Colt .36 Navy. Stopping power and use

[Doug.38PR]

Rifle,

I believe it was the Comanche the Rangers faced that day with the Pattersons, not the Apache

[griswold]

I'm amazed at the penetration of the .36. I have a farm and on occasion we have livestock die. I have shot a conical over 17grs. of 3f right through 15"+ of carcass and didn't find the ball as it went through over 2' of snow. the same results with the RB but the wound was more pronounced with a cleaner edge where as the conical wound channel looks as if it was made by a .22 it must just sort of slip through the flesh. I did recover one conical in the snow about 18" in that hit 2 bones and went through about 15" of flesh. didn't even flatten.

I am looking at my old lyman 45th edition and in the back it has a load for the .36 Navy 51. .375 RB, No. 11 Alcan caps, 25 grs. FFFG DuPont Black Powder. Vel. 1005 FPS.

No. 37583 145 grs. conical bullet, 15 grs. DuPont black powder, Vel. 690 fps.

It goes on with the .44 Army Remington.
.451 round ball, no. 11 caps, 39 grs. DuPont FFFG black powder. vel. 995 fps.
no. 450228 conical 155 grs bullet, 26 grs. FFFG DuPont black powder. Vel. 815 fps.

Seems they are effective with the round ball and the .44 conical as well. However, as stated many times above, one must hit a vital area.

I believe Wyatt Earp stated a shot to the belt buckle area was effective.

[Slowhand Bob]

Many years ago I was reading data from one of the then  'just released' stopping power studies and it had some interesting data on real life one shot stops.  One that was reported was a miss, the guy fainted when he was shot at!  On the other hand there are many stories going way back of guys having guns unloaded on them but manageing to butcher the shooter before succumbing to their own wounds.  Guys being guys, no one wants to even consider that we just might be the one who wets his pants and faints after the first shot but at least admit that under pressure you just might have to rely on a peripheral hit and ask yourself, what caliber do I want that hip or shoulder hit to be with? 

I carry about 95% of my non sleeping time and am armed with a Colt Officers sized 45acp  most of this time.  My newest 'go to' gun for the tiny bit of time that I feel under dressed for larger guns,  I am now carrying the tiny  Kahr P380.  Guess what  modern caliber the old .36 Colt was most often compared to?  Add to this the fact that the old .36 lost some extra penetration due to the fact that it was using soft lead, while the 380 enjoys a modern bullet design for better penetration into the vital organs.  WB was not stupid, nor did he have some sort of death wish, I will never believe that he waited out in that square planning to make a 75yd shot with a .36 AND yes, I firmly believe he was positioned and waiting for a well laid out plan that involved a 44 Colts Dragoon revolver, the early equivalent to our modern longer range hunting pistols!