Periodically I see these threads and people pee down their leg about poor performance of this bullet or that one. With the Barnes, I have a sample base of right on 100 killed animals in calibers from .223 to 50 Muzzle loader and I have yet to see the first questionable wound. I did see a few deer not bleed a trackable quantity of blood, something that a person has to expect once in a while when you blow up the heart or take out the vessels above the heart. But... Those deer just do not go very far. ZERO lost deer. Out of A few dozen deer I killed, more than 1/3 tttand maybe 40% dropped where they stood. Some by design, some just because. I think 70 yards was the longest run, and that was from a deer with it's heart completely destroyed and no functioning lung tissue since the upper lungs were completely destroyed. The difference I see killing deer with monos vs cup and core is from either the cup and core coming undone or being deflected after impact. I have seen no difference between Barnes, E-Tips and GMXs. I have seen no difference between Barnes Xs, TSXs and TTSXs. And, while we are at it, I have seen no definitive signs from the deer as they depart that I can say tells me the deer was hit well or not hit at all. Missed deer can and do run away without flagging and deer that make it 30-50 yards have flagged right up until they ht the ground. I have spent more that two hours searching for blood without finding a single drop all the while having zero doubt that Bambi was dead somewhere nearby.
There is a very great deal of difference between the people standing behind the rifle. The is an equally large difference between the people behind the deer after the shot. IMO, that's a whole lot more significant than any difference between bullets as long as the bullet is even marginally adequate to the job at hand.
