Do I have your permission to 'steal' this and quote you?
Sure.
Plus, let me rephrase and expand some of my first post on the thread.
If your bullet impacts at sufficient speed, it will open fully. As you increase impact speed, the length of the wound channel will not increase. It remains pretty constant until you reach the point that the bullet begins to fail. At that point, penetration begins to decrease.
Sadly, some of the best information we have on the effect of bullets was gathered by physicians treating battle wounds.
One thing that is understood is that the energy dump in tissue results in two different effects. The tissue directly in front of the bullet is crushed and torn. The tissue around this wound channel is elastically stretched. Slow, heavy bullets do more crushing and tearing. Fast, light bullets do more elastic stretching ("bloodshot"). It's the crushing and tearing that creates the wound channel.
Hydrostatic shock is an oxymoron. Hydro means water, and static means standing still. Hydrostatics is the study of water or other liquids that are not in motion.
Now maybe there is some form of hydraulic shock at work when a bullet impacts. Maybe that kills game faster. I don't claim to know. But please don't call it hydrostatic shock.
