Here are the entrance and exit wounds from an 84 yard broadside hit on a 100 lb. doe300gr Gold Dot (#3974) with a muzzle velocity around1650 fps.

ENTRANCE


EXIT

+1 to What Cayugad said re: Hornady vs Speer in terms of accuracy.

I shoot a Knight Elite and T/C Omega. My buddy shoots the Encore. We found:

1. 300 Hornady XTP's (.452)- very accurate up to 100 yds..good penetration on deer.. good blood trail
2.300 Speer Gold Dot (also .452)- pretty goodgroups.
3. 270 Speer Gold Dot (.429) - groups open up after 50 yds.

My favorite & most accurateout of the Knight is the Barnes 250Expander and the 285 Spitfire.

This one was, from a Doe I shot 2 years ago in FlintLock season in Penna with a 300g Gold Dot. Perfect mushroom. Bullet went the length of the deer and was nearly 300g, I forget what it actually wighed, but it didn't loose a lot. Note the perfect mushrrom with Gold Dot in the middle. These are the bullets cops shoot in their 45 ACPs for "man stoppers", they are also deer stoppers.
Chap

Both bullets are good, in my opinion the 300g GD is better because of no weight loss. They are both about the same cost $15 or $16 for 50. The Savage was designed around the 300g XTP, and they shoot that bullet very well. Choose the one that is the most accurate in your gun. Sabot fit is critical. I like the Crushed Rib sabots with both the XTPs and the Gold Dots. I like 300g better than 250g since they always exit on deer instead of on the off side under the skin. The 250 XTPs also tend to frag a bit more than the 300g. Still dead deer if you hit in vitals, but no exit hole in most cases since not enough energe to poke thru when the bullet is in several pieces. In my mind a bullet must be:
1) accurate--accuracy is king---no accuracy, no confidence in placing your bullet in the vitals
2) penetration is queen, must have 12" or more, for killing power
3) expansion is prince, since with expansion you get large wound channel and maximum blood flow to brain and vital organs which causes quick death (i.e boom flop and DRT)
4) shoot thru, is required in my mind because you want great blood trail and small 45 cal hole going in when your shooting down and no exit hold means deer loss, since there is little blood from a single hole and if it is high, then ya got issues.

So gotta have all 4 for an "excellent bullet" in my mind. Flat nose well constructed bullet are best within 150, for 150 to 200 yards best to use a Barnes TMZ, T-EZ, bonded SW, Parker Ballistic Extreme or Barnes Origonal.
Chap

There ya go. Another great bullet from Barnes is the .458 diameter rifle bullet called the TSX Flat Nose, part number 45843, I am gonna shoot them in my Savage next year. Great bullet. Exactly the same as the .452 Expander except cheaper ($17 for 20) and .458 diameter, which I find shoots best in my Savage. This is a 45/70 bullet designed for a rifle and designed to shoot between 1500 to 2000 fps, i.e ML velocity. As Bryce Towsley says about the Expander, it is like "shoving a beer can all the way thru a deer"---picture that in your mind's eye as a description of wound channel. Bryce is MLer editor for American Hunter and has hunted MLer for over 40 years, FL, Slidelocks, inlines everything. He knows the deal. He also likes Sierra 45/70 bullets in an inline.
Chap

There is one thing that no one can deny; if you can not hit an animal in the right spot you are not doing the job right.
The first requirement is reasonable accuracy, two identical guns may need different bullets to get good consistent accuracy.
I use XTP's in the system One and the Thunderhawk, The Omega shoots Gold Dots and SW's The Triumph shoots Gold Dots and SW's and FTX's the FTX has not been tested on any thing as far as I know except that I am happy with the accuracy the first time out if it continues to be that accurate AND provides penetration and expansion it may well be my go to bullet. Some of my guns do not shoot some of these bullets with good consistent accuracy so I do not use them in that particular gun. The only other point I wish to make is that I use the XTP at 1800 FPS or less; they are not nearly as effective if they are over driven and come apart.

For those that know ballistics and use chronographs...

for a .44 .430 diameter 300 grain XTP.. What do you think it a optimal velocity for that projectile, how much Pyrodex RS would be needed to achieve that kind of velocity, and would that work busting bone?

300gr XTP, None Finer for Doing the job next to the 240gr XTP. BP

There are some Varibles, but my experance is that 90 or 100 gr [1750fps]of RS is all I want behind a XTP. I had trouble with them Seperteing from the jacket and breaking up real quick with 110 or more. Lee

Cannot offer opinion on Gold Dots, never shot them. Used 300gr XTP's the first year I bought my Savage. Three double lungers, no expansion what so ever, all 3 traveled less than 50 yds before expiring with little to no blood trail. Exit wound same size as entrance. They did shoot very accurate out of my gun though.