Ron, while it didn't seem to have the same hydrostatic shock effect that a lot of other bullets do, the bullet would still have resulted in a dead deer if put in the heart lung region. Still had good mushrooming and held together somewhat okay. I would say not to use it at the loads I generally shoot at as I would have to imagine it would blow all to hell, but for a light load low recoil hunting setup for nothing over 75-100 yards I would feel moderately comfortable with the performance. Maybe try to avoid full contact of shoulder bone and go for a poke through the ribs.