

As a rule of thumb, the best soft body armor vests can stop just about any pistol round short of the aforementioned novelty ammunition, even the mighty. 500 Smith and Wesson pistol rounds, novelty ammunition largely disliked by even strong, veteran shooters for their titanic recoil and ludicrous price per bullet. A full-power rifle round (such as the 7.62mm NATO) is considered superior to even the gigantic. These firearms have far better accuracy, effective range, and muzzle energy than any pistol - while various factors make universal rules tricky to apply to terminal ballistics, a standard intermediate-power rifle round (such as the 5.56mm NATO) is generally considered superior to any non-novelty pistol round. In Real Life, there are very good reasons why the militaries of the world unanimously arm their soldiers with long guns as primary weapons.
