If you are not aware ... there are two versions of the Nosler Ballistic Tip. One is for varmints such as coyotes, fox, prairie dogs, etc. where penetration is not critical. It is designed purposely to expand rapidly. Though no doubt deer have been killed with these "varmint" bullets, they are not in my opinion the right choice for medium game.

The information on the factory ammo or on the Nosler bullet box will tell you if these are varmint bullets or the other version of the BT which is perfectly fine for medium, thinned skinned game such as white tailed deer.

Several of the guys I hunt with use these medium game BT's. They do not seem to hold their weight as well as the bonded bullets, or the Partition. Indeed total pass-throughs seem to be rather rare, but I cannot recall a single incident of a decently placed shot not taking down the deer within a reasonable distance. Same goes for my very limited experience with the SST. I don't use either, but several that I hunt with do.

If you are looking for deep, assured penetration look no farther than the age old Nosler Partition. This is a flat based bullet whose design goes back decades. Does a fine job deep penetration on deer sized game.

Another sort of "tweener" as far as penetration is the Sierra Game King. I use these a lot in my deer loads. This is a boat tailed bullet. I starting using it when I headed out west for eastern Montana mule deer starting about 10 years ago ... where my chances of a long shot have been more the norm ... such as 300-400 yards. I ahve had no issues with good penetration, but these do not seem to penetrate as well as the Partition.

I have tried the Trophy Bond. One heck of a penetrator. Actually, I have yet to recover one. All shots have ended up as pass throughs. Even rather severe angle shots. All that I have used these on have been deer and feral hogs.

The only Barnes copper bullet that I have any experience with is their ML sabot bullet. I use them in my 50 cal. in-line. They group great and are one heck of a terminal performer. I suspect that their center fire bullets would perform the same.