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http://www.lawofficer.com/article/train ... s-sacrific

Mettinger (bad guy) absorbed nine rounds from Borders’ (police officer) .45—six of which hit him in the torso and two more of which literally severed his right foot—without any significant effect on his fighting ability. This would have been remarkable even if Officer Borders had been firing marginally effective rounds, but he was using .45 caliber Gold Dot ammunition, which is considered by many to be the best man-stopper on the market.

The officer went through 3 mags and finished with one round left.

Added the following after the original post:

Officer Borders credits his firearms training for much of his success. He scored 10 hits out of 39 rounds fired, for a hit ratio of 26 percent, and seven of his hits were to vital areas. Although a 26 percent hit ratio is only about average for a police shooting, Borders’ accuracy was far better than his hit ratio seems to indicate. Besides the fact that Mettinger was often more than 20 yards away, never closer than eight yards, and moving or behind good cover for most of the gunfight, Borders also expended a large number of rounds in his successful effort to keep Mettinger from reaching the 00 buckshot stored in the back of the garage. In addition, Borders had to deal with the blood flowing into his eyes, which distracted him, blurred his vision and forced him to pause several times to wipe it away. Under the circumstances, Officer Borders’ accuracy was exceptional and that kind of proficiency cannot be achieved without good training.

Domestic disputes were the worst calls I ever took. You never knew what you were gonna be faced with.

One in the head would have saved him 8 rounds.

That is the kind of story that can make a person question the all mighty "pocket .380" as a concealed carry option. I have a Kahr PM9 I usually carry because of the size and light weight. I also have a Glock 23 that I have been carrying a lot more lately. I am not sure why, but I will get a weird feeling and decide I need more stopping power...just in case.

This case sounds like a case of "there is always an exception to the rule."

Tremendous story - I've read it once before, but thanks for posting so more will read it.

Always reminds me of this one, which was of course much worse because FBI agents were killed

http://www.thegunzone.com/11april86.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

... the reason we now have the .40 S&W round, as I understand it

...regardless of the interfering wife...he should have kept the shotgun...even if he had to knock her down to get her out of his hair...having a superior fighting weapon and then putting it down for the reason that he did wasn't a good choice...events after that proved he needed it...
...three magazines is not a lot of ammo...

...this man was a hero about 4 ways...but he had settled certain things in his mind ahead of time...so should we...when the ball drops, there's no time to be debating with yourself...he did exceptionally well considering all that happened...his family should be proud of him...

Holy Cow!!!

Like officer Borders, I also have 40 rounds of .45ACP. Stories like this make me wonder if I need a couple more mags or a G30SF in ankle holsters.

...what's enough??? we don't make calls and purpose to go up against armed folks like an LEO does...but this story shows us that even highly trained LEOs need more sometimes...even facing just ONE person who's determined...I carry 4 mags...that's only 33 for my P90...with another 4 mags in a pouch on the seat...and a coupla boxes worth in a bag behind the seat loose...there's no way to work out a formula...I've carried since I was a young teen...policed 8 years...and never fired a shot at a hoomin bean...but what's tomorrow hold? at 7am on 9-11...it was just another day...two mags in a pouch in a pocket...one in a belt carrier...one in the gun...might be enough for the primary...unless you're out of town and might have to fight your way back home...about all we can do is pray for wisdom and go with the gut feelings...we can't see the future...one thing this story can teach us...a shotgun in the trunk could make a lot of difference...and is really small cost and little effort...once the decision is made...it doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles...just a good pump and 25-50 rounds of slugs/buck might get us through the situation we can't conceive of ever being in in the first place...

It seems that when a person takes that much punishment, there are usually "substances" involved (lots of alcohol in this case). I'm reminded of what my Vietnam veteran Marine cousin (may God rest his soul) talked about when I was a kid. He said that at the firebase he was at, a few Marines were armed with shotguns on the line. Their job was to shoot the legs out from under Communist sappers carrying explosives...because the sappers were high on opium and could absorb a lot of hits from the M-16s and even several from M-14s that some Marines still had then. The shotguns would drop them before they got to the wire.

Heartland Patriot wrote:It seems that when a person takes that much punishment, there are usually "substances" involved (lots of alcohol in this case). I'm reminded of what my Vietnam veteran Marine cousin (may God rest his soul) talked about when I was a kid. He said that at the firebase he was at, a few Marines were armed with shotguns on the line. Their job was to shoot the legs out from under Communist sappers carrying explosives...because the sappers were high on opium and could absorb a lot of hits from the M-16s and even several from M-14s that some Marines still had then. The shotguns would drop them before they got to the wire.

My Ex-BIL was a door gunner on a Huey from 66 - 67. He said the same thing that the M60 (.30 cal) wouldn't even stop them if you didn't get a central nervous system hit they would just keep progressing until they bled out as they felt no pain at all from the opium.

...not surprised that either the M14 or the M60...(7.62) didn't hit hard enough with the fmj bullet...same complaint was made in Korea about the M1 Carbine (.30)...the energy just didn't stay in the target...no, that's not right...the fmj didn't do enough physical damage(I'm learning)...when they're hopped up on dope, you're faced with physically destroying their supporting bones or brain to bring them down...even a shot through the heart won't immediately stop them, because they don't feel the shock...police have found that out with druggies, too...the body is amazingly hard to stop, as long as shock doesn't set in...we had one take three .357 JHP to the torso and run off...hopped up...makes you wanna hug your 12 ga!!!

Great read.

I am still amazed at the number of people who claim a 10mm is way too much gun or a 380 is plenty or make some general comment that any normal service caliber WILL stop someone. It doesn't take much time in the woods to realize that handguns are nothing like you see on TV. Every one of the service cartridges is underpowered, even the 357 magnum and the 10mm. Handguns are a compromise. We use them because they are convenient.

SRH78 wrote:Great read.

I am still amazed at the number of people who claim a 10mm is way too much gun or a 380 is plenty or make some general comment that any normal service caliber WILL stop someone. It doesn't take much time in the woods to realize that handguns are nothing like you see on TV. Every one of the service cartridges is underpowered, even the 357 magnum and the 10mm. Handguns are a compromise. We use them because they are convenient.

Under NORMAL conditions a well placed .380 might be sufficient, but when things get freaky a .50 or.454 might not seem enough.

speedsix wrote:...regardless of the interfering wife...he should have kept the shotgun...even if he had to knock her down to get her out of his hair...having a superior fighting weapon and then putting it down for the reason that he did wasn't a good choice...events after that proved he needed it...
...three magazines is not a lot of ammo...

...this man was a hero about 4 ways...but he had settled certain things in his mind ahead of time...so should we...when the ball drops, there's no time to be debating with yourself...he did exceptionally well considering all that happened...his family should be proud of him...

I agree, he should have kept the shotgun close even if he was using his pistol.

This brings to mind the North Hollywood shootout. If some officers had longer 12 Ga barrels in the trunk and a couple of boxes of slugs, they could have changed out the barrels and stopped the shootout quickly.

Even with body armor, two or three officers hitting them with slugs would have knocked them down or at least “pushed” them down.