Tejano,
Have had more than one 100-grain hollow-point .25 caliber TSX fail to open--or at least not open fully. One was started from a .257 Weatherby at 3550 fps, and the animal was a pronghorn buck at around 250 yards. The bullet landed close behind the shoulder (have also found that the claim of zero meat damage on shoulder shots to not always be true), and the buck went around 250 yards before falling over. There was ZERO blood trail until about 10-15 feet from where he lay. The wound channel through the middle of both lungs was extremely small, with zero peripheral damage.
Almost the same thing happened with a bullet from the same batch, on a forkhorn mule deer buck Eileen shot at around 50 yards with her NULA .257 Roberts--and that bullet did hit bone, going through the bottom of both shoulder blades and the top of both lungs. (She put the bullet there because the buck was standing in tall sagebrush.) There was zero blood trail, not unusual with higher chest shots, but we followed in the direction the buck went, and put it up within 50 yards--whereupon it staggered through the sage for maybe 20-25 yards before falling permanently. Once again, the wound channel was tiny, with zero peripheral damage.
The next year the Tipped TSX came out, and we switched to it. It worked a lot better--but also resulted in considerable meat damage when Eileen shot a good-sized mule deer buck at 99 yards (lasered) with the NULA .257, muzzle velocity 3150 fps, right behind the shoulder. Despite the meat damage, the buck sauntered away for almost 100 yards. Eileen waited, another round in the chamber, just in case--but he eventually gently lay down and expired.
I have seen that sort of performance (except for the meat damage, which is rare) with various monos, not just the Barnes bullets, enough times to expect animals to travel some after rib shots. Last fall was a good example: I killed a mule deer doe at around 200 yards with a 140 TTSX from a 7mm-08, started at around 2900 (can't remember the exact velocity). Again, it was a broadside shot, and I deliberately aimed behind the shoulder to save meat--which is the obvious reason to shoot a muley doe. The bullet landed right where I aimed, and went through the blood vessels at the top of the heart, and the center of both lungs. She ran just about 100 yards before slowing and falling. I wasn't surprised--and also wasn't offended, because the country was wide-open foothills. Like Eileen, I had another round in the chamber, and was ready to shoot again, but didn't have to. (If it had been thick stuff, would have shot for the shoulder/spine.)
Some years ago I started listing the distance animals traveled after the shot in my hunting notes. Animals shot with monos through the lungs, not shoulders/spine, have averaged right around 50 yards--which is the longest distance among all bullets. The shortest distance with lung shots is 18 yards, with Bergers. All others have ranged between those extremes.
