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A buddy and I did a ton of backyard ballistics testing in the 70s using warm duct seal (oil based clay, when warmed over night to >150 degrees it felt like raw steak). I know bullet designs have improved but I doubt any of the laws of physics have been revised. We would fire into the clay, roll it over and fill the cavity with plaster of paris to get a mold of the wound cavity. Yes somewhat out of date but a good point of comparison.
In every caliber the middle weight bullets gave the largest wound cavity, greatest expansion and near equal penetration to the heavier bullets. Expansion depends on velocity and while the lighter bullets have the velocity they did not seem to have enough bullet material to make a big mushroom, and the heaviest bullets while having plenty of bullet material did not seem to have the velocity to generate a good mushroom. It always seemed the mid weight bullets gave the best overall performance.
Recently with the advent of companies like Corbon utilizing solid copper bullets like the Barns X in their DPX loadings you have the light weight combined with sufficient bullet (due to copper being lighter than lead) to have the best combination. Before coming to Iraq I had switched all carry guns to solid copper rounds and that is what is in the wife's carry gun now.
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