There have been lot of people killed by horribly anemic cartridges through out the years. Many a many died from being shot in the gut by a .41 rimfire a few days or weeks after the original shooting. Used in many derringers, the .41 rimfire had about 52 foot/pounds of energy. Compare this to the .44 magnum, which according to Dirty Harry will blow your head clean off. That round carries about 1200 foot/pounds of force. Think about that... 52 versus 1200. And yet if someone pulled an old .41 rimfire pocket pistol on me, I'd be very cautious.
There's a psychological impact to guns. This is why the racking of a pump shotgun is the bane of a burglar's existence and why I know that even though I'd very likely survive being shot once with a .41 rimfire, especially with medical help. When a mugger pulls a pistol of any sort, his intent is to rely on your fear of pain and dying to make you comply. The round with the most kills attributed to it amongst the civillian popuation of the US, I think is the .357 magnum. Its a great self-defense around with quite effective stopping power. That is to say, it stops people. Sometimes it doesn't stop them fast enough. Where my mother used to live, a drug dealer lived down the street. He was attacked by an addict and defended himself with his trusty .357 magnum. He shot the addict 3 times in the torso. The addict still wrestled the gun away from the dealer, shot him in the stomach once and then they both died shortly after. Good stopping power but not perfect stopping power.
The meth-headed Fel on the current page probably is counting not on the stopping power of his pistol, but the psychological leverage, it provides. Its important, however, to talk about the calibers considered necessary for hunting or defending yourself from wildlife. The calibers are higher, heavier and more powerful when you start talking about larger animals. You need "stopping power". You can successfully defend yourself from a bear using .22 LR, but its not that easy. You certainly can't rely on the psychological effects of handguns to deter the bear.
It should be noted that most of the population in SLOP's FUS is within the human averages. In my own general rules for the universe, 80% of SLOP races are around human averages in terms of height and weight. 10% of the races are smaller and 10% of the races are larger on average. Tony is 6'10 and about 450 pounds. Veprs get that big. Brice was 4'10 and about 90 pounds. Reynard are about that small. There are races with average heights even taller than Veprs. Check out this Bos.
http://www.rustedtusks.com/slop/index.p ... &p=21&nc=1Harhursa are around Vepr sized or larger.
http://www.rustedtusks.com/slop/index.p ... 6&p=5&nc=1Now, since most muggers don't want to actually kill anyone, they just want some money... one can figure that the deer isn't intending to shoot unless he really truly has to. He's going to rely on fear and intimidation to get the job done. Ask yourself...do you really want to try to intimidate Sam and Tony? That's NOT an easy task.
For the record, the Fel mugger's name is Roy "El Roy" Buxton. Every critter that appears in SLOP gets a name and a tiny backstory in my head, even if they're only appearing in a single panel. I don't think El Roy is going to get what he expected.