I am a “sample” of one, but, most of the shooting victims I saw, in 33+ years of big-city policing, had entrance wounds that closed, leaving just a weeping amount of bleeding. The one wound that I knew was caused by a gaping, wide-open .357 JHP*, was what appeared to be a caliber-wide hole, that did not close, unlike anything I have seen, before or since. It bled, like a hose. I saw it happen. (Yes, it expanded, and then fragmented, as JHPs of that era did, at high velocity, but I am talking about the cutting of the initial hole.)
Darryl Bolke, who interviewed numerous LAPD, other CA LE, and NYPD gunfighters, and investigated numerous police shootings, developed his opinions about the effectiveness of RNL-versus-SWC, and rather than try to parrot him, I recommend seeing his articles, posts, and the interview, to which I linked, above.**
Personally, I am going to carry the widest, gaping-est JHP I can find, as first choice, then a full-wadcutter, as second choice, and then the widest, flattest, solid bullet, as next choice choice, and, finally, a rounded-nosed bullet, as a distance choice. I reckon that the wide-mouth JHP will cut a more-defined hole, even if it does not expand.
I will concede that a RNL that tumbles can produce dramatic results, which may be why one old-school RNL, the 246-grain .44 Special, worked so very well, in some incidents, anecdotally.
FWIW, as it is a sample of one, my wife, as a Forensic Death Scene Investigator, for the M.E., in one of the most-populous counties in the USA, was particularly impressed by the rapidity of incapacitation caused by a CCI/Speer 135-grain JHP, which, at the time, meant that it was either a .38 or .357 Short Barrel load. The weapon was a 4” .357 revolver. The bullet path was a diagonal, through the torso. The decedent not only dropped, instantly, he barely bled, as his heart had stopped pumping him out, so quickly. This is, of course, a wide, gaping JHP bullet.
Sorry, but the one thing my wife could not remember, as she did not bring any notes home with her, was whether the load was Magnum or Special. As the published chronograph velocities of Speer’s Short-Barrel .38 and .357 loads are not far apart, I do not think it matters which load one uses.
When we can get it, we load our revolvers, up to 4” in barrel length, with CCI/Speer Short Barrel 135-grain ammo, either .357 or .38 Special. I normally use the full-pressure .357 in revolvers with 4” full-lugged barrels, or, longer barrels, lugged or not.
*To be specific, Federal .357 Magnum Hi-Shok, as loaded in 1993, sold in silvery-gray boxes.
**On a side note, Darryl Bolke believes that one reason for the success if the 125-grain .357 JHP, in so many actual close-range police shootings, was the “flash-bang” effect tending to produce a desire to avoid THAT thing happening again. IOW, a psychological stop component, in addition to the actual damage done by the bullet. I embraced this sound and fury, as a street patrol officer, in the early Nineties. (In the Eighties, I still believed in Big Boredom, and carried .44 and then .41 Magnums, on duty. The training wrecked my hands, so I do not recommend Magnum big-boredom.)