Originally Posted by HuntnShoot
Originally Posted by TRexF16
Well that's a good point. The bullet came completely apart into the shards of the jacket and few pieces of lead remaining. The responses to my post inspired me to stop trusting my memory and go back to my bullet collection and reference the actual notes. I was wrong about no ribs - see the notes in the pic. The frag of the core did make a few pinhole exits through the offside hide. I just weighed all these chunks together and they weighed 56 grains total.
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But I was still unhappy with the fragmentation. This was 1992 remember. Most of the good reports I have read here were from the late 90s and beyond. I don't know when or ever the bullet may have been toughened up.
It'll be about 10 days until I get the chance to section the old and new .284 140BTs but I will try to remember to do so when I am able.

Cheers,
Rex

At which point in the "bang-flop" did you determine that the bullet failed?


Yep, that's a good one that has been well and accurately used over the years.
I had shot partitions exclusively up until this try with the BT, so I was spoiled on broken bones and nice exits. Even though I had previously caught a .257 115 Partition that went stern to stem on a bedded pronghorn. But I had only shot the 175 Partition previously in my 7RM, and those don't get caught too much! I figured that Nevada doe tag was a good one to try out the BT on. It was for sure the most dramatic kill I ever made. The doe literally did a back flip and landed dead, and that with no CNS impact. But again, the bullet ended up like that having hit nothing but a rib on entry, and in my other notes from that hunt, I just saw the words "thank goodness I didn't hit the shoulder."
I'm no hater on the BT - I have at least 2000 of them in my stocks right now in .243, .264, .284, .308, and .338.
I just had that early one come apart. I fully believe the newer ones are much stronger, as so many folks have had great results with them.

Perhaps if any others who respond here could try to "date-stamp" their experiences and lets see if break-ups seem more prevalent prior to 1995 or so?

Cheers,
Rex