Taylor's KO numbers were supposedly based on the time an elephant remained "knocked out" by a bullet that narrowly missed the brain, though plenty of African PH's say they've found it to be BS.
Taylor also did not state in his most popular book, AFRICAN RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES, that his KO notion was based on solid, "bluff-nosed" bullets and heavy, thick-skinned game. His slightly earlier book BIG GAME AND BIG GAME RIFLES, also published in 1948, makes this point plainly. Despite that, many hunters somehow apply KO to all hunting cartridges and expanding bullets.
Phil's conclusions are not theories, but based on long experience with a wide variety of cartridges for stopping brown bears, using cartridges from the 9mm Parabellum to the .505 Gibbs. He did not try to convert them to a formula, as Taylor did. I've always wondered how many "knocked-out" elephants Taylor timed to see how long they took to wake up....
