First, very fascinating post. Thanks to all and Daryl who pointed it out to me.

Tinker, what HP have you had bad experience with?

Reason I ask, is that "some HP's are more equal than others..."

The old Lyman Gould bullet had a bad reputation for fragmentation, it having a deep and wide HP, but the Lee c.400 grain HP I have found to be the best .45-70 bullet made for my purposes. It weighs 402 grains when cast in Wheelweights, and has a length to depth of HP that makes for excellent expansion + a large heavy shaft that continues to penetrate {like a big 400 grain Nosler Partition}. In my testing on my Boards and Jugs, it equals premium .375 H&H bullets.

I have killed a number of whitetail deer, a bear and two large range cattle with this bullet, fired at 1640 fps from my Marlin. One of those cows was injured by a car, and went berserk, charging me after running off the rancher and the Sheriff's Deputy. My shot took the critter 2 inches below a line drawn between its eyes as its head was pointed right at me, and that bullet was later found embedded in the upper shoulder, for a full 24 inches of penetration, almost all of it thru neck vertebrae.

I have always wondered why a long HP couldn't be designed just like a Minnie, with a plug in the base along with a hollow point. Such a bullet could be undersize for fast loading. It would be, in muzzleloading terms, a long bullet, and I suspect it would need a quicker-than standard twist. But it would be a real killer.

For years I have experimented with hollow pointing various bullets, and have found that HP's can almost always be tailored for the exact range of expansion and penetration desired, especially if one starts out with a "hard" bullet to begin with. Just taking what we are given from the factory may results in dissatisfaction. Thus my constant use of the Boards and Jugs.