[Servant of the Nine]

General Julian Hatcher, a noted forensic pathologist,

No, General Hatcher was an Army Ordnance Officer.
He was not in any way a medical man.
His material is over 50 years out of date.
The modern expanding bullet is not factored into his material at all.

Try "Handgun Stopping Power" or "Street Stoppers" by Evan P. Marshall and Edwin J. Sanow. Their data is up to date and based on actual shootings, not theory.

They have tabulated every shooting they could find by caliber and ammo brand and rate the % of one shot stops with a body hit.

You can look up your gun and ammo brand and see the actual percentage of times one body shot stopped the other person.

So9

[Travis McGee]

Sure it's 50 years out of date, but what a great way to kick off a pistol packin' thread!! WhooHooo!!!

[RobFromGa]

any ideas on my post #92. You sound knowledgable.

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

Increased bullet mass will increase penetration. Increased velocity will increase penetration but only until the bullet begins to deform, at which point increased velocity decreases penetration. Permanent cavity can be increased by the use of expanding bullets, and/or larger diameter bullets, which have adequate penetration. However, in no case should selection of a bullet be made where bullet expansion is necessary to achieve desired performance. Handgun bullets expand in the human target only 60-70% of the time at best. Damage to the hollow point by hitting bone, glass, or other intervening obstacles can prevent expansion.

I think that when one considers stopping power of a handgun round it is best to assume worst case scenario (your hollow point does not expand 40% of the time). I do not think that all Julian Hatcher's information is out of date. The point of this article is that bullet weights over 179 grain that are .40 caliber or larger will penetrate more tissue and cause damage thereby hopefully defeating your opponent more effectively than smaller caliber speedy rounds. Some of the information may be incorrect but there are things we can learn from Hatcher's work.