Bullet placement is everything. However, the elusive search for a magic bullet that will turn a gut shot into a bang flop every time continues.

If kinetic energy is everything how in the world did my brother, our friends and I ever kill lots of deer with our .25/20 and .32/20 guns in the early 50s in WV? Those guns did not make 1000 foot pounds at the muzzle. We killed those deer because we put the bullets in the right place.

I routinely kill big wild hogs with a .22 magnum and FMJ bullets. Those hogs die because they are hit in the right place. Once saw a guy gutshoot a huge hog with a .300 Win Mag and someones spiffy premium 180 grain bullet. That big sow never missed a beat and just kept on trucking for about one-half mile. We jumped the wounded hog in a plum thicket and the guy gut shot her again. So we had another chase before the hog died.