My old man was (is retired) a surgeon who specialized in trauma. He served in action in Vietnam, worked in Dallas when it was a rougher town, and Detroit when it was the same as it ever was, and quite a few other places.
When I shot a deer with a load of 20 gauge buckshot for the first time, the deer dropped on the spot and we butchered it. Butchering in this case meant a thorough anatomy lesson and dissection for me to learn from. His assessment was that the wound channels looked like someone shot it with a bunch of .38 special bullets. I took it from what he said that he thought a .38 could get the job done, but he always had a handgun handy and never owned a .38 as far as I know.
