A very simple question: how much of what will you need to accomplish an intended task. A corollary: at what point will you experience diminishing returns.

The .300 WM has impressive kinetic energy (ballistic tables) vis-a-vis the 150 year old .45/70 Gov't. If I had to go into thick stuff after a mean griz, I'd take a Model 1895 loaded with modern .45/70 ammo every single time.

We would have a much more clearly defined picture of energy requirements if we were to grasp the process of incapacity. Without CNS destruction, a good guy must rely upon reducing a bad guy's blood pressure to zero while avoiding taking a bad guy's rounds. Nothing living remains in that condition absent topside oxygenated blood flow. The potentially fatal problem for good guys is it can take a very long time to deny a dirt bag's grey matter of oxygenated blood flow, all the while he'll remain a very deadly threat.

Cops do not have the option of avoidance. They have to confront and possibly engage. Those of us who are retired cops and those who are not sworn cops, shouldn't engage unless no other option exists.

Two rules that will assure remaining vertical:

1. Avoid, avoid, and avoid some more to include hightailing it outta a potentially deadly encounter. It's much more wise to be a live witness than a dead hero.

2. If 1 is not an option, do not get shot. That means you'll have to get out of a bad guy's sight picture.

Always remember that a gunfight involves a bad guy who wants to reduce a good guy to evidence of murder and his corpse scheduled for autopsy the following morning.