What finally soured me on the ballistic tips was this. About 5 years ago I bought my first box of ballistic tips (.270). I think I killed about 4 deer with them until I had an unusual experience. A 185# buck walked into the patch about 75 yards away completely broadside. I shot him just behind the shoulder and he folded like a duck. When I skinned him there was obviously a hole in the neck on the opposite side of the deer. The bullet hit a rib on entrance and changed direction, running up the interior of the neck, coming apart and a piece came out the hide on the opposite side of the shoot. No doubt the position of the deer or him being completely broadside. If it failed like that it could have just as easily gone back or down into a non-desireable area. A fellow hunter told me he shot a freak headed buck a few years ago in the shoulder and didn't drop him. The following year he saw the same buck and killed him. When he dressed the deer he found the bullet (257 Roberts) exploded on the shoulder. It didn't even make it into the body cavity. There were several deer lost in our club this year, almost everyone was a ballistic tip shot deer.