Hey quilly, let me tell you about my experience with them. I shoot the bearclaws in all three of my deer rifles, a 7 mm mag (140 grn), 30-06 (165 grn), and .300 win mag. (150 grn). I have been using them now for 5 years, and I absolutely love them for my purposes! Here in north central Louisiana where I hunt we have a lot of very thick cutovers. I have several stands with shooting lanes, and one hop off the lane and it's so thick a rabbit would have a hard time! Wich is why I am always aiming for a little high straight through the shoulder shot, because I don't want to have to track one if I can help it, but if one does run, I definitely want an exit wound to make tracking easier. I used to shoot the barnes x, a great bullet, and you're gauranteed an exit wound. Only drawback was that the exit was no bigger than entry, I guess because of the solid copper. But with the bearclaws, they always give me an exit wound, and they have just enough lead in them to where the exit hole is pretty decent. I have averaged 3 rifle deer per year since I started using them and I haven't recovered a bullet yet, and they've performed just as well up close as they do out to 250 yds (the farthest shot I've had to make so far in the last 5 years). To answer your question "do they open up fairly good" I'd say thet most of the time the exit wound is about the size of half dollar, sometimes a little smaller. There's always that trade off of penetration versus expansion, I think the bearclaws balance the equation about as perfectly as any bullet can. Try 'em out I think you'll like them!