Yep.
For the last dozen years Eileen's "big" rifle has a 6-3/4 pound custom .308 Winchester. At first she used it with 150-grain Nosler E-Tips at around 2850 fps, and it worked great both in North America and Africa. But then her recoil headaches started in, and eventually she got a muzzle brake, a small one made and fitted by Helena gunsmith John McLaughlin. Even then, we had to drop down to the 130-grain Tipped TSX at about the same velocity to keep recoil below her tolerance level. (Nosler does not make a 130-grain .30 E-Tip.)
In 2017 she killed the biggest cow elk either of us has ever taken, as big as many mature bulls, at around 250 yards with one of the "little" TTSX's. The elk was quartering toward us, so she aimed for the near shoulder. At the shot the cow staggered for around 20-25 yards, obviously not long for the world, before dropping.
The little bullet had broken the leg just above the big shoulder joint, then gone through the lungs before stopping under the hide in the middle of the ribs on the far side. It had lost all its petals, but so what? One thing I've noticed over the years is that petal-type bullets (whether Barnes X's, E-Tips, Hornady GMX's or the old Fail Safe) kill at least as quickly, if not faster, when they lose petals. In fact, I found one of the petals from this bullet on the inside of the hole through the far ribs. As long as they fully penetrate the vitals, what difference does it make?
