For appreciating Taylor's ideas about handgun use for big game, you have to understand the man and his time: Taylor was British, period. He disdained everything and everyone not British, especially German and metric. He published his "African Rifles & Cartridges" in 1948. So his practical experiences may be dated to the 1930s. He used factory loads exclusively. To him "handloading" was a thing of past, blackpowder times. He had limited ballistic knowledge. Reread his paragraph on the 9.3x62: He complains bitterly about the Krauts offering a higher speed load for this cartridge, as "it will not shoot to a different point of aim". He had probably never heard of American experimenters like Keith and high speed handloads for the .38 or .44 Special. He never dreamt of such Magnum revolver loads like .357, .44, .480 or .500. To him a "revolver" was probably a Webley or, perhaps a S&W or Colt in .38 Special. To him "revolver cartridges" were most likely the .455, the .38 S&W aka .38/200 and the .38 Special, all standard velocity, round nose lead bullet loads. To accuse these cartridges to have " mediocre penetration", is a bit flattering IMHO. To Taylor "self loading pistols" were probably Webleys again, with a few Colts and Mauser C96 still floating around in the British Empire. So the halfway powerful pistol cartridges known to him were most likely the .455 Webley Automatic, the 9mm Browning long. the .38 Auto and he .30 Mauser, all loaded with standard velocity, round nose fmj bullets only and chambered by Webley & Scott in their weird Automatics. So he had to rely on penetration only. The .38 Auto likely gave the best penetration combined with a halfway decent bullet diameter of all the handgun loads known to him.