Quote:
Originally Posted by cabmando
A good friend of mine is a cop. He always says the last gun he'd want to be shot with is a .22. I don't recall his reasoning but it had something to do with the bullet bouncing around on entry.
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High velocity / lower mass rounds tend to expend their energy inside the target instead of just going in one side and out the other. It's a lot harder to survive something that tumbles around inside the body rather than simply blowing through. A regular ol' .22 that's not high velocity doesn't apply here.
Someone correct me here on the physics, but I believe momentum = mass x velocity. Momentum is what keeps something going in the same direction, as in straight through the target.
Kinetic energy = mass x velocity (squared). So higher velocity has a lot more energy, and the lower mass means it won't necessary keep going in the same direction. It expends its energy inside the target rather than going through and out the other side.
It's the same reasoning told in the old story (true or not) about why the US military switched over to the 5.56mm round of the M16 right after convincing NATO to go with the 7.62mm back in the 60's.
At least I believe that is the theory / story.