I buried this deep in one of the other threads but I thought I would bring a copy out front where it might get more observations.

I bring this out because - i have just gone through much of this same experiance inthe last year and a half. I gave up what I considered the best bullet in the workd to move to a newly developed bullet, that I actually think holds more promise. I am old, it is very hard to move an old person try something he has been using all his life and EXPERIMEMT with something new.

Well any way... I think this will expain a little bit

I think the real difference in the two bullets (XTP - Gold Dot/Deep Curl), because really they are basically designed to do the same function, is age.

At one time Round Balls were considered to be the advancement of the age, in fact I would believe that are still some folks out there that truley believe that. I have not done the math to figure out how old Round Balls are, but from the round balls of lead we do have a popular saying "make a big hole"

XTP's are certainly an advancement over round balls, although again some folks would still disagree. XTP's still do the job as demonstrated by several people and the know reputation that XTP's have harvested more animals in the US than and other bullet, and they continue to do so today as there remains more people entrrenched in shooting them than any other bullet. My question or observation is that they might be the Round Ball of our time. I think one gentleman said he had been using them for 31 years (I may have misread that). So I would consider the XTP 'old technology'. Now old certainly does not mean 'bad' no more than the Round Ball being old is 'bad'.

New materials, new technologies, new ideals, new methods - always create problems amoung the old establishment, especially when the old has worked so well for you in the past. And as compared to what you might have used in the past the XTP, price wise and availabilty was certainly the better of other choices.

I consider the the old named Gold Dot and now the named changed Deep Curl to be an advancement in the method of making a more humane and tougher bullet. I do not know who invented 'electroplating' or why they did inventent it. But for me, 'electroplating' and then mastering a way to do economocally electroplate copper to lead (creating a bonded bullet) has been a huge advancement in the durability of a bullet. It partially took away the need for the Nosler Partiton, designed to keep the lead in the copper. Next when Speer computed a way to control expansion, not as effectivley as a Nosler or a Barnes, but far better than the normal lead copper bullet it set the Gold Dot/Deep Curl ahead of most copper lead bullets of the time.

It proved so effective for Speer, and I give a lot of credit for this to the handgun hunting folks and us, the muzzleloading community, that Speer developed a whole line of Gold Dot/Deep Curl bullets both for centerfire and handguns (the Fedreral Government and the court systems promted the name change from Gold Dot to Deep Curl).

From what i have found testing, shooting, and a limited amount of harvest with the Deep Curl, the more modern technolgy, is by far the better bullet to humanely harvest animals with. I am not the only person to come to this conclusion. We still remain the minority as it is extremly hard to move people when they are entrenched - I was one of them I know.

I am a Ford person, I will always be a Ford person - Dodges and Chev's and their little sisters GMC's are not as good. See what i mean and i mean what I say.

I write this reall hoping not to start another war, but as an explanation...