Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnK
All FMJ round nose, and lead RN have sorry records for stopping power.
They tend to make small puncture wounds, with little surrounding tissue damage (despite the wave of experts telling us that .45 FMJ will stop anything).
Energy TRANSFER, in the target, is what destroys tissue, not the energy wasted through over penetration.
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9mm FMJ is still in use and, while perhaps not ideal, still kills people. So does .45 ACP FMJ.
Energy transfer can be achieved with a medicine ball or a pair of boxing gloves, but usually neither is lethal. At present, the FBI standards call for a certain amount of penetration under various conditions. I believe that this is a good thing.
A small puncture wound in the heart, head or spine can be very helpful at times. Elsewhere, things get kind of iffy, although I believe that a good expanding bullet is a big advantage.
With the cartridges under discussion, expansion rarely occurs. The problem with the .38-200 was that it didn't even penetrate. The 158gr .38 Special did and does. Very different cartridges, one clearly inadequate, the other not so bad.