Jeff,I am never gonna get in a pissin match with JB or anyone else and will always try to avoid confrontation because there is really nothing to fight about;just slightly different views on a rather complex little subject is all....
That said, I have just not had any issues killing stuff with the bullets I used; I admit to not being terribly experimental,because I did enough of that in my early years,and have not seen any need.Trying to keep up with all the new bullet technology is too daunting and my objective has always been to kill animals and leave the experiments in the hands of those who had the time and resources.
Given that I just used Partitions and Bitterroots(performance of which is kinda like a Northfork,Aframe, or an X bullet with a larger frontal area and about the same weight retention,to put it all in contemporary terms).These have worked fine and I have not had any issues for which I could ever blame the bullet; I have not noticed an absence of lethal effect with either one.
The Partitions are what they are and always have been...reliable and consistent;under high velocity they expand to the partition,and the rear portion keeps going...they do not have very extensive frontal areas,nor high weight retention, but this is neither here nor there because they are consistently lethal,effective,and predictable.Only under very high vellocity and a lot of resistance might they buckle under.I don't know where that point is because I have never seen a Partition "fail" on anything from antelope to Brown Bear.
The Bitterroot was a "different" bullet,sort of a "cult" bullet due to limited production in a day and age(late 60's IIRC)where bullets that would fragment and come unglued under the stresses of high impact velocity, were a dime a dozen.The Bitterroot was designed by Bill Steigers to withstand the stresses associated with the highest impact velocities.They had pure copper jackets,pure lead cores,and were truly bonded(not glued) by a propritery process which sort of enhanced the mystique.But they never failed that I know of.
They were popularized by guys like Jack Carter and John Wooters and Bob Hagel,all of whom used them extensively here and in Africa.In fact it was Carter's inability to get Steigers to into full commercial production that led Carter to invent the TBBC. The Bitterroot also flushed out the Swift Aframe made by lee Reid,and in a conversation I had with Mike Brady, he told me the Bitterroot was the inspiration for the Northfork as we know it today.
The faster you make them go, the better they perform,and the current fad of using "light for caliber" bullets,aka Barmnes,etc, was(is) nothing new to a Bitterroot user from the 60's or 70's;we were doing it routinely back then,and forward in to the 80's.Matter of fact, if you want to make a Bitterroot NOT perform,start it slow. They like speed,lots of it,and will still retain as much or more weight and greater frontal area than anything on the market today,X included.Matter of fact some Bitterroot users were building rifles in the 70's and 80's on a wildcat 404 Jeffrey,necked to 30 caliber and blown out,so they could push 200 gr Bitterroots at 3200+and 180's at 3400....for those born after 1970,does any of this sound familiar?
Ain't much new under the sun,and the reason I don't fall into a swoon at a lot of new cartridges and bullet designs.This stuff has been around for decades!
Damage to an animal from Bitterrots is pretty extensive,and I have had them make gaping exits on even brown bear from a 375; not a 300 gr mind you,but from a 250 gr.One I have downstairs is 7/8" across and still weighs 248 gr after smashing both shoulders of a large grizzly.
I have had mule deer and whitetails from 7 mags and 270's collapse instantly; the kind of results we expect and want from things like BT's and AB's....I once ran 12 straight DRT's on game from pronghorn to elk, before I had one muley push himself downhill 40 yards on his hind legs.Friends had and report similar performance.
Generally the insides of these animals have looked like they swallowed a grenade if impact velocity was high(remember you could not drive them too fast); on one pronghorn shot at app 400 yards,the 130 gr punched through the heart and left a 25 cent piece sized exit. I stopped worrying about enough expansion about that time....and they personified the notion that speed kills...if you use a bullet that can stand the strain.
I go through this lengthy,windy dissertation not to demonstrate that I know a lot about bullets, or know what is "best",or how they all work,or that Bitterroots were the greatest;just to report what I have seen,and maybe demonstrate that it does not take a fragmenting bullet to cause a severe and extensive wound channel;and that it IS possible to have devastating expansion,large frontal area,great penetration,with lots of damage wthout fragmentation,even at high velocity.
I'm at a loss to understand some of the stuff I read on here about guys having problems killing big game;I've found it to be pretty simple really if you remove a lot of the glamour and adrenalin from it.Just whack them in the vitals with a good bullet and it is generally over....Sorry for droning on...
