HBP,

im glad we are all keepin it friendly. sometimes one guy will get the wrong impression and then it gets nasty, thats not my intention and i can see its not yours either

I know nobody hunts wet newspaper, but for medium to test the penatration fairly between two different rounds i think its fine. Both are shot into the same medium, so the comparison between the two can be made. I agree real animals are different, you may get more or less penatration depending on where it impacts the animal, hits bones, ect. I dont know of any better way to compare two cartridges than this, so i think its fair.

Obviously the guy tested the 30.06 more than 7mm, but i tried to pick a simalar bullet with a realistic velocity spread between the two. And the test was valid for 100, 200, 300, ect yards, because the bullets tested were often at different velocities. The only thing that is different when your bullet hits an animal at 400 yards vs. 10 feet is the velocity. So just pick a 7mm test with the bullet you want and the impact velocity you are interested in. The guy that performed the test tried to make that point, maybe you missed it?

Glad you looked at the site, it opened my eyes to a lot of things i had been questioning, like the real value of "Knockdown" formulas and kinetic energy value, "hydrostatic shock", energy transfer, etc.

Buck,
I think you missed it. Higher velocity does NOT lead to more penatration it leads to less. Sectional density has a a bit to do with it, but its not the whole picture.
sectional density is bullet weight divided by bullet diameter squared

SD = w/(d^2)

So keeping the same bullet weight, going smaller in bullet diameter will lead to a higher sectional density. And make a smaller hole. Where do you draw the line, take a the same weight bullet in 25 caliber, and it will have a much higher sectional density than a 7mm, does that mean it is better? Its not even a linear relationship, going a little smaller in diameter leads to a MUCH bigger sectional density.

Ballistic coeficient has nothing to do with penatration, only retained velocity, which if in the upper range leads to less penatration anyway. The real factors in penatration are bullet construction/deformation/performance and impact velocity. The higher kinetic energy from your bullet is used up, but at the high velocity with violent bullet expansion, lots of that energy is used up in bullet deformation instead damage via the deep wound channel we want.

If you dont want to read the test i gave a link to above and much of the data used was from very well know "experts" such as Rick Jamison, Ross Seyfried, and Finn Aagaard, look in your nosler book for confirmation that with the bullets you and i both prefer, more velocity leads to less penatration.

In Nosler reloading guide #4, it tells of Rick Jamison doing a penatration test with a 165 grain nosler partition out of a 300 win mag and a .308 winchester. The 300 win mag at an impact velocity of 3,111 fps had 16.5 inches of penatration, and the .308 winchester at an impact velocity of 2,460 had 17 inches of penatration. This is with a huge velocity difference, same bullet.

When i go to alaska, im not taking the 7 mag (cuz i sold it, piddly little thing!), or my 30.06 that i really like, ill take my 35 whelen. Same case as the 30.06, lower velocity, lower sectional density, lower ballistic coefficient, no comparison in performance. 250 grain bullet at 2500 fps means more penatration, and much bigger hole, i like that. Course, its all theory as i just got the thing last week, and havent killed anything with it yet. But hey its my new toy and I just have to tell everybody about it! ) You may be better suited than me however, if you are after dall sheep