Bigtimer----- I too have had problems with Hornady SST's and XTP's, sounds very similar to what had happen to me. Some years back I had shot 2 nice bucks exactly where I had been aiming, 1 heart and 1 double lung. I had been using Hornady XTP's, in which both had not passed through. Both shots were approx. 50 yards, each had shed there copper jacket with decent mushrooming. Both bucks had ran much further than i had expected. To say the least I was a little disappointed with the performanceof the bullets. You want the bullet to tranfer its kinetic energy (the mushrooming of the bullet), but what you don't want is the shedding of the jacket, which deminishes the amount of energy transferred. This had also happened to me this year while harvesting a doe with a Hornady SST. With the Bucks I had been using 100gr. of pyrodex, with this doe I had been using 130gr. of Pyrodex and the shot was 60 yards. The bullet had not mushroomed at all, it had shattered into a bunch of little peices..... very disappointing.....

I have changed over to Barnes in which I have witnessed only 1 bullet being removed from a doe which was shot from the right rear, just in front of the right rear leg ( hard quartering away shot ) and removed the bullet just under skin of front left shoulder. The mushrooming in that bullet was like it was shown in magazines (unbelievable) and it retained almost 100% of it 's weight! Awesome bullet!!

I've also seen Noslers in Partion Slugs and their expansion was also excellent.....


I think you can't go wrong with either bullet, pick the one which flies the best out of your gun and I can garantee no more shedding jackets!!

Good luck this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!