Third, I'll take field data every last time. You can do all the testing you want, but that means very little in the real world often. My real world was full of pigs and 110 JHP WW ammo. Shot from around 10 yards out to about 65 or so, I"d take my Kimber 45 every last time. ANd the rest of the folks I've talked to agree.
Whoa, there's your problem. You shouldn't be using high velocity lightweight JHP's with little sectional density on something like a pig; results are rather predictable on this one. The bullet is going to open up and essentially rip itself apart when going through tough swine flesh. If you want to kill hogs with a .30 Carbine, the 110 SP does the job just fine when you place your shots with care. A hog's muscle tissue is far thicker and more dense than a humans. Lightweight bullets that would perform very well against two legged threats would be completely insufficient for a hog.
I used to carry my Carbine as "backup" when we went on knife hunts; never failed me and tended to be about perfect for the job. Never mind carrying a low recoil 5.5lb rifle that shoots fast when it counts.
Our experiences with the JHP is that they didn't open up like a normal HP bullet, and as such, didn't kill all that quickly. More like my 32-20.
As to carbine vs pistol, at what folks are considering carbine ranges, I'm just as happy with my 1911, if I wanted to carry the length and weight of the carbine it would be a short AR, and as to the inference of the AR not being as reliable, thats only an issue if you don't know what you are doing with it as far as I can tell.
I have NOT shot a pig with a soft point, so you may be right on there, maybe the hide/shields etc plugged the HP part and that was an issue. I do know this, a pig shot with a 30 carbine HP bullet dies about as fast as when I shoot em in the ribs with my 22 lr MK2 and HPs... which is fast enough for me by all means, but then again what would I want to pack that carbine for when my MK2 is good to 50 yards easy...
I suspect some of this will boil down to personal preference really.
And its a shame we lost the lease that was full of pigs since the 80s, there went my prime test ground because we could shoot 3-7 or so pigs every other weekend if we wanted to...
