I agree with lemoyne, mine shoot the same bonded or not in 250 gr. I am also surprised your bullets are exploding like that. I get pass thrus all the time and the deer fall dead right where they are shot. I see in Chaps post he is shooting a Savage with smokeless on these bullets. I think they are being pushed too hard with that smokepole. I would be curious to see what speeds he is getting to see if it is possible that the bullet is exploding due to the load of (44gr of smokeless?) I get consistent 1750 fps out of my Traditions Lighting Bolt and the bullets hold similar to the pictures of AZBear and flint head has posted. It may be all the tweaking we get invloved with on our loads. I use the sabots that come with both the bonded and unbonded and they work awesome. I use the bonded on hogs and the unbonded on deer and can't complain. Just my two cents.