Hornady claimed that they had proven with radar that the bullets were not meeting expected downrange ballistic coefficients, and traced the cause to erosion damage to the tips.
Me, I would have rented one of those ultra-high speed cameras and fired bullets past it at long range, and visually confirmed the point was getting rounded off. If they did it, and confirmed that the Amax (and competitive bullets) had the problem, and the new bullet fixed the problem, then the photos could have been a terrific marketing campaign for them. But what do I know, I just design, make, and sell metal stuff?
It's not implausible that the tips round off. Aircraft that fly supersonic at low altitude certainly have significant skin heating problems. The problem might be worse with ultra-high speed cartridges.
