Back in the early '80s, approx. '83 IIRC, Alaska Fish & Game did a penetration study of various firearms/cartridges available at the time. Purpose was to determine minimum recommended armament for their field folks, and especially in light of their current (at the time) hiring of new/young people often with little firearms knowledge or practice, ans also considered slighter stature as a possibility with new some female employees.
The study results were published in Rifle Magazine.
So much for memory. Like a steel sieve, sometimes...
The article -- A Study in Stopping Power -- was published in Rifle #95, Sep-Oct 1983. Study by John F. Thilenius and William R. Meehan, on behalf of the Forest Service in Alaska.
The top four were .458 Win Mag, .460 Wby Mag, .375 H&H Mag, and .33 Win Mag, in that order. With several different bullet weights and styles, the .338 and .375 also took the next 6 places. The .30-06 was 11th (220-grain bullet) and 12th (180-grain). Then the .444 Marlin (13th place), .358 Win, 7mm Rem Mag, and another .375 H&H (270-grain bullet).
The .45-70 U.S. was next, at 17th and again at 19th, both with 300 grain bullets but different styles, and yet again at 27th and 30th with the 405-grain bullet (again, different styles).
Some of the others interspersed in that range included the .358 Norma Mag, 8mm Rem Mag, .308 Win, .300 Wby Mag, .350 Rem Mag, and the 12-gauge 2¾" shell with slugs... at 26th on the list.
The .44 Rem Mag in a handgun came in at 32nd on the list.
The Marlin M1895 got good marks for handiness and rapidity. The .45-70 got OK marks, with observation that factory loads weren't wonderful (in that era) and with a hope that "perhaps the current reinterest in .45-70 rifles will cause the manufacturers to produce a more suitable bullet." Actually, one of the .405-grain loads penetrated deepest of all candidates, but it didn't expand well and that counted against it using their formula for comparison. (This was well before Buffalo Bore, Garrett, et al, started loading for brown bear... so to speak).
The short, pump (slide-action) shotgun also got good marks for handiness and rapidity. It didn't score as well as many others, due to the formula, partly because of low energy, partly because of low expansion. But they also observed in their notes that the .672" rifled slugs were already "expanded" when fired, so the formula outcome was "slightly misleading."
Rifled slugs were deemed potentially suitable; pellets (00), not so much except perhaps at VERY close ranges.
At the time, most (all, I think) of the other rifles were bolt-action, so a lever Marlin and a pump Remington (or whatever it was; doesn't say) could well be seen to be handier and faster, especially for people who can't cycle a bolt-action rifle quickly from the shoulder.
The .44 Rem Mag was the only handgun cartridge they could "recommend" for carry, and even that was not to be considered to primary protection. All other handgun rounds (at the time -- this predated the Casull, the .50 Desert Eagle, the .475 and other Linebaugh cartridges, the .480 Ruger, and the .460 and 500 S&W cartridges) were lesser in capability, not seen as useful. The one "possible exception" was the .41 Rem Mag, but they couldn't fully test it.
The conclusion was mostly a recommendation to carry the highest one on the list one could shoot well.
Probably more data that anyone here really wanted...
-Chris