My wife and I had an interesting conversation with a few older shooters this weekend which I thought I'd pass along. It stems from the question of which is right, the "popular opinion", or "the facts".

The question essentially became, "which has more stopping power, a 9mm or a .38spcl?"

Naturally, the older shooters were convinced that the .38spcl was far superior to the 9mm, however, after 10yrs of reloading both, at worst I'd say the 9mm and .38spcl are equal, otherwise I'd give the nod to the 9mm, even though it's not the popular opinion (while I don't LIKE the fact that a 9mm pistol is superior to a .38spcl revolver, I do believe it).

So where do YOU lie on this spectrum? Which do you believe has more stopping power, the 9mm Luger or the .38spcl? Without starting a debate about reliability of pistols vs revolvers, or ammo capacity, etc etc, JUST BASED ON STOPPING POWER, which do you think is the superior cartridge?

The backstory, for those that are interested:

My wife has 2 primary CC weapons, a Springfield EMP 1911 9mm, and a Ruger SP-101 Talo Edition .357mag. We were at the range trying out loads for her new SP-101, and my wife noticed that the recoil on the .38spcls actually felt LESS than the 9mm.

My wife is a double distinguished expert NRA shooter, but actually knows very little about cartridges, other than how to deliver them on target. She was very surprised when I pointed out that her 9mm loads we were shooting actually had MORE energy than the "bigger" .38spcls she was shooting, which explained the recoil.

Her contention, then, was that we shouldn't be wasting time with .38spcl loads, since her 9mm held more rounds and had the same power, so she thought the revolver should only use .357mag so it would have more stopping power "per shot" (I was a very proud husband at that point).

Which is when the older shooters, who had been evesdropping, entered the conversation. They contested that the stopping power of the revolver with .38spcls was FAR superior to the 9mm pistol, making it the better choice. However, they didn't have anything to back it up except shaking their head and saying "oh the .38's got more power", even though the chronograph results showed otherwise.

So again, is it still the popular opinion that the .38spcl has more "stopping power" than the 9x19mm? Or have at least the shooters on this board reasoned their way through the rumor-mill and seen the FACTS behind the energy numbers?