It hit the paper AFTER the milk jug, right? I'd guess it should have been opening pretty well after the jug.

I guess it depends what you are looking for in a bullet. A lead core bullet is going to expand differently than a Barnes, that's just design. That being said, I've commented before that the non-bonded 250SST/SW is the worst of the lineup, the 200gr is better and the bonded versions solve the deficiencies of the non-bonded to a large extent. I don't know why the popularity is the inverse of what I feel the quality is!

My brief personal experience with Barnes was in shotguns and showed poorer penetration and too much damage, but I think they do better in MLs (smaller bullets). If you like the pretty flower look and what you found (and the price), I'd recommend using them if you have more confidence in them.