I know I've seen the question asked about 20 ways ,it always causes a ruckus.
What boolit by general design gives the best penetration/energy dump for a given task?
I've 1000s hrs of reading on the subject. My best conclusion is that a heavy wadcutter is it.2nd would be a semi of nearly bore ride nose dia.
Has anyone done an actual side by side of say 3 bullets/boolits 1 velocity ,1 cartridge,1 gun,1 medium? My example 38/357 w/a nominal boolit weight say 158gr at 1000 fps with a RNFP,SWC, TC,and a full WC. For that matter same designs in "nominal","standard" loads for say 9mm,45 FMJ ball(125/230). I do know that in some cases its apples/oranges,454 to 45AR or a 380 to a 38super.
I've at my bench the ablity to shoot for this test 38s from a Ruger Sec/6 and a S&W 38 RNFP,TC,SWC and fmj ball of about 130gr. I'm formulating this as I go. My trap would be 7" of fur w/an 1/8 crs backer and a 3/4 ply facer. I'm game to try it with 45Colts except that I've only 200grn RN and a 200 SWC for ACP or a 255 RNFP. I could cut the nose or base down to make it a 200gn WC or RNFP.
If somebody has done this please share if not agg me on.