I've dispatched a few four legged critters with the 124g +P GDs and have been very impressed with their performance. Never tried the .45 GDs on game though, years ago, I did shoot a deer with the old 230g HydraShok. The round performed basically the same as hardball would have. Wasn't impressed.
In my personal, subjective and relatively limited experience with GSW patients, bullet design was small potatoes vs. caliber (really, centerfire vs. rimfire) and round placement/#rounds.
Once a handgun bullet plows through the pulmonary hilum, it doesn't really matter what caliber or make/model it was. That is not a survivable injury. You could drop right onto the OR table and it wouldn't matter.
Also once saw a bullet that had entered patient's anterior neck (right around adam's apple) and ended exiting around his R. shoulder blade. Missed every single major vessel in between. Weird shit happens. Nothing to get to wrapped up about.
The 9mm 124gr, and subsequently the .40 155gr, Hydra Shoks we used to issue were very inconsistent in OISs. Once we switched to Federal Tac Bonded we saw a marked improvement in performance.
We discussed this in a thread some time back. The punchline was that in my experience the .45 worked better for putting down large animals, and people tend to forget that everywhere in America there are horses and cattle that get loose, vehicle struck, run through fences, sick etc. They can be very dangerous, and injure and kill far more people than bears ever do. A kick from an angry injured horse will kill a man or child before one can react. Cattle will stomp you into the ground.
If that is a realistic concern in the jurisdiction for your brother, then that may be something to consider. Most rural LEOs shoot far more animals in a career than they ever will people.
However, if he is at an agency that pretty much never puts animals down, and is only concerned with man vs man type situations, then I would go with a 9mm and never look back.
Cheers Friend.
It would seem along gun is the solution with beasts. I can't imagine much difference tween any service pistol. (will work fine with head-neck also-shots.... best from back or side according to an experienced friend)
I don't know that effect on animal was the main reason for the policy for us. Buckshot or 55gr JSP is less of a ricochet concern and I think that was the primary motivator. Animal Control used to have tranq guns and would take and euthanize injured animals, but discontinued that service at least a decade ago and we got tasked with animal destruction.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.