The problem with trying to reduce "killing power" to an engineering problem is that animals aren't steel targets, much less bridges.
And even when somebody comes up with a formula that might have some real exoerience behind it, such as John Taylor's "Knock-Out" formula, it gets used incorrectly. Taylor initially published it in his first book, specifically stating that it only applied to solid bullets on large game from buffalo to elephant. Trouble was, he didn't mention that in his second book, and now every other SCI member quotes "Taylor numbers" when explaining why some cartridge isn't truly adequate for anything from dik-dik to Siberian moose.
In my younger years I even formulated a killing-power formula, but had the good sense not to publish it. Since then I've come up with another, which I have published: B-2L=D
