Why not try the water jug experiment to see just what the penetration values actually wash out to be?
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot2.htm
That looks like a nice test, but the ones I made and loaded were for a .340 Weatherby magnum, it would take a lot to slow that puppy down.
I was actually thinking of bringing home some 13 gauge steel plates I have a stack of and seeing how many a soft point would go through vs. solid bronze. I used naval brass for my first test, but I had some bearing grade bronze that was harder for my second attempt. Barrel looked good after firing, rifling was nice and uniform when I dug it out of the dirt and it seemed to work beautifully.
In the back of my mind I’ve been toying around with the idea of doing some more experimenting with different things. We have a tool and die business here, building molds is all I’ve ever done. I was thinking about building a mold and molding some Delrin sabots, maybe dropping my .340 down to a .223 caliber. Choosing the right grade of polymer would be critical so as not to have buildup on the barrel, but with the chamber pressure I can get out of my .340 plus the friction coefficient loss I’m thinking I can get my f.p.s. up to some really impressive numbers.
Just something rolling around in the back of my head for a while...