Why so many big bore pistol hunters think heavy weight bullet's are needed to harvest a thin skinned animal as a deer is. Yup!! leaves me clueless at times when listening too or reading those fellows thought's on the subject. But ~~to each their own or whatever trips their trigger has always been fine with me.
In this particular thread, the target species was not identified. So, there's no telling what riverratt is after. ...It could be prairie dogs. It could be Caribou. It could be armadillos. It could be Bison....
As for me...
My 7.5" SBH is used primarily for Elk hunting. Elk are quite a bit tougher than deer, and much tougher than black bear, big cats, and antelope.
Most bullets can get the job done, but very few can get it done well. I have seen many a projectile recovered from Elk, over the years, and the majority of handgun projectiles never cease to amaze me in how
ineffective they were.
Low velocity just punches holes with inadequate penetration.
Light bullets tend to fragment or completely disintegrate.
Even some commercial bullets, well-renowned when used on deer, turn into a worthless collection of fragments when used on Elk.
Light bullets, at high velocity, in my experience but contrary to popular opinion, have shown themselves to be one of the worst possible choices for use on Elk. (Such as 180 gr XTPs, or Sierra JHCs, at 1,600 fps in .44 Mag.)
General lesson learned from my experience: Unless it's big and heavy, and fired at a healthy velocity, it isn't going to do much.
Deer....? Usually a different story. But with tougher game, run-of-the-mill bullets usually won't be adequate, and might do more harm than good.
...Such as with a large, old Bull Elk that two of my hunting partners took down a few years back. After it absorbed 3-4 fatal hits with .277" 160 gr Nosler Partitions, it was still going. It then got smacked with 4 rounds of .41 Rem Mag sporting hot 195 gr SWCs and 3 rounds of .44 Rem Mag, with 180 gr Sierras at 1,630 fps [from my SHB, actually - but not by me]. It took another 3 bullets from one of the revolvers (.41 Mag, I think) in the neck and base of the skull, before it was finally "lights out."
The Sierras failed spectacularly (not the first time we've seen that), and the SWCs in the .41 Mag were simply too light and the wrong style of bullet. They acted like round nose projectiles, and just pushed tissue aside as they penetrated minimally before stopping in muscle tissue.