John,
I agree that a meeting place somewhat less congested than Las Vegas, NV would be far preferable.I particularly like your "preventative" from disease. Now I know why I never get sick! And Rick, I didn't catch anything in Vegas, and John just explained why.
To the saga of bonded core bullets and my experience with them. I first became acquainted with them in about 1974 or so. I was in Alaska at the time, with the military. A friend that I met there introduced me to Bill Steigers Bitterroot bullets. Mountain View Sports Center, a sporting goods store I frequented often, had a small stock of them for sale. As I recall now, twenty bullets cost around ten bucks. I bought a few and tried them. I found them to be superior in every way to the bullets that I had been using, mainly cup and core bullets. Until I found the Bitteroot, the Nosler Partition was the best bullet on the market that I had found. I've been using mostly bonded core bullets ever since then for my hunting. When the Barns X bullets came out, I tried them. Their performance in most rifles was very good, but not as spectacularly deadly as bonded core bullets. That changed a bit when Barnes came out with the TSX bullets. In my experience, TSX bullets performed considerably better than the original X bullets. I've used quite a few of them on game and they kill well. I've experienced very few "bang-flops" with them though. Still, I've not lost an animal that was shot with a TSX, nor have I had much of a tracking job. I've used several Swift A-Frame bullets with complete satisfaction. I have not tried any Scirocco or Scirocco II bullets on game. I've found them very accurate in my rifles at the range. I shot one animal with a Nosler Accubond, and didn't like them at all. I was using a 140 grain 7mm bullet in a 7mm Dakota rifle. That bullet performed about like a hand grenade. I shot a B&C pronghorn with it and the results were devastating. I even had to get another cape to get it mounted (from a frontal chest shot).
In fairness, it was from a very early lot of bullets, and I was driving it pretty fast out of the 7 Dakota chambering. It is my understanding that the bullet has been improved since it first came out, but I've not tried it again on game. Most likely, had I used it in a 7x57, or even 280, it would have done well. However, with all the excellent bullets available, I've not gone back and tried them again.
I've used Hornady Interbond bullets on a few game animals, mostly Coues deer and pronghorns, and they have performed very well. I used Norma Oryx bullets (180 grain 30-06) on a trip to Namibia, and they performed very much like a Bitterroot, that is to say exceedingly well. On a trip to Tanzania, I chose to use Barnes TSX bullets (165 grain 30-06) on a EA impala, Grant's gazelle, and a zebra. They did the job very nicely.
All in all, I find nothing to argue about in your piece. I agree that simply bonding the core to the jacket will not turn a poor bullet into a super one. I do think that it will turn a poor bullet into a better one though. As someone has already written, it will keep the core from separating from the jacket, at a minimum.
I have accumulated pretty much a lifetime supply of the original Bitterroot bullets, although I don't use them very often anymore. There are so many good bullets available to us today, I don't have to dig into my stash. I'll probably leave them to my kids.
TT
Great post and interesting read.... Reading what Tom had to say about BBC's years back, here and there,used in his 270,confirmed what I had seen with them as well. I accumulated a lifetime supply also and continue to use them.
