Originally posted by flop-shank:
wadcutters tend to penetrate very deeply.
Well, it is pretty obvious that you and I are not in agreement.
You stated "wadcutters tend to penetrate very deeply"; that is the exact opposite of my experience and observations during testing.
Any projectile having a larger frontal area will resist penetration in any medium. A full-wadcutter, having a caliber-diameter flat meplat area, is obviously the extreme end of any comparative scale applied to bullets. Wadcutters do not even penetrate air with any degree of efficiency, losing velocity in flight more quickly than any other projectile-type, so when encountering anything more dense than air (flesh, bone, liquid) they will decelerate far more rapidly. Yes, they will stay on course more reliably, because of (1) inherent balance of projectile weight, as compared to a SWC or cone-shaped bullet of any style which has the bulk of its weight at the rear, thus allowing it to tip more easily when meeting resistance, and (2) far greater engagement in the rifling, resulting in maximum stabilization (which is why they were developed for target use).
No readily available medium will provide an exact match, compared to bullet performance in a body. The military used to use goats and sheep, until the animal rights folks made a fuss about it. I used water-filled plastic milk jugs because they are convenient, and because energy transfer in a primarily-liquid medium has at least a reasonable correlation to the subject of the experimentation.
You are certainly entitled to your opinions. The same type of arguments have gone on ever since the advent of "high performance" handgun ammunition (lighter bullets at high velocity vs. heavier bullets at lower velocity, each side of the debate has its own opinions and there is some evidence to support each side).
My opinion is that whatever type of ammunition is utilized it is always better to transfer all of the projectile's energy to the intended target, overpenetration is wasted energy (and also an added danger in populated areas). Terminal performance includes not only the damage directly administered by the bullet, but also the damage caused by transfers of energy within the target. Bullets having larger, and more blunt, frontal areas push a shock wave ahead of the penetrating projectile, causing greater cavitation as well as increased tissue damage to the surrounding area resulting from an overpressure shock wave created by compression of the (primarily-liquid) material.
I've seen the results, and I've shared my observations. Others can take them or leave them, as they choose.