Sarg:

Sciuchetti's impressive testing documented in HANDLOADER No.193/June-July 1998 pretty much closes the door on rotational force as having any noticeable effect on terminal ballistics.

By the way, if you want to see the effects of kinetic energy just watch the progression of effects on bullets as velocity increases on his chart.

JPK's expounding is pretty much on target as with NON-deforming bullets, speed makes the projectile penetrate farther, ditto FMJ handgun rounds.

It is interesting to read all this. JPK is interested in FMJ's on elephants. I have no experience on elephants but I do have some experience with FMJ's in pistols on butcher stock {some dozens}. It is interesting that slower FMJ's produce less trauma than do faster FMJ's. And faster FMJ's, even of smaller caliber, sometimes produce more trauma surrounding the bullet hole/path than do larger bullets. Interesting. Regardless, at typical service pistol speeds, all pistol FMJ's lack decisive "stopping power", whatever that is, unless CNS is hit and then they all look pretty good.

A .243 at such and such ft-lbs energy kills elk less well than does a .340 Wby at higher ft-lbs. In this case, ft-lbs is a "good" indicator of killing power.

Ft-lb's fails many times in other examples.

All this chat does is highlight that NO mathematical formula is a perfect predictor of killing power. Some are better indicators under certain circumstances, but fail under others.

Best to shoot game. Second best to compare in a testing medium/media.