Merely being a "hollowpoint" bullet is enough to incite the uninformed to presume that it is more disposed to mushroom, upset, tumble or fragment than a full-metal jacketed bullet. This is not true, as the USMC tests in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s concluded.
The second presumption is that the military uses hollow point match bullets because they want them to fragment. Again, this is not true.
In fact, the hollow point on many match bullets came about as a necessity of how the bullet jacket is formed around the lead core, from the base up. It can be left open to a centered, concentric hole more easily than it can be closed, so the bullets can be more consistently balanced and more accurate.
Some hollowpoint bullets are tougher.
For example, the Sierra 160-gr HPBT Gameking is a tougher bullet than its 160-gr SPBT Gameking.
Some FMJ bullets are prone to expand and tumble upon impact.
The 174-gr FMJ .303 British Army bullet actually has a flat nosed lead core under the hollow cavity, which is fully enclosed.
