From what I understand, the original Berger target bullet was being used by hunters, and they were reporting fantastic results. The bullet had a thinner jacket. The thinner jacketed bullet when shot by target shooters, who generally shoot bullets at higher velocities, would sometimes come apart in flight.
Berger thickened the jacket up to improved their target bullets.
The original Berger target bullet is now their Hunting bullet.
Your understanding is spot on I remember when Berger did this, I was a member of Long-range Huntin .com when Berger made a post saying as much.
This is true with a twist, when Berger first came out with their VLD's they had an ultra thin J4 jacket. I bought several hundred .308" 210gr VLD and .243" 105gr VLD. I never had the 210's blow-up coming out of the barrel but would blow-up on impact with very little or no penetration. The 105VLD's would blow-up 5 out of 10 shot's coming out of the barrel........I later found out this was more a cause of a Pac-Nor 3 groove barrel, they worked fine in 5 and 6 groove barrels.
These bullet's were not on the market very long, guessing maybe a month or two ????????
I had discussions with Mule Deer about these bullets and sent him the rest of what I had left several years ago that he was going to test, but between writing books and moose hunting I don't think he has gotten around to it yet.
I bought a BUNCH of the very next lot of 210gr VLD's and I am still shooting them to this day, most accurate bullet I have ever used in 300WM
