Michael Chen wrote:

Ooh... very comprehensive and a nice job...  Well, since I used to be a
D&D freak, i was also somewhat into firearms... let's see how much I can
remember ;)

These two are mutually inclusive?

Most gunfights involve handguns or submachineguns which use pistol
ammunition. 9mm and .38 Special rounds have very high muzzle energies

Actually the 10mm has the highest muzzle energy I've seen in a handgun ;)

My point was to illustrate the effects of high muzzle energy vs. low
cross-section and low mass of the 9mm and .38 Special rounds. The 10mm
Automatic fits in a weird middle ground born of a compromise between the
stopping power of the .45 ACP and the high capacity of the typical 9mm
pistol. Because it is slightly larger and has more mass, it has less of
a tendency to 'reflect' off variances in tissue density, and thus has
better expansion characteristics. 

Since the Brady Bill, newly constructed or imported magazines have been
restricted to 10 rounds or less, and as 'high capacity' .45's have come
into being, it would be stupid to "spray and pray" with a 9mm when a
larger caliber round is much more effective.
 

for pistol ammunition, combined with small caliber and poor expansion
characteristics -and as such will frequently overpenetrate a soft target
(like a man) unless they strike a good sized bone. Rounds that
overpenetrate waste much of their energy, and thus may not immediately
affect the target. (The ability to affect a target directly and
immediately is known as stopping power.)

Actually get some Winchester Silvertips or Hydrashoks and overpenetration
will never happen again ;)  Of course, it is somewhat debatable what is
better...  Over penetrate and give the person 2 holes to bleed out of, or
to mash up organs and insides with a hollowpoint...

Stopping power always takes precedence. If you have incapacitated your
target, he cannot harm you. Hydrashoks are about the only thing I could
possibly imagine using if I *had* to use a 9mm.

Pistol rounds with high stopping power are the .357 Magnum, .45 ACP, .45
Long Colt, .44 Remington Magnum, and any other really large caliber
round you feel like using. (The .44 Automag is really a chopped down
rifle cartridge, and is obviously quite brutal.) Even hits to limbs are
quite likely to spin the target around and incapacitate him. (The .45
ACP round was created to replace the .38 Special round for this reason.)

For you crazies out there...  try the .50AE (action express ;) )  Or the
.41 Action express...  These things are quite powerful...

And darn expensive. Take up reloading your own cartridges if you aren't
independently wealthy.
 

Hey... if you really are crazy try the 12.7x99mm round used in the
Browning Heavy Machine guns...  The M82 sniper rifle can be used to take
out armored vehicles, aircraft, cars, ;)

Now we're just getting silly. Unless the character is using powered
armor, he isn't likely to get his hands on one of these. (Much less lug
it around or even use it.)

Rifle and machine gun rounds do far more damage and have far more
stopping power. Most "bullet proof" body armors don't have a hope in
hell of stopping these rounds. We won't even go into the effects of

Class III or IV ( I forget... too much Electrical engineering in my head)
has a metal plate guaranteed to stop a standard NATO 7.62 round (standard
in battle rifles and machine guns)  Of course, I think in most cases, the
target will still get a broken rib or two...

I have seen one of these full suits. I pity the poor bastard who has to
wear it. It weighs a good 60 lbs, and the flexible portion of the armor
material is a good 1.5 inches thick. Try moving swiftly or silently in
one of these...

If you are really feeling visceral, nothing does cruel brutal damage to
living tissue like a quarter ounce of jacketed lead hollowpoint moving

Actually jacketed vs. hollow point doesn't make a difference or much of
one.  If I recall, jacketed hollowpoints are used to make the feeding
easier for guns, like the Colt .45, which were never designed to load
hp's, to load them effectively.

Any modern factory hollowpoint is jacketed. Even the .44 Magnum round,
which is predominantly a revolver cartridge. 

Another constant of realistic firefights is that people tend to take
cover and stay there when they get shot at. This is a perfectly natural

Well some people....  Others like to subscribe to the "spray and pray"
theory...  Pump out enough lead... you're guaranteed to hit something...

This is more of a guideline for describing the actions of the nobodies
in a combat scene. Heroes and Villians can play by whatever rules of
conduct they choose.
 
I'm sure Tybalt is getting his hackles up by now... Better go.

J. Austin Wilde
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