Most of what Well Armed has written I would concur with. His observations on wound ballistics are supported by the data in Patrick and Hall "In Defense of Self and Others" and Artwohl and Christensen "Deadly Force Encounters 2ed.
Ballistic gelatin is useful for comparing the performance of various bullets in ballistic gelatin. It is a uniform consistent medium. Mammals are not made of uniform consistent material. Ballistic gelatin performance is not the same as what happens in the human body with layers of fat and muscle and organs and bone that perform nothing like ballistic gelatin.
My opinion is that "Momentum" is more important than Kinetic energy. Back when I was a kid ammo makers listed both momentum and kinetic energy in their ballistic tables. Momentum is conserved, all of the momentum goes into the target doing damage until the bullet stops. Penetration tracks momentum. Kinetic energy is dissipated in many ways, including sound, heat, and tissue damage plus others. Momentum is a linear function of velocity. Kinetic energy tracks the velocity squared
if you increase the velocity of a bullet by 50% you will increase the momentum by 50%; you will increase the kinetic energy by 125%.
As Well Armed pointed out, placement and penetration are the two most critical elements to achieving a fatal hit. I prefer .45 hardball, 9mm JSP, as heavy as I can get, and 32 ACP JSP to 380 JHP. YMMV, particularly for LEOs
Ballistic gelatin is useful for comparing the performance of various bullets in ballistic gelatin. It is a uniform consistent medium. Mammals are not made of uniform consistent material. Ballistic gelatin performance is not the same as what happens in the human body with layers of fat and muscle and organs and bone that perform nothing like ballistic gelatin.
My opinion is that "Momentum" is more important than Kinetic energy. Back when I was a kid ammo makers listed both momentum and kinetic energy in their ballistic tables. Momentum is conserved, all of the momentum goes into the target doing damage until the bullet stops. Penetration tracks momentum. Kinetic energy is dissipated in many ways, including sound, heat, and tissue damage plus others. Momentum is a linear function of velocity. Kinetic energy tracks the velocity squared
if you increase the velocity of a bullet by 50% you will increase the momentum by 50%; you will increase the kinetic energy by 125%.
As Well Armed pointed out, placement and penetration are the two most critical elements to achieving a fatal hit. I prefer .45 hardball, 9mm JSP, as heavy as I can get, and 32 ACP JSP to 380 JHP. YMMV, particularly for LEOs
