#1, Kinetic energy never killed nobody. Anybody tells you they can tell you with any certainty how much kinetic energy a bullet needs to kill something/anything is blowing smoke up your skirt. You kill shit by either letting out enough blood to deprive the brain of oxygen or breaking some critical component of the organic life support system. Unlike momentum, there is no principle of physics dictating that KE must be conserved. Penetration favors mass because momentum
must be conserved. Professor Newton told us so. Momentum is for killing. Kinetic energy is for ad campaigns.
#2, There is no hydrostatic shock at subsonic velocities to create tissue crush injuries (the "temporary" wound cavity), so either objective (from #1, above) is best accomplished by drilling the widest, deepest hole (permanent wound cavity) you can. If two holes are of equal depth, the wider hole wins. Every time.
#3, At subsonic velocities, the vast majority of conventional CF rifle bullets do not expand reliably. This is the .300AAC's particular Achilles' heel: lack of suitable commercially-available projectiles. If they don't expand or experience upset (resulting in tumbling), all you'll get is an ice pick wound. And upset is less likely because dedicated subsonic barrels always have a tighter twists than "regular" (1:8 in the case of the .300AAC). So the bullet will have better stability on penetration than if fired from a "regular" barrel, reducing the tendency to tumble.
That might yield better penetration, but with an extremely narrow wound channel. Which reduces the statistical probability of encountering a vital organ. It's even possible for vital organs to be directly in the bullet's path, but only get gently pushed aside undamaged by glancing off the ogive. Less likely with a blunt bullet. Even in bullets of the same caliber, at SSS velocities, blunt ogives have been demonstrated to cause more extensive tissue damage than pointy ones. And, as in this case, if the blunter bullet also happens to be of a larger caliber, that just magnifies it potential advantages because it will be plowing the wider furrow, and stands a higher statistical probability of breaking something vital.
A cylinder .452" in diameter has a cross-sectional area a bit more than twice that of a cylinder .308" diameter. Therefore the permanent wound channel created by a non-expanding .45 ACP bullet typically will involve twice as much tissue as a non-expanding .308 Win bullet (stipulating equal penetration). Which equals twice the odds of inflicting a lethal injury.
#4, There is dramatically less drag at SSS velocities (no supersonic "wave form" drag), which minimizes differences in aerodynamic efficiency. In this application, the CF rifle bullet's slim aerodynamic advantage doesn't come anywhere close to making up for its terminal effects
disadvantages to a blunter, larger caliber bullet of similar weight.
If both bullets have a 900 fps MV, sure enough, a 220 grain SMK will have 5.5% more retained velocity @100 yards than a 230gr .45 ball (according to
JBM), but the 230-grainer still gets to more than 200 yards before it falls below 750 fps. That's still a ferocious force, and still will stomp anything it made sense to hunt with a .45 to begin with. With a 100-yard zero, there's only 2" difference in the drop of the two bullets @200 yards. Not exactly earth-shattering.
5. Except for implications to danger space and wind drift, BC does not influence accuracy.
Which is why my next AR will be a .450 Bushmaster. Which, BTW, shoots a bullet nearly 3x as heavy as anything you can stuff into a .300 AAC. From regular AR mags. Yeah, you lose magazine capacity, but wadda ya want for nothing? Rubber biscuit?
Bonus points, the .450 Bushy shares the same bolt face as the .30 Remington AR, which has substantially better supersonic performance than the .300 AAC, about 600 fps more MV with 125-grainers. And it also uses AR mags. It's not a round that's in good commercial health, but that has more to do with the company than with the cartridge. And since I reload, all I need to is stock up on brass and I'm set for life, even if it vanishes from store shelves.
Problem with 45 ACP is long range accuracy. Bullet is not designed to go far....
Okay, you've piqued my interest. How far
was the .45 ACP intended to go? Because knowing how far it
wasn't intended to go necessarily is dependent on the knowledge of how far it
was intended to go. If you know one, you must know the other. So please enlighten me.
...Sure, 458 SOCOM has more energy than 300BLK, but it has downsides that the blackout doesn't, such as reduced mag capacity, high recoil, and it's more difficult (almost impossible?) to stay on target in full auto....
Have a lot of trigger time with full auto .458SOCOMs, do you?
Both the .458SOCOM and the .300AAC were created after 18 May, 1986 so there are no legally transferable fully-automatic examples of either in existence. None. That's this many: 0. So other than clutching at straws (or maybe post-purchase rationalization), I fail to see what your point is.
...BC trumps equal weight and equal muzzle velocity.
Uh... ...no.