From my own experience - in shooting and killing hogs, not rocks - a heavy for caliber hard cast bullet in .44 mag, or .45 Colt, is destructive well beyond what "paper ballistics" indicate it should be. Yes, once those big, heavy bullets get moving, they take some doing to stop! More than once I've shot through and killed two feral hogs with one shot and did not recover the bullet. The .44 mag is far and away my favorite cartridge, but it cannot do EVERYTHING. I did read Elmer's book, Sixguns, and like Deflave said here once, if was not that easy or enjoyable to read. I read it often and closely enough to remember than even Elmer said of his "long range" handgun shooting that it was "stunt" shooting, and he described walking the shots in my holding great distances above the target. I am sure this is fun and challenging, but - again - mostly because of the topography where I live - it is not something I could do on a regular basis. I need to be aware of where my bullets might go, and what they might do when they get there - when shooting anything.
By the way, Elmer also bragged of killing hawks, great horned owls, even horses.
Mike
How old are you? In Elmers day that was normal, hell when I was growing up hawks and owls were vermin and shot regularly.
