I dropped by a local gun shop to pick up cleaning brushes in 44 caliber and I had to wait while the counter guy explained to a newbee potential customer , that he didn,t want a 44 mag for home defense......reason,(youll love this)
"it had not nearly the stopping power of a 357 mag! he explained that in the old days gunfighters like bill hickock use 36 caliber pistols because they were good man stoppers, but when the army increased the bore size to 38 caliber in the Spanish American war and dropped the powder charge the pistols failed to stop crazed morro tribesmen so the army increased the bore to 45 caliber, to compensate, for the lack of powder,that worked, but not really well so in the 1950s the army and cops got together with smith and wesson and demanded the caliber be reduced and the powder charge be increased to duplicate the original loads bill hickock used to produce the 357 magnum, once the velocity was increased back to the original levels in the 357 mag and the caliber dropped back to the original 36 caliber they had a real man stopper again. the 44 mag can,t equal the 357 mag because the velocity's to low and the calibers too large to allow sufficient penetration.
the military finally realized their mistake and went to the 9mm Beretta, because the 9mm is a 36 caliber with more shots and the round nose hard ball fmc bullets don,t expand so they get the necessary penetration that allows them to stop determined attackers ."
he then turns to me and asked what I wanted, I said a couple 44 cal brass brushes.........I need to clean my little 44 mag, because if the barrels not clean accuracy falls off, he grins and says "your probably using cast bullets, they lead the barrel unless every 6th shot is a jacketed bullet, then tells the guy that if you don,t shoot jacketed bullets in a 357 mag the lead builds up to the point the bullets can,t get thru the barrel."
after that I just smiled and walked out.......theres no sense in even discussing things with MORRONS
"it had not nearly the stopping power of a 357 mag! he explained that in the old days gunfighters like bill hickock use 36 caliber pistols because they were good man stoppers, but when the army increased the bore size to 38 caliber in the Spanish American war and dropped the powder charge the pistols failed to stop crazed morro tribesmen so the army increased the bore to 45 caliber, to compensate, for the lack of powder,that worked, but not really well so in the 1950s the army and cops got together with smith and wesson and demanded the caliber be reduced and the powder charge be increased to duplicate the original loads bill hickock used to produce the 357 magnum, once the velocity was increased back to the original levels in the 357 mag and the caliber dropped back to the original 36 caliber they had a real man stopper again. the 44 mag can,t equal the 357 mag because the velocity's to low and the calibers too large to allow sufficient penetration.
the military finally realized their mistake and went to the 9mm Beretta, because the 9mm is a 36 caliber with more shots and the round nose hard ball fmc bullets don,t expand so they get the necessary penetration that allows them to stop determined attackers ."
he then turns to me and asked what I wanted, I said a couple 44 cal brass brushes.........I need to clean my little 44 mag, because if the barrels not clean accuracy falls off, he grins and says "your probably using cast bullets, they lead the barrel unless every 6th shot is a jacketed bullet, then tells the guy that if you don,t shoot jacketed bullets in a 357 mag the lead builds up to the point the bullets can,t get thru the barrel."
after that I just smiled and walked out.......theres no sense in even discussing things with MORRONS