Is a rifle round always better than a pistol round?

[JHC]

I haven't shot enough critters to be confident in this but so far, anything I've shot in the heart lungs with a good 223 and the bullet did not exit was an almost instantaneous drop. Like piled up within 10 yards of the spot they took the round.

This has been deer and feral hogs. I still remember a hog I shot just behind the front shoulder with a Federal 55 grain bonded. The round stopped in the back shoulder and broke it. The hog dropped and on field dressing, everything in the chest was pulped. Like a grenade had gone off inside the critter.

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+1 my experience with a variety of loads on deer - to the boiler room from the side or the front - the .223 is an astounding killer and organ destroyer.

[JHC]

So where does expanding 5.56 like the Black Hills 50gr TSX fall out in the terminal ballistic spectrum? Does it sacrifice the terminal ballistic effect of a yawing/fragmenting 5.56 round for more consistent performance through barriers? Is it more than just an expanded .45 equivalent going much faster in regards to terminal effectiveness?

I shot one deer with the 55 grain hunting load version of that bullet sold as Vortex IIRC. Hit a deer in the front of the neck, as it faced me at about 25 feet and it turned and ran but was down very quickly in a few yards, similar to John Hearne's description. It tore a pretty big wound channel (several inches dia) back through the diaphragm and I never recovered from back in the stomach viscera stuff.

[Chuck Haggard]

So where does expanding 5.56 like the Black Hills 50gr TSX fall out in the terminal ballistic spectrum? Does it sacrifice the terminal ballistic effect of a yawing/fragmenting 5.56 round for more consistent performance through barriers? Is it more than just an expanded .45 equivalent going much faster in regards to terminal effectiveness?

Just a quick illustration of what Doc said;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f94Wz4ATcik
vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuz_RHkS0aU

[Hunter Rose]

Edited. I missed JHC's post. Thanks for the clarification on rifle round effectiveness.