a wresting and foot ball coach, working to get extra money to pay for his wife's pregnancy.
Evil is out there, but for a Thin Blue Line our society would be nothing but total anarchy as we saw in the Rodney King riots.
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