RE: For All you 223 Fans
There is nothing wrong with your example. However, rightfully so, you’ve customized your example to suit your argument. And it is a good example of what could really happen. But how many examples could we use?
I would pose the question to you, using your example, why not try to get all 2900 ft-lbs of energy into the animal? You could do it, if you got a faster expanding projectile, but why? It is excessive, in my opinion to try to do so and would probably look more like an explosion took place than an animal getting shot.
In your example, you’d be sending a projectile beyond your target with 1100 ft-lbs of energy. Is that responsible? In most cases, sure, in some, probably not. Since in your example you wasted 1100 lbs, you wasted gun powder, brass, copper and lead. You probably spend more money on your rifle and the same rifle chambered in .223. And this situation is fine, but so is not wasting the energy.
Now, what if you only put 350 ft-lbs of energy into the deer? Keep in mind that is about the power of a .45 ACP which I’d have to assume that we’d agree is capable of traveling through the ribcage of a deer. Now you’ve got 2550 ft-lbs of energy going beyond your target.
I think that the second example is closer to reality than the first. I guess we’d have to compare a lot more than just energy and speed though to come to any real conclusion.