"Just speculating, of course, I've managed to overcome the temptation to do any actual research into the matter." That's a very useful statement, I hope you don't mind if I borrow it profusely in the future.
The only game I've "stopped" was some charging (or more likely confused) ground squirrels although I have put the lights out right now on a couple of running deer someone else had hit badly, a .30-06 with 165 gr. Hornady Interlocks in the front shoulders worked just fine for those. I did fail miserably to stop a genuinely pissed off charging right at me Florida razorback; missing him with a .22 revolver was just as ineffective as missing him with a .458. Some rule about God and fools probably saved my bacon in that instance.
So just thinking out loud here, but I'm wondering if we aren't at a time to change our opinion of what it takes to be a stopper, a stopping rifle, whatever you want to call it. Some replies here note that the big bullets commonly associated with the breed are used to ensure penetration to the vitals through heavy bone and muscle, but in the end isn't this an example of placement? You have to be sure to hit the animal where it lives so it dies. For years the mantra for handgun fights was to get something starting with a 4, but nowadays with bonded bullets and such it seems the 9mm can be just as effective. A fellow on here who I trust implicitly for BTDT advice on those matters carries a Glock 9mm so I can't think of a more reliable endorsement. Again, placement being key.
On the other hand, bigger bullets make bigger holes, bigger holes let more blood leak out quicker resulting in a quicker death. But my experience and the vast experience of others on game large and small still shows very little difference in the rapidity of termination given good placement and the sudden stopping of forward motion given good hits in the skeleton.
I know I'm going around the same circles trod by writers since before I was born, but am wondering if we really know what is it about the larger bores that makes animals go "all loose" real sudden like as I think Teddy Roosevelt described as opposed to just keeling over after a few seconds. Or, if the penetrating and bone breaking capabilities of smaller bores due to better bullets might give them the effectiveness that heretofore was only the realm of large solids?
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
