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I am in agreement with dotchicco. I also kill several animals a year. I have never looked at an "average" but I'd guess I am likely to shoot about 5-10 a year. I have to look at this average over a 52 year span of time now. I always want a bullet that gives me full penetration. I don't always get it, but I do most of the time. And I like bullets that hold 60% or more of their weight. I have used some cup-and-core bullets that do this in some calibers. Not all premium performance comes from so-called premium bullets. Some old cup-and -core bullets do very well. In the 52 years I have been a hunter I have seen many bullets that work very well shot at about 2800 FPS that will come apart when shot at 3300 FPS on the same kind of game at the same ranges. The faster a gun shoots the more you need a tough bullet. If I had to give a "blanket blessing" to one brand and type of bullet from my experience over 52 years of hunting I would give that blessing to Nosler Partitions. It is possible to drive them fast enough to break them up, but only with the fastest of the most modern magnums, none of when I own. I have no interest in them at all. But shooting them from rifle as fast as the 270 WSM and the 25-06 I have never been displeased. I have killed animals as close as 4 feet away, and I have killed many deer with them at 500-650 yards. I killed one deer with one round from my 270 Winchester at 890 yards. The bullets always expended and they have never come apart to a point that I was displeased at any range, at any game. I have used them in 257 cal, 264 cal, 277 cal, 308 cal, 338 cal, 358 cal and 375 cal. I have seen friends use them in 224 cal, 243 cal and 284 cal too and they also had no complaints at all. Expanding solids like the Barnes X and the new Hornady GMX bullets do just as well at ranges out to about 400 yards, but fail to expend much at longer range. The Partitions are still the best all-around hunting bullets I have found. The new bonded core bullets may give the Partitions a run for their money however. I have only a small amount of experience with them so far, but as of now I have not seen anything to gripe about with them. But I have killed many many animals with Remington "Core-Lokts", Winchester Power Points, Hornady Inter-Lock and Speer Hot-Core bullets. That's why I know that some are good and some are not. There are some sleepers in those old bullets, bullets that no one talks about much but that work extremely well. And there are those that "just flat suck". |