beretz,
I dunno if the softer front end helps keep petals from shearing away, but then I don't really care if they do, as have never noticed any difference in how TSX's kill whether they have petals or not. The big cow elk Eileen shot last fall is a good example. The range was about 250 yards, the bullet a 130 TTSX from her .308. The cow stood quartering toward us, and Eileen put the bullet in the shoulder, just above the big joint. The cow staggered about 25 yards and went down, and we found the bullet under the hide in the middle of the ribs on the far side, having lost all its petals, as TSX's often do when they hit larger bone.
Though we did find one of the detached petals in the rib meat on the edge of the exit hole. Have found a few of exit-hole petals over the years too, not just from TSX's but Fail Safes and E-Tips, indicating the petal stayed attached during the bullet's travels through the animal.
In fact the original X-Bullets often sheared their petals, which Randy Brooks thought that might help create a larger wound channel. But when people started complaining when the petals sheared, he tweaked the bullets so they wouldn't, at least not as much. He told me this around a campfire during a mule deer hunt in Old Mexico a while back, saying he'd rather have happy customers than worry about whether the petals stayed intact or not.
That’s a great story. Thanks, John.
