Gravestone, it simply provides a baseline. Hunters tend to be very loyal to what has worked for them and will defend what they have had success with. Nothing wrong with that. Even with whitetail deer, the most common big game animal, the few inches of difference between a meaty shoulder and a good rib shot can make quite a difference with some bullets so the onus is always on shot placement. In most cases common sense and avoiding extremes are sufficient. When you compare a true match bullet and/or a true varmint bullet against a monolithic, for example, it is easy to see why one might move more into the center for all-around performance. Or, if one is counting pennies, a comparison between two less expensive bullets might tip the balance a certain way. Mostly, terminal ballistic testing is simply fun. (Messy with newsprint, but fun.) With bullets like Northforks and the Barnes MRX it can be quite a challenge to have enough newsprint to stop the bullet. M.L. McPherson was of the belief that saturated phone books were better than gelatin to replicate big game results.
