Vis Maior

Fatty, there are only two things guaranteed to stop a determined attacker from reaching you. Firstly, destroying his CNS with a shot to the appropriate area of the head or upper spinal column. This is the only guaranteed way to immediately stop an attacker. The second is massive loss of blood by shooting him in the heart or a major artery. Problem is blood loss takes time, even being shot in the heart an assaliant may have 10-15 of purposeful action. That is plenty of time for them to pull a trigger or to stab you.

Think about it this way Fatty, the bullet you fire from your gun will move your target exactly as much as your weapons recoil moves you. Less if the round has enough velocity to over-penetrate the target. That is the simple physics of it.

If shot placement is not there you are boned, thats why it vital to train stressfire. You must build up the muscle memory to put two center of mass and one in the head. True its not a target, and you don't get points for pattern, you get to live.

I take statistics from law enforcement because they are the most applicable to self defense. The majority of officers killed in the line die from stab wounds, within 10' an opponent brandishing a knife can reach you before your weapon clears its holster unless you have trained constantly. Ideally, if your are being approached by someone with a knife then you've already drawn your weapon.

Self defense is mentality and training. If you're relying on a handgun the only things that matter are being able to consistently and under duress put rounds on target, and that whatever you're firing can penetrate at least 12" of denim covered ballistic gel. Over 19" is preferable, in all the data I have managed to sift though regarding handgun engagements I've never seen a case in which over-penetration of a target resulted in injury to a bystander. The rounds lose too much energy when exiting the body.

This is great info, thanks to all.

The main focus of the new pistol will not really be to carry it concealed. He just is getting the permit before a ban might come on it and will not regularly carry it with him. It also wouldn't live in a glove compartment of his car but might spend some time there. It would mainly be used at a range and stored at home. He is about 5'7" so not a big guy.

With this new information, what are the top guns for him to try out? It seems that SIG is the overall main choice here. Stay with the 229 / 226? Any specific information would be great as it seems each model has many options within them as well.

One more thing Wintermute, thanks for the pdf. If you have any other reading material that would be great. All of this is getting me interested as well...

Both WM and Fatty are on the right track. It really comes down to training more than anything else.

Re: the knife thing, it's actually crazy how fast someone can close on you. Generally it was the 21 foot rule, but a guy can get from 21 feet to 10 feet in the time it takes you to go from neutral to hand on the pistol grip. More here http://www.ar15.com/content/swat/200403-21_FT_Rule.pdf

Any SIG in the P22X series will be great for your friend, have him try the weapons in whatever caliber he is interested in. If he's using the gun for mostly range shooting the 226 is probbably your best choice for the coin. There are a number of variants on the 226 to suit your taste and budget. I chose the Naval Special Warfare model for its enhanced corrosion resistance.

If he's got cash to burn and wants some sort of wicked sick range gun, SIG makes arguably the most accurate automatic pistol in the world, the P210. From the factory the P210 will put ten rounds in a group under 5cm (`2") at 50m (~160') most indoor pistol ranges I've seen rarely extend past 75' so that might be overkill. There is also an ISPC / range version of the P226 called the P226X5 which is slightly less expensive than the 210 and slightly less accurate.

As to features the Double Action/ Single Action trigger is the way to go imo. The weapons are pretty well standardized in terms of controls outside of how you want the trigger set up, excepting of course their target variants. Most of my reading material is all in books I've acquired over the years, but I think I've got another PDF somewhere about wound channels with regards to various caliber and velocity if you'd like that, I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit: http://www.firearmstactical.com/wound.htm here you be, lots of good info from this site as it turns out.

He ended up buying the SIG P239 9mm. The selling point was that it is what the air marshals carry and that he wanted something smaller and that 9mm bullets were cheaper to use at the range, etc as he hopes not to have to ever use this gun in a real-life situation.

Is this a good pistol though? Now that the gun has been purchased, any accessories to buy / bullet type/brand to use, etc?

Thanks!

combat grips!

TINY GUN FOR LITTLE MEN! THIS GUN WILL NOT BUFF YOU UP, WHAT ARE YOU A LITTLE SISSY MAN?

Yea, Hogue grips are nice. Also I load with Winchester Ranger 127grn. SXT +p+ which is pretty much the best performance you're going to get from a 9mm. However, as a +p+ round it will be noticably different to fire than a typical 9mm load so take that into account if you're trying to maintain proficiency. SXT ammo isn't cheap and is a bitch to find.