Petals breaking off on bone is no problem for the bullet - less than the lead loss from normal designed bullets as the lead is drawn up from inside and gets wiped off the nose - as far as weight loss is concerned. With the Barnes X bullets, loss of petals just means deeper penetration - not a bad thing at all, as the reduced frontal area allows that greater penetration at a descent speed, and the tubular wound channed which results is not the 'carrot' tail as on normal bullets. Overall damage to the vitals is greater with the X.

Bullet exit holes with X bullets that I've seen are rarely larger than 1" in diameter. This is perfect as far as I'm concerned. Some think the exit should be larger but I don't. That the exit is this size means to me the bullet has maintained an expanded diameter of about 3/8" to 1/2" - perfect as far as I'm concerned. The exit itself means a long wound channel as the bullet maintained enough velocity to stretch the hide, then punch on through and still make a hole larger than the bullet's diameter which is due to the shock wave ahead of the bullet. I am referring to moose and elk, of course.