I am not about to turn this into a NBT debate as its been around the horn a million times.I will say i like and use NBT'shad no problems from 30 to 500 yards...I degress.Without going to get into bullet design and what is best... I believe it is the hunters responsibilty to research the bullet/design and pick the tool for the task. Thuis will lead to far less "failures".

I admit I am confused you say you received penetration but no expansion b/c the bullet blew to bits???? I find this contradicting.To me such would have been a result of over expansion (bullet fraging to bits) which lead to loss of retained mass which leads to lack of penetration.

Fair enough you want something different or better. I suggest you consider a flat base bullet like a Nosler partition or upping the grain size to 150gr with the likes of a standard cup and core bullet such as a Hornady Interlok Sp. If your ranges can be also furtherwhere a bullet such as a bonded polymer boattail design would be adventageous then take a look at Nosler AB's, Hornady IB's, etc.

In my 270 win 130NBT for deer at typical ranges say 100 plus with no problems. For cases where it maybe closer and more for hunting larger game the 150gr Nosler Partition gets the nod. By design it shedsthe front 3rd to create a wound channel yet the partition protects from over expansion @ high velocity or meeting heavy bone, allowing it to retain 60% of its mass to aid in penetration. A 130 NP might just be your bullet but she ain't cheap!


Best of luck