Customer Reviews

Handgun Stopping Power: The Definitive Study

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I am a big fan of the 3 Marshall and Sanow books. I must say that as an economist I have a good deal of training in statistics, and I'm not sold on the soundness of the math behind the one-stop shot percentages. Marshall seems to be very upfront that these numbers only be used as a relative comparison tool, and I think that this is important to keep in mind. Some might disagree with Marshall and Sanow on method, but I don't believe their work is anything but an honest (and at times successful) effort to save the lives of Americans by providing them with the tools to choose proper defensive ammunition. All three books are excellent. In my opinion the third book is the best and most up to date. While I don't agree with everything in this book it is fairly well written, includes a lot of interesting chapters, and is very enjoyable to read. Keep in mind that even the newest book is nearly 6 years old, and that there are better current ammunition choices in some cases now.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone who is seeking information on handgun stopping power. It has valuable information for choosing handgun ammo. The information contained in the book was good, but it lacks details. There was too much summation in the book for me.

The main purpose of this book is to determine which handgun calibers are the most effective, and which cartridges are the best in a given caliber, and to determine how this stopping power can be prediceted. There is also some related information, created as a by-product of the study.

Let's begin by examining the main issue: defining the stopping power of given cartridges. The authors have reasoned that to really be able to define the effectiveness of a bullet, one has to examine the real shooting cases. That is sound reasoning, and I believe that the authors are absolutely right about that. Unfortunately, that creates a problem that is very hard to overcome: The problem of adequate reference material.

In a shooting case, there are numerous variables, which all contribute to effectiveness of a bullet, and most of the variables are not dependent of the bullet itself (like the size of the subject, physical condition of the subject, mental state of the subject, the beliefs of the suspect, whether the subject is under the influence of durgs or alcohol, what kind of clothes the subject is wearing, and so on). You can safely say that there are dozens of such variables, and some variables have more profound effect than the others.

The authors have tried to overcome this problem by limiting the shooting cases eligible for the study by stating that only torso hits have been counted, and those cases have been omitted where there have been more than one bullet hit to the subject. But this is hardly a solution at all, because the authors have stated themselves that "it's not important that you hit something, it's important that you hit something important". In this book they have counted only torso hits, but in reality there are no "torso hits", because it has a tremendous difference, if a bullet hits heart or spine, or if the bullet goes just into abdomen not hitting anything vital. But still these variables are not taken into consideration in this book.

As I stated, there are dozens of variables in a shooting concerning "stopping power". When one considers that most of the one-shot stop -percentages are calculated based on just couple of dozen shootings, how can these values be considered statistically reliable? You can determine the unreliabliness of this data yourself by comparing this data from 1992 to a newer data, with more shootings. In some cases there is substantial difference between old and new street results. And the one-shot stop percentages are calculated to an accuracy of 0,01 %. This is ridiculous considering the fact that in some cases there are more variables than there are shootings! The biggest number of shootings for a given round is 462, which might just be big enough of a sample, but in majority of cases there has been less than 100 shootings, which is a way too little database to achieve reliable results consirering the vast amount of variables. And in some cases the calculations are based on just eleven shootings!

So it's clear that these one-shot stop calculations are not statictically reliable. A fact that is emphasized by the fact that there is no reference material in this book. A surprising feature in a book that is supposed to be a "study".

However, there is also some useful information, and this is where we get to the by-product part of the book. The authors have collected information about exotic handgun ammo, like exploding bullets or sabot rounds. And there is also some important considerations about tactical penetration.

There is also some information that is not so useful, but can be of interest to the reader, like presentation of different ways to determine the effectiveness of a bullet used in the past. Also, the authors have included some shooting cases, arranged by the caliber of the gun used. These stories are interenting to read, but they are just anecdotes, and they can't be used to proof anything.

The authors have also created a way to predict the effectiveness of a given bullet before there are any street results available for that round. This formula ís created by comparing known bullet performance on the street to tests conducted in ballistic gelatin. This is a very interesting way to predict the effectiveness of bullets, but the reliability of these formulas suffer from the same thing than the "street results": There is not sufficient data available.

In conclusion I would say that paradoxally, the portion of the book that handles the main issue (stopping power) is of questionable value, and the support material is the most valuable part of this book. I believe however that this will change as the authors get more data from new shooting cases.

I suspect alot of magazine publishers aren't going to like this book as many of them make a habit of publishing articles that put different spins on bullet stopping power all the time. This book is the "Bible" of all handgun stopping power studies. In clear common sense approach and tons of statistics and research, Marshall shows why jello blocks and other methodologies come up short. You can't dispute actual shootings, and Marshall carefully pored over thousands of police shootings to find out what different bullets do in a typical one shot incident. This book will fascinate everyone from a casual reader interested in guns to a veteran police officer wanting the best advantage against the criminals.

There is NO perfect hand gun round! Hand gun use described in real world examples instead of theoretical models. The most comprehensive study on the subject so far.

Marshall and Sanow have collected stories and data from all over the nation regarding the effects and capabilities of handguns in actual survival situations. Learn how street results differ from FBI, Thompson-Lagarde, and other tests of ammunition. Coffee table size book is a must have for firearms trainers and defensive tactics instructors. Discover how and why handguns stop - or don't stop - aggressors.

I bought one of the original issues in the early 90's. All I can say is there will always be controversy as to what caliber bullet is the most effective. A lot of it has to do with biased opinions of favorite handgun calibers, almost to the point of being childish and irresponsible (read: Most handgun publications).

This book and other studies after it probably still won't change the minds of people (cops or civilians) as to what caliber is the most effective on the street. This is just a study of bullets that may or may not have been effective up to that time. Like everything else, as time goes on, bullet technology has evolved (supposedly) for the better. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

A wealth of information that is presented in well explained detail. This should be required reading for all police officers and anyone that has a hand gun for self defense. Although new calibers and ammunition are constantly being offered, the general principals outlined in the book will allow you to select the most effective combinations.

This is everything a reference book should be. The authors have done a ton of research, gathered and collated "street results," and written a book that is actually a great deal of fun to browse through (thanks in large part to the inclusion of many brief "case histories").

They also get big points for examining accepted wisdom and analyzing the methodology of previous researchers. One of the authors mentioned that he also attended 400 autopsies as part of his research for the book!

I bought this sight unseen for a gun-loving pal, based on good word of mouth. Didn't get a chance to actually see it until a couple of weeks ago and was absolutely blown away. So to speak.

Comprehensive research. Opinions are grounded in the assembled data. The conclusions will not make everyone happy. Those with a favorite caliber might be surprised with the data in the tables in the back of the book.