wow this has gotten technical. Heres my take on it from field experience. Energy expended means nothing. YOur not going to knock an animal off its feet with even a 460 weatherby. Tissue damage done by hydostatic shock is real and adds to the quick killing of animals no doubt. Jacketed handgun bullets dont have enough velocity to cause enough of it to really add much to the power level of a gun. They may cause a little more tissue damage "IF" they expand but in to many cases in my experience when they do expand they dont penetrate reliably. They a probably fine for small deer that are thin skinned but thats about it. The wound channel made by a cast bullet may not look as impressive as one from a jacketed bullet especially out of a rifle but you have to look at the lenght of a would channel and measure tissue damage done by the complete penetration they give. Keep in mind too that all that hydrostatic shock is causeing meat damage and with cast you can about eat around the hole. Bottom line is ive take a few animals with handguns. Ive seen jacket bullets fail on bear, pigs and even deer. Granted 90 percent of the time they work just fine and when they do a deer will probably take to leaps and pile up instead of 4 with a cast bullet. But I can take a shot at just about any game animal with a good load and a hardcast bullet at any angle that will put the bullet into the vitals and have one dead animal. I can honestly say ive never seen a cast bullet fail to do its job. Bigger calibers seem to mean quicker kills but again were talking about 4 leaps instead of 6. Until you get into animals that are on the far side of 1000 lbs the penetration advantage a 475 or .500 or even a 454 isnt really needed and if you can pick your shot the .45 colt and 44 mag will blow through about any animal broadside. Ive hunted with rifles for many years before i took up handgun hunting and have done it with many calibers and ill put a 44 mag or 45 colt with a cast bullet with a good metplat at 1000 fps or better up against an 06 under 100 yards for quick killing anyday and if you look at the fpe comparison it would be a joke. Bottom line is put a bullet through the vitals of an animal and you have one dead animal and about nothing does this any more reliably then a properly designed cast bullet traveling at 1000 fps + with enough mass and sectional density for the caliber used. No magaizines quoted, nobody elses experience quoted just blood on the gutting knife!
