The largest 3 bulls I've killed have been with 7mm 150 grain ballistic tips, they certainly have worked for me and hit the center of the target just about every time.
Until my shrapnel experience on a nice 5x6 - and even then the bullet did kill the animal with fragments and I'm sitting under his antlers, I was a staunch defender of the nbt for elk.
But the TTSX and the like make more sense to me for elk than the more frangible bullets. The cost per round difference of 32 cents buying bullets from Midway or $6.40 for a box of 20 - to me that's very affordable hunt insurance.
We had our longer range sight-in session last weekend with 10-15 mph wind gusts making it realistic. My buddy who uses whatever ammo is cheapest and thinks my cousin and I spend too much making fancy hand loads was shocked that his factory PMC 180 grain 300win mag loads landed 6 feet short of the target at 800 yards where the hand loads hit the gong out of his model 70 using the Z800 reticle in a new Zeiss 3-15 HD5. The 100 yard groups were about half the size of his crappy ammo as well.
High quality factory ammunition with premium bullets or better yet hand loads tailored to your rifle just make economic sense to me. That doesn't guarantee no bullet will under perform but it does put the odds in your favor.
