The cup and core bullets generally work well on deer sized game, especially for behind the shoulder shots. You might have a little more meat damage on high velocity short distance shots.
On the other hand, I've used accubonds quite a bit on deer, and they can also do considerable meat damage depending on shot placement. My experience is they always exit on deer size game although they might not on a front to back shot on a larger deer.
The mono metals work well and may do less meat damage. In some cases, the animal might run a little further before dropping.
We have lots of good bullets. That leaves plenty of room for personal preference, which is a good thing.
Generalisations don't tell us much when it concerns application. I use, and have used, mostly "big bores" over the past three decades for all hunting from wolf to moose. Most of the areas I've hunted don't allow long range shooting, with one exception being the far north of our Province in old clear cuts. There I've used medium bores like .338 magnums, .375 H&H and even a "hot" loaded 350gr TSX from my .458 Win at 2700 fps. Closer to home, that 350gr TSX went through a black bear without expansion with a good hit at 100 yards. That bear ran farther than any bear I've killed with .45-70s using "softer" flat-nose bullets. In fact, the soft-nose 405 gr Remington from my 1895 Marlin dropped a bear on the spot, DRT, at the same location as the one that ran for 70 yards! Impact velocity from the 405 Rem was over 1800 fps, and impact velocity from the 350 TSX was over 2400 fps. I've killed a lot of bears with .458 calibers, but a flat tip heavy bullet at modest velocity is a faster killer than a fast monolithic with a tiny cavity in the nose. I lost one of my best bears ever to the original 200gr X-Bullet at 2800 fps MV and impact over 2500 fps from my .35 Whelen. The bullet never expanded. Yeah, I know.... get 'em with that plastic tip! Actually, I like the 300gr TSX better from my .458 at much higher
velocities than the 350 to insure expansion. And you can get 'em with a BT and plastic tip! Barnes says they will expand on game down to 1400 fps... but the proof is in the pudding. The 300gr TSX/.458 has been successfully used on brown bear! No stress in my .458 Win in a Ruger #1 at +2900 fps MV. But I still prefer heavy at modest velocity in my usual habitats closer to home.
Bob
www.bigbores.ca
