ORIGINAL: oldelkhunter
The jacket in the lighter caliber's is not as thick and allows for more rapid expansion. The way bullet design was explained to me was that a thicker jacket would hold together better and allow more penetration. Again IMO this is why you have premium bullets-the premium bullets are "supposed" to be of better constructin, so they will hold together better for better penetration. I am sure you have heard of light, fast, small caliber bullets blowing up on a shoulder. I realize part of this is bullet tip design. But a lot of it has to do with the jacket to allow further penetration.
Not sure if there is a correlation between lightweight Deer Bullets and larger caliber deer bullets as far as jacket thickness goes ..I guess I will have to get out the bandsaw and cut some up. .I do know for a fact that I can get stoutly built 257 bullets from at least 4 sources if not more and all will not hand grenade on a deers shoulder or other area of resistance. Another relevant point is Deer are thin skinned animals ..break the skin and even a bullet that is pronte to separating will penetrate sufficiently to cause massive internal damage at the same time delivering shock to internal organs. NOw if we talk Elk or similiar sized creatures then you have less room for error in the bullet selection process.
I agree with your post. I would not use the term "Lightweight deer bullets"-My words would be smaller diameter bullet-or lighter caliber. I also totally agree with the "thin skinned" theory. My main point is the not so perfect shots. And I guess I am also talking about the cost of the ammo(a whole new can of worms). And you are probably a reloader so factory ammo prices are not important to you. But I would think bullet prices would be important. Especially the way they have been headed lately. I know this probably sounds hard headed but I really do believe that bigger is better.
I have seen a lot of hunter's and shooter's over the years spend tons of money on all the new fangled cartridge's and bullets. But a hunter can fall back on a good quality rifle in 30-06 with good optics and never have to look back for the rest of his life. This setup can be used everwhere in the USA for almost all NA game. They can buy ammo anywhere, and for a good price. That is about as simple as I can put it. Tom.