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Well, the OP posted this in the Ar forum but talked about his 9mm so I guess it is a little open to what calibers, situations, etc. exist.

Go prairie dog shooting with an AR-15 and take another rifle along like a .300 RUM. I have seen dogs run in the ground after having been hit by a 5.56 but never have I seen a dog go anywhere but several directions at once with my .300 RUM. :supergrin:

 

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In my opinion they broke two rules in hunting. The first was choice of caliber and the second was shot placement. I have never seen much success with hunting deer or antelope with higher caliber rifles especially not magnum calibers. The problem you run into is the bullet typically passes through the carcass so little to no energy is actually absorbed by the animal. My .300 RUM will pass through an elk if I'm not careful in bullet selection. For instance, I had 3 180 grain sirrocco loads left over that I loaded into the rifle. I shot an elk at about 100 yards. It just stood there for a moment and then took off into the timber. I couldn't get off a second shot so I had to take chase. I found blood on both sides of the trail and I knew I was in for a task. I eventually caught up to it and finished it with a head shot. That bullet has a hard plastic tip on it and it travels way too fast for that kind of application. A nosler partition or boattail of some kind in a larger grain would have been a better choice but I learned a lesson by using what I had and I paid the price and so did the animal. Usually the elk I shoot with that .300 ultra do not go anywhere they dump right where they are and stay there. A deer or smaller is much worse. I like to use a 25-06 on deer or antelope using a nosler or even soft point bullet in the 125 gr. range. This has proven very effective on deer. They usually dump right where they are when shot through the hotbox. All of the energy from that rifle is absorbed by the animal causing multiple traumas. The separation of the bullet itself causes the most trauma to several organs at the same time. However, shot placement to me is the most important. I have seen animals shot in the lungs run great distances until the foam eventually gets them and they bleed out internally. Larger calibers are usually picked by hunters for the worng reasons. A larger calbier can sometimes make up for a mediocre shooter. Case in point is a shot placement to the front shoulders of an animal. I've seen many animals run on three legs before having a broken front shoulder. A larger magnum rifle will usually penetrate and break both shoulders. I haven't seen many animals run with two broken front shoulders. It can go back to a bad shot placement to the rear chest cavity with that larger rifle and I've seen people lose an animal after having tracked it for miles because no trauma was done as the bullet didn't separate and simply went right through the carcass.

I was watching hunting shows yesterday at my sister's, I don't get the outdoor channel. They were shooting thin skinned deer with 308s and magnum calibers. I did not see one deer that did not have the energy to run at least 40 yards. Now imagine if they were shooting back at you. How many rounds could they got off with that much energy left?


So if a deer can take a 7mm or 8mm mag to the lungs/heart area with a bullet made to dump its energy into the animal.......and still run enough that you have to track it...... why do you expect 1 shot to stop a human with a lesser powerful round.