Kinda strange question that I can't find a satisfactory answer to, so I figured I'd ask it here, considering P&S seems to have the best signal to noise ratio on the internet.
I believe we are all in agreement around here that there is minimal difference in terminal effect between the common service pistol cartridges, since they all expand to roughly the same diameter, give or take a tenth of an inch or so, and all penetrate roughly the same distance, give or take a couple of inches.
The thing that keeps bugging me is that it is also easily established that .40 S&W has more energy to work with than 9mm, which we can reasonably say is the yardstick by which other cartridges are measured, and energy is a measure of the amount of work a bullet can do.
So what work is the extra energy doing? There is a slight increase in expansion and penetration, but it doesn't seem to be entirely in keeping with the increase in energy.
I believe we are all in agreement around here that there is minimal difference in terminal effect between the common service pistol cartridges, since they all expand to roughly the same diameter, give or take a tenth of an inch or so, and all penetrate roughly the same distance, give or take a couple of inches.
The thing that keeps bugging me is that it is also easily established that .40 S&W has more energy to work with than 9mm, which we can reasonably say is the yardstick by which other cartridges are measured, and energy is a measure of the amount of work a bullet can do.
So what work is the extra energy doing? There is a slight increase in expansion and penetration, but it doesn't seem to be entirely in keeping with the increase in energy.