I understand what you are saying, that penetration is less when velocity is high enough to cause the bullet to come apart or explode. However, that's clearly not what I was talking about being that I prefaced my sentence with �Within the structural limits of a given bullet�

Look at the examples of the Swift Scirocco II bullets in the lower right of this image.

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Given the design of the Scirocco II you can see that it's well expanded at 2100 fps and yet holds together (high weight retention) to +3200 fps. You can bet the same weight and caliber Scirocco II bullet fired at 3200 fps penetrates further than when it's fired at 2100 fps into the same medium as the frontal area is nearly the same within this velocity range. That's the hallmark of a well designed bullet like the Scirocco II, a bullet that I doubt could be produced without bonding the lead core to the copper jacket.