People here keep asking LB for some pictorial evidence of his field experience with Woodleighs, since he claims the 160 WL is the GREATEST elk bullet ever in the .264 Winchester Magnum.
Woodleighs retain a lot of weight, but they expand a LOT, which does not enhance penetration. In fact, probably the biggest bonded bullet I've seen fail to exit a small "big game" animal was a 340-grain .416 Woodleigh, started at around 2600 fps--found in front of the left shoulder of a fallow-deer doe that might have weighed 100 pounds. Now, it was an angling away shot, with the bullet entering the right rear of the ribs, but....
Once again proving that sectional density matters. A 350 .416 is a low-SD (light for caliber) bullet cataloged only for load duplication purposes in old Rigbys.. Penetrating the length of an animal while retaining weight is a good result in that case. The 400, 410 and 450gr weights you would expect a pass through. Similarly, the recommended .458 bullets with SDs > 0.3 you would expect deep penetration in a bear.
The physics of this really isn't that complicated, much as people try to pretend it is. Bring a high SD, retain weight, and operate in the velocity window of your soft and you will get a deep and wide wound cavity. Skip one of those three things, and either depth or width (or both) suffer.
