Trailer the fact the entrance was small we can assume it behaved as it should and never came apart, which is good. I assume the bullet stopped somewhere on the inside if you never found an exit(just came out in the field dressing I guess) and the lack of wound channel would have resulted in the minimal blood trail you encountered. I had the very same thing happen last fall on 2 does with the 140gr TSX, zipped in and out that only specs of blood could be found, like you I watched where the deer went and made the need to track a non-issue(no snow either). I wasn't overwhelmed by the performance on either of these harvests and have since switched back to my NBT load for deer hunting. It comes down to what we expect from a bullet on game, I personally have never been upset to see a large blow out the exit side from the NBT it usually means the deer is down within a hurry and if they do muster a little run the blood trail is blind man worthy.

Good Luck and hope the next time proves to be a better result..though the search for the best bullet will always continue for the handloader!

BTW one of the guys I hunt with is using the Hornady IB this year in his 280 rem, it has performed very nicely in 154gr version. Shot a large body bucklast weekin the forest through both shoulders and it punched a nice hole straight on through and dropped him where he stood (his lungs were litterly jello). He and his boy have taken 4 deer so far with it. I have a box sitting on myshelf that I may try to get shooting for next fall deer season asI'm impressed. Of course can I get them to rival the others on paper is the question that needs to be answered.

You got that right...

Also take into thought boars are some really tough critters. Especially if you catch shoulder blade .It doesn't have topass thru to be effective internal damage is what counts. It sounds as if yours did quite a bit of damage in 40 yds thatsOnot far. On my only boar hunt we were hitting vitals and they went approx 80 or so. Even with 1 pass thru and 1 that didn't

Sounds good, thanks for all the responses gents.