What shaman said so well.
But I also would like to add that after starting to do a lot of cull hunts, mostly to test cartridges and bullets, I also started adding to my hunting notes not just the path of the bullet in the animal and remarks about the wound channel, but how far animals hit with a more-or-less broadside, heart-lung shot traveled before they fell. This did not include only deer but several other species of big game.
A trend did eventually appear: Bullets that lost more weight during expansion tended to drop animals quicker, on average. The difference wasn't enough to cause many hunters to change bullets, but so far has ranged from an average of around 20 yards for bullets that typically lose most of their weight to around 50 yards for bullets that typically retain all their weight.
This is not a value judgment about The Best Bullet (I tend to leave such decisions to Campfire members who believe strongly in their choice) but a report. It should also probably be mentioned that differences in caliber and bullet weight tend to have more effect in bullets that lose less weight, and not as much in bullets that lose a lot of weight--as long as, of course, the bullet penetrates both lungs.
