Ltsheets,
One aspect of Bergers you just mentioned, their penetration BEFORE they start to expand, is what causes confusion among hunters used to conventional expanding bullets.
The bullets they know about start expanding the instant they hit hide, and are normally fully expanded by the time the bullet penetrates it's own length. This is exactly where most conventional bullets "fail" when coming apart, at the the entrance hole, and what can cause insufficient penetration.
But Bergers penetrate 2-3 inches before even starting to expand. By that time they're into the vitals, and it doesn't matter if they come apart. Well, actually it does, because that's what wrecks vital organs and causes the quick kills.
I have seen several dozen animals killed with Bergers, many of them feral goats in New Zealand, where they were shot as varmints and left. I TRIED to make Bergers blow up prematurely, but shooting already-dead billies the size of big whitetails at no more than 10 feet, deliberately aiming for the shoulder joint. None did. Instead the bullets went through the bone before expanding, just as they do through ribs.
No, Bergers will not penetrate 3 feet or more through big game, like many controlled-expanding bullets do. But I have yet to see one fail to penetrate the vitals inside the chest, when the bullet was placed in the chest, not behind it. They only come apart once they're inside the chest cavity.
