One thing to remember is that firearm stats in GURPS are based on penetration of steel plate, which is pretty well understood. That base damage is them modified with a Wound Channel Modifier, hit location multipliers, bleeding, etc. to represent how some rounds with roughly equal penetration tend to have different effects on the target. As others have said, wounding is a topic which gun bunnies argue about a lot, but is not well-enough understood for everyone to agree on a simple model (and any replacement for the current core rules would have to be no more complicated, take no more time, and require no more background knowledge).
Aside from Doug's explanation of his model, the Pyramid article "Survivable Guns" and the "My Carbine Sucks!" sidebar in GURPS Tactical Shooting are also relevant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FF_Ninja
I'm envisioning a situation where, say, a Russian agent with a .22LR pistol pops someone dissident the skull (old KGB style), and the round penetrates only the first layer of bone but then proceeds to tumble and travel, turning said dissident's brains into scrambled eggs. A through-and-through shot from a heavier caliber weapon wouldn't do that.
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Executions are an excellent example of the kind of situation where its best not to roll damage, since the damage rules are designed for combat. A common house rule is to give executioners who can set up the situation correctly (and maybe make a skill roll) an automatic high-damage critical hit (see
Low Tech, I think).