Guess it depends on the caliber of the 5 rounds. The shooting in Tx (Fl?) where the guy was sitting on the cops chest and the CC holder placed 4 45 rounds in the guys chest and he didn't fall or get off the cop so he placed one more in the head and that stopped the fight... guess it depends on the size of the gun and how hopped up your attacker is.

Mostly-

That your carry gun should be the biggest and most powerful caliber you can comfortably and accurately shoot, my first choice was an EAA 10mm with 14 rounds in it. That's a hell of a lot of firepower without having to reload, and I really couldn't imagine a situation that I would get into where 14 rounds of 10mm Glaser Blues and/or Corbon Powerballs wouldn't be enough.

After the Virginia massacre, I have rethought that a bit, and when I go down to NOLA to attend my daughter's graduation in two weeks at Lyola I WILL be carrying an extra loaded 10mm clip on me. (I don't take my 50 to NOLA, due to the police corruption, and the fact that if you get caught carrying even legally, the NOLA cops beat you up and take your gun away and keep it for themselves no matter what. It's such a wonderful place...)

And BTW - even if you are big enough and have baggy enough clothes to TRY and conceal a DE50 or a Smith 500, the weight makes your pants fall down, and even though I have a permit, an old geezer like me could be arrested for assault with a dead weapon in that situation!!

Great discussion on the merits of ammo capacity.

I believe that one assumption being made is that you are needing to defend yourself against one or two humans in a metro setting. Thankfully I have never been attacked by one or two humans and pray I never will. However I have been attacked/chased by animals. One time I had stopped at a farmplace that had a Land-Cruiser for sale by the road. I got maybe ten feet from the car when I heard the thundering paws of two non-barking (bad sign) dogs running towards me. I dashed for my truck and jumped in as one nipped me on the back of my leg. It drew a single drop of blood. I then had to check with the owner about his dog vaccinations.
Another time, while snowmobiling, three very large mangy dogs blocked the rural trail and were very bold about not retreating. Generally not the rule for a healthy happy pet dog. I think these had a dead animal near the trail they had been munching on. Since I definitely had the advantage of speed I accelerated past on the far side of the trail. Even so one of them grabbed and caught his teeth in my suit. He let go after dragging for a ways. He took quite a tumble. If someone had been hiking or skiing this trail the situation may have been far different.

Now in these situations I am not certain I could have put a single well placed shot in each animal. Perhaps the report would have scared them off. I don't know. But I am not willing to bet on three out of five hits with fast moving targets.

My solution? 5 round .38 Snubby for concealment in town and metro locations, XD with 14 .45's in the woods and remote trails. (When not hunting.) The difficulty in hitting a fast moving target is still there but I have helped my odds.

My .02

You know your permit is valid when hunting too, right. As long as it's not archery, you can carry your handgun on a permit.


To stay on the safe side of the hunting regs and misunderstandings, you'd probably want it to be clean, unfired, NOT to be your primary hunting weapon and none of your kills to have been taken with a similar round. That way there's no confusion about when you were hunting and with what.

I'm sure someone will jump in with a citation of the technicalities of the law.

Yep, on the permit being valid. When hunting I carry a 7 round 6" .357mag as a backup to the long-gun. Since it is also a legal hunting caliber, it would lower hassle quotient if questioned by DNR. MOST of the DNR folks I have chatted with are great guys but we do have one out here that is a, uhm ...... not a great guy.

Suppose then it depends on the treat. I would think one .38 would destroy a DQ Blizzard for example.

LOL

Going along with the thread drift to feral dog attacks, back in 1959 I was living in upstate NY in the Catskills. While small game hunting with an old Stevens over and under (.410/.22 double barrel) a pack of around 8 dogs came running directly towards me and I knew they meant trouble. They were only about 15-20 feet from me when I took aim at the lead dog. The whole pack instantly wheeled and took off back wherever they came from. My property was 80 acres and I never saw them before that or after. I'm sure they knew what guns were and that's why they ran off. I don't know what I would have done if I had to shoot and the first 2 shots didn't do the trick. They were all large dogs.

Would be a meth head my size, and for something like that it might require 7 - 8 - 10 shots from a normal powered gun to bring him down. That's why I carred the 14+1 EAA 10mm. With the 50 GI there is unfortunately NO data on what a 300 grain .500" Gold Dot will do to somebody, but I have made the decision that 8 shots should be enough, and if it isn't, then it was my time to die anyway.

You COULD simulate penetration with milk jugs of water.
Wound Cavity and damage would take a little more effort.
we NEED to get a pig for testing. a 300 grain .50" Gold Dot 50 GI loaded to +P? THAT should be a show.

Stay away from my chocolate!

HOKAY!!! I can go with that! I have a nice big farm in Afton where you can shoot, and my 50 cal loads are the +P ones too (880 FPS!). So, who owns a pig, and who owns a pig roaster??

There's a very nice couple that shoot IDPA in Faribault, who happen to raise pigs. (I don't believe they participate here). As far as cooking it, you don't need any special gear, just basically dig a hole and build a big fire on top of it, and dig it up in about 8 or 20 hours. I can handle that part for you.

Also so we don't get the PETA people down on us, we'll need to get the pig really drunk first.