Thanks for all the comments thus far.
There are no restrictions (yet) on lead bullets for hunting up here, thankfully. My desire to experiment with monos comes from the fact that my young kids eat a lot of venison and the lead-in-your-meat thing is probably not a big deal... but maybe it is? I don't know and don't really want to start a war about it, the science seams unclear at best. I fully support people hunting with whatever they want to hunt with, I'm just curious to see if I can find a mono that performs like a C&C on lung shots.
The Cavity Back bullets promise over 2x expansion, which is wayyyy beyond what anyone else is promising. That's what caught my eye (don't really care about the actual cavity on the back) on those. Maybe that extra wide expansion will make a noticeable difference in "time of death" and provide better blood trails if needed?
And, as has been mentioned, the Hammers promise fragmentation and a flat metplat on the remaining core, which should cause disproportionate wounding... theoretically.
I wish I could go on a cull hunt and do some experimenting, but I don't want to experiment during the season, as long tracks up in this area of the woods are uncool. I hunt small properties and chasing wounded deer is a nightmare.
I have killed deer with Barnes, GMXs and E-Tips. I can't tell the difference between them so what I have to say applies to all of them. When I shoot deer in the chest it wrecks the lungs. Thoroughly. When I shoot just lungs and do not destroy the heart I see better (more often) blood trails. My belief is that the monos with their tendency toward smaller holes in the hide also tend to get those smaller holes plugged with debris more often. My experience when taking out the heart which reduces blood pressure to zero instantly is that monos and cup and core bullets have similar instances of poor blood trails. The monos tend to always exit, the cup and cores much less often make an exit. The premium bonded core heavy jacket bullets I have used much less. This comes as no surprise, no blood pressure makes it much harder for the blood to get out and no exit leaves one less hole to leak from. I have had one deer with zero blood trail despite an exit and a three inch hole through and leaving the heart loos in the chest. I have had one with a very poor blood trail because the exit was high on the neck and the entrance was behind the diaphragm and plugged by the omentum. I had one poor blood trail because the lungs and heart were completely shredded and despite a fistful of tissue where the deer stood, there was still plenty to plug a very large exit hole. The longest distance traveled by any of the deer I have killed with monos was ~70 yards. I have witnessed just over 100 deer killed with monos I have loaded and I think four made it over 100 yards, three were gut shot and one was shot in the knee. I know of none of those 100 that were shot in the chest and made it more than 70 yards.
Do a decent job putting a mono where it belongs and I do not find they run any further than common cup and core loads. Somewhere between 30% and 40% of the deer I have killed with monos dropped where they stood.
