![]() You can see an excellent visual representation of this on Paul Harrell’s Youtube Channel. The keyword is SLIGHTLY better and that in the real world, this does not make much difference. 38 Special Cartridge, Which is Better in the Real World? However, how much will this matter in the real world? 9mm vs. This translates into slightly better penetration of the target by 9mm and slightly better expansion inside the target by 9mm hollow points. If we removed this outlier, then 9mm clearly has the highest velocity as a whole compared to the. 38 Special (+P) outlier round noted below. 38 Special has a boarder range of velocity and muzzle energy. After creating the chart below, it is clear to see what is actually going on.Īs you can see, the. So we decided to drill down into this to see what in the world is going on. But from our initial look at the data, it appeared the. We have often heard that the 9mm, on average, had the highest velocity of the two and, therefore, the most significant muzzle energy (power) of the two calibers. The other observations we made was the broader range of muzzle energy seen for. 38 special and 9mm are in bullet diameter and bullet weight. The first item that we observed was how similar the. So….what do we do with this information? Why study it, of course!īased on our studies, we found some interesting information. 38 Special, Which is Better, Based On The Data? Typical Muzzle Energy Range: 309-423 ft-lbsĩmm vs.Todd Woodard 38 Special and 38 Special +P Stats Below are specifications for each round outlined in Cartridges of the World by W. Muzzle Energy – Roughly a measurement of the destructive force of a round The two main factors that influence muzzle energy is bullet weight and velocity as shown above.Velocity – A variable that affects muzzle energy.Bullet Weight – A variable that affects muzzle energy.It does have some effects on muzzle energy, but this is very minimal. Bullet diameter – Normally used to determine the caliber of a cartridge.Great, so what can we actually compare from the cartridge perspective objectively for each caliber? It should be noted that SAAMI does have a formula you can use to determine the free recoil of caliber, but this is different from felt recoil. 38 Special and 9 mm have a minimum to moderate felt recoil. However, most people in the gun community unanimously agree that both the. The fact of the matter is that the recoil you feel when you shoot is called felt recoil and is purely subjective and can vary from person to person. There is sound reasoning for not using recoil. However, it can be roughly used to compare the calibers from a gun’s perspective.Įven going this route though still has many variables affecting accuracy Some variables that contribute to accuracy are the design of the projectile (bullet), length of the gun barrel, the rifling of the gun barrel, and the person shooting the round. There are too many other variables involved. Trying to compare the accuracy of 38 special vs 9mm from a cartridge perspective is next to impossible. A headshot from most calibers will be enough to stop most targets faster than hitting the same target in the foot even with some of the largest calibersĭon’t agree with omitting stopping power as a variable? Then we suggest you take it up with the FBI. Likewise, there is a difference in the amount of stopping force needed to take a large buck down compared to a young doe. There is a different amount of stopping power needed between a deer and a rabbit. Factors that influence stopping power outside of the caliber itself are: So we can’t really use it as a variable to compare 38 Special vs 9mm. Stopping power cannot be clearly defined objectively. These variables are stopping power, accuracy, and recoil. Therefore, we will not use them to compare these two calibers. There are a few variables that we cannot objectively measure when analyzing. Comparing 38 Special to 9mm at the Cartridge Levelīefore we get started comparing these two calibers from a round perspective, we need to address the white elephant in the room. So to keep this as simple as possible, here is how we broke down this comparison. Yet, in reality, it can get very complicated, as you shall see. It might seem like an easy comparison on the surface.
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