I don't have a lot of experience, because I've shot exactly one deer with this very combination. I took a maybe 110lb on-the-hoof at 125 yards on the 9th. Shot her slightly quartering toward about 20 deg. Bullet clipped the back of the right shoulder muscle, destroying about 1/3 of the shoulder roast, blew apart one rib that it hit directly and splintered two more creating about a baseball sized entrance wound. The right lung and heart were pudding, and the left lung was shredded from bullet fragments. The bullet did not exit and no significant portion was recovered, but there were bullet fragments all over the chest and abdominal cavity from the liver forward. My conclusion was that the bullet disintegrated shortly after passing through the ribs.

So, did the bullet fail? Not exactly. The bullet anchored the deer like it was struck by lightning. She was down before the rifle recovered from recoil. But it did fragment and make one heck of a mess and I spent a lot of time trying to scrape and flush out bullet frag.

Mike