The .44 caliber black powder 9" barrel Walker actually has a higher stopping power rating, as does the old .45 Long Colt, 7 ½" barrel Single Action Army Colt from 1873, than does the .44 S&W Magnum round fired from the 8 ⅜ " Smith &Wesson Model 29 on the Hatcher Relative Stopping Power Scale. The .44 S&W Magnum at its best will rate around 60 to 66 on the Hatcher Scale, while the old black powder rounds of the long barreled .45 Long Colt rate an amazing 75 or so and the older yet Walker, would rate at a whopping 78!
"Why?" you are probably asking.
It has to do with the physics of energy transfer. A sonic boom occurs when an object reaches the speed of sound of the medium it's traveling in. . . the boom is caused by its sudden lowered ability to efficiently transfer energy. Above that threshold energy doesn't transfer as easily. . . but below it it does. An object, say a bullet, cannot efficiently transfer its energy until it reaches the speed of sound — the velocity at which the medium can accept the energy and move it away — of that medium. So, our hypervelocity bullet from a magnum is somewhat limited in the damage it can do even though it's carrying oodles of energy, until it slows enough to deliver that energy. The speed of sound in air is around 1130 feet per second, but in water it's a bit faster, say 1250, but your Magnum bullet is trucking along at 1600 ft/sec. it's gonna punch a nice neat hole in the target while shedding some velocity but it might take, oh say 9" to lose 400 feet per second of speed. The average human body is only 9" thick, chest to back . By the time our .44 mag has slowed enough to do real knock down shock damage, it's on its way to an innocent bystander!
The guy you hit with the Magnum may be mortally wounded, but it's a nice neat hole that's gonna bleed, while he keeps a shootin' at you and others, until he keels over from blood loss! The thing lacking was the knockdown punch unless you got lucky and hit bone or a vital organ, etc.
Now, let's take our antique cartridge or cap and ball hog legs. . . Those Bullets never ever reach the speed of sound! They're moseying along at about 1100 feet per second and hit the intended bad guy and start delivering every foot pound they're carrying right from the get go and then STOP in the target delivering ALL of those foot pounds where it will do the most good. . . and they are unlikely to add collateral bystander damage to innocent people, pets, or even bureaucrats after passing through several walls, down the street. Voilá, better stopping power!
The neat thing about the black powder revolvers for gunfights in saloons was that you didn’t really even need to hit the adversary with a bullet, the air pollution would kill him....
THAT was a great discussion o ballistics.
There’s a lot to be said about slow and heavy.