Not hydraulic, the temporary stretch cavity. And yes, animals just like humans have varying levels of psychological incapacitation
Nope. Given ideal projectiles for any cartridge within that realm, bigger is “more” but not generally more enough to mean anything*. That is- just because you shoot an animal in the lungs and it runs 50 yards does not mean that if you went bigger that it would have ran 25 yards instead. Barring a CNS hit, they have to run out of oxygen or blood, and given correct bullets and impact speed everything in the 223-308 realm is more alike than different.
*heavy frangible 6.5, 7mm and 308 bullets can cause significantly more tissue damage than say a .224 with like bullet, however those bullets way cross over the line that almost anyone would find acceptable for meat damage. With a 223 and the right bullet it’s already at too much tissue damage levels- why would I go bigger unless I wanted to cause even more meat loss? Because going bigger and then hamstringing the cartridge by putting a bullet in it that causes less damage is akin to buying a V8 and then yanking spark plugs because it’s too fast.
Yes indeed. Glass is horrific on bullets. It’s also what one can expect as a worse case scenario- say extremely large ungulates (moose/bison) shoulder knuckles or shoulder joint. Plywood is similar to elk/big deer shoulders. Heavy denim equates to vary large and fat hide and skin.