IMO a bullet does not have to hold together to be an excellent bullet. Look at the Berger bullet. Cleanly taking big game animals at 600-1000 yds and almost always fragment.
+1
Give Bronko the prize. For five or six years i used 130-150 grains of granular Pyrodex in my guns along with the 240 grain .430 XTP bullet. On several occasions deer and hogs were hit behind the diaphragm but either bang flopped or went a short distance after being hit. One 160 pound boar, standing broadside, was hit well behind the diaphragm. Shards of the bullet tore up the diaphragm, heart and lungs-bang flop.