Does anyone remember this from one of Tom Clancy's novels? He is trying to explain the "stopping power" myth, and he describes a thought experiment involving strapping a kevlar vest to a side of meat hanging from the ceiling. A bullet is then fired into it from close range from a Big Handgun of the reader's choice. He points out that the meat would not swing an inch--a fact which would surprise most people, raised on the Hollywood image of people being thrown backwards 30 feet on being shot.

I can't for the life of me remember what book I read that in, and I'm trying to find it again. Can someone clue me in?

I don't know anything about that, but it's just a simple calculation of the momentum of the bullet vs. the mass of the target (conservation of momentum).

The bullet can't hit the target with any more momentum than the recoil that was transmitted to the shooter, if that helps explain it. Actually it'll be quite a bit less, because the shooter feels some recoil from the powder gas exiting the rifle, whereas the target will not, except at powder-burn ranges.

Even my .458 Win Mag could not move a ~125lb pig much. It fell over, but didn't roll backwards.

Yes it's no surprise that Hollywood gets the facts wrong.

Stalwart, I'm not at all certain, but I think maybe the book mite have been "Without Remorse". good Luck