Older gun-guys today probably look back at making do with those old cup/core bullet designs the same way that older car-guys look back at making do with the old bias-ply tire designs. Things have changed.
I resemble that remark. However, the reasoning behind it is not quite right.
I'm into Hornady IL SP's for the simple reason that they do what they need to do at the cheapest price. I only got into shooting in the early 80's and into reloading in 2000. The "Good Old Days" for me are a world where there was already premium bullets. However, the idea of spending $10 for 100 versus $20 for 50 seemed like a concept that needed careful thought. Best? I've only had two bullets recovered in all those years-- 3 if you include the whole rest of camp. The rest all went into the dirt. 2 were Hornady IL's. One was a cast lead bullet out of a .54 Hawken. With few exceptions, the deer died right where they stood, or you could go stand in the tracks and see the hooves up in the air. In the one case (30-30 WIN) I finally got my sons to fess up that they were closing their eyes. Once they started keeping their eyes open, the deer fell dead. There may be a lot of stuff going wrong in our camp, but bullet failure is not one of them.
Back before my first boar hunt, my buddy Jerry took me to the store to find some bullets. He was going to teach me all he could about reloading. He showed me the red and white boxes (Hornady) and the black and gold boxes (Nosler).
" Ya use the red ones for practice and deer and pigs and such, and you switch to the Noslers when ya really need it."
That was about 1984. I've never felt the need yet.
To relate that back to O'Connor and Keith: Remember that it still makes sense. If you're not sure if the bullet may hold up, going up in weight might very well fix it. If you're used to hitting whitetails in the ribs and now you've got to break shoulder bladed on an elk, bullet weight and diameter are two things you can control. Paying 2X or more better bullet may not be the best way to go.
