In all fairness, lets take the scenario at hand:
I assume your character is surviving his wound, so it was not a "instant death" sort of wound. So no hollow point or super sized caliber.
This means he do not want fragments left in his body as he might die from surgery or fragments and secondary damage. A through and through injury would be better if he can get first aid.
Note: What about the issue of led bullets, led is supposidly not a good thing to have in the body. I think someone said bullets were "clean" and safer vs infection...well the outer layer is no longer intact as the bullet mushrom or fragment and the interior led is exposed.
Also: I do belive one of the arguments against 7.62mm amunition in support of the 5.56x45 rifle caliber is that the 5.56 is LESS leathal. In war you do not want to kill as an injured soldier is believed to be of higher strategic value than a dead one. So by army logic a 7.62 is more deadly (Far more power and deadly wounds when not close to a hospital). The point of the "new" 6.8 or 6.5 caliber is not to harvest both powers as stated above, it is rather to have a bullet with improved range withouth the high likelyhood of death from the larger calibers. And before you start to argue with this logic: The thumbeling effect of the "low power" 5.56 causes more complicated wounds, not necesarily to cause more death.
Quick to the point logic:
- I assume your character will survive or at least survived the initial impact
- Larger caliber = faster death
- Non penetrating bullet: may (if it is not lodged in bone or super low power) make your character unable to keep doing heroics due to pain and secondary damage
- If it is military rounds then it is not hollow point (As a general rule)
- Most ammo he is likely to encounter will not be hollow point
- Hollow point = death (As a general rule) so you will not let him be shot by this type
- Your character (if chasing someone or typically working with a partner) will need to be operational or at least able to live 10 minutes until first aid can be applied so he will need to have some idea of the critical effect of the damage. This is better with a clean through and through shot as he then knows the size and risk of the injury (To some extent) and his partner can run off or he can move on his own without ripping up more tissue
Hope this helped the questions presented
My sources: I am a writer and game desinger, I have done some reading on the topic. I am not a medical expert. Would like to hear the 2 cents of an american emergency surgon (Guess they would be the top experts on this topic)
Anyways I'm still doing research on the topic and would love some more insight on this, especially on the effect on lead withinn the body
Any medics out there?