spaniel
The reason I brought up shape is that if you don't care about BC and don't plan on shooting much over 100yds, why is a SW/SST/FTX on the top of your list anyways? They are my main bullets but when I'm hunting closer situations there are other better options.
Believe me they are not on top of any of my lists... I just have a box and know I would never use them for hunting - so thought I would shoot them at paper - testing a BP conversion. I didn't know they had even came apart until two days later when I was out running another test and I looked in the shot trench and there it lay - right on top about 1/2 way up the trench.
I would also suggest that 200 yards is my personal high range - i do not do enough shooting at ranges longer than that to have the confidence go past that.
And honestly Andy i have no problem with them being your main bullets... they certainly would not be mine in a ML or a centerfire from the experiances I have had with them.
I'm just trying to put some real-world experience with the bullets on game into the discussion here. I've shot dozens and dozens of deer with these Hornaday bullets, I'd conservatively estimate 40, may be as high as 60 as I quit counting a long time ago. Typically 3-5 per year. I'm just saying your concern about their ability to fail and do a poor job putting down game don't manifest themselves in my experience. I have never lost one, and never had one go over 150 yds. I cut one's heart in half this year and because he was so close he covered about 100 yds at a dead run on adrenaline alone.
Why in the world would you even consider a bullet that allowed an animal to 150 yards a success. That is a lot of suffering that is not necessary. I can not stand an animal going more than 20 yards and even that ticks me off. I have hunted since a kid and i also have no idea of the number of deer I have shot, I know I am at 25 or 26 elk and yet the longest animal I have tracked that I can remember is 60 yards (other than one deer). Here you just can let an animal go far or you really could loose it in the terrain we hunt.
I certainly do not rate the bullet by the number of animals that I fail to find - I rate them by terminal performance -do they create enough internal damage to over ride - the flight response... 10-15 yards is enough distance for me. The deer I shot two years ago at 25 yards went about 5 ft - he did not have a heart lungs or anything in that cavity - it had all turned to jello - and the bullet did not hit all of those organs but it certainly casued a tramatic effect on them.
I have often heard of the deer death circle but have never seen it before except 2 or 3 years ago when I shoot a nice 5x5 Whitetail with a Hornady 300 grain XTP Mag @ 10-15 yards... He ran the circle - i guess that it what it was - we found him 300 yard down the gulley laying the the next skid road down. Now that I really felt bad about. There is no reason for that other than the bullet went straight through never slowed down enough to expand I guess - but he had two nice neat holes back of the shoulder and ahead of the diaphram.
With so many good bullets, if you don't trust Hornadays you have plenty of options left
I agree... that is exactly why I went to Sierra's in centerfire... the only reason I shot these FTX's was a guy gave them to me because they did not work that well for him. I figured I could always shoot them at paper, and heck! if I had not seen that one laying on the surface i would not have said a thing about it - but it just confirmed what I thought i already knew.