Smokepole,
Exactly.
In recent decades lot of hunters have been conditioned in to equate high weight retention with "killing power." I suspect this trend started with Bob Hagel's book in the 1970's, where he emphasized weight retention so much. As a result some hunters started demanding "premium" bullets even for shooting whitetails, and manufacturers started making expanding bullets that retained more and more weight.
Another result is that nowadays there's often a knee-jerk reaction from some hunters about bullets that fragment. Have even heard hunters say a Nosler Partition "failed" because the front end flew apart, just like John Nosler designed it to.
While it's true bullets that don't penetrate the vitals don't kill worth a schidt, it's not true that 100% weight retention kills quicker. In reality fragmentation increases killing power by making a bigger hole in the vitals. That sounds simplistic, but just because something is simple doesn't mean it's wrong.
Berger bullets penetrate into the vitals before they fragment, which also would seem to be a simple concept to grasp. But a lot of hunters apparently can't get their mind around it, because they've been brainwashed by high weight retention for several decades now. As a result there's always at least one guy on every Berger bullet thread who whines and moans when he's never even seen one in action.
I read a lot as a kid. but quickly found out that a lot of what was written didn't pan out in real life.
I quickly learned to just do the research myself.
And yes, fragments kill quicker, like a grenade vs a FMJ bullet to your torso.
Its the bullets that I recovered over the years, especially those while doing taxidermy full time that made me rethink life. Meant that I'd rather have the hole all the way through from any angle, and some damage, than risking a shot that won't allow penetration.
I can track as needed after the fact.
Its just my take on things. But when I do run Berger bullets, I run the target ones not the hunting ones, and I refuse to take angled shots.
As to expansion, i've got some GREAT looking berger target 185s from my 308 out to about 800 yards shooting at both targets and javelina/hogs. They perform just like I want, expand, fragment some, but basically retain about 3/4 or more of their weight to penetrate.
I"ve still got 7mm /180s but have failed to have a shot on game while having them in my gun so far.
Of course to answer the OP... I'd have no qualms about shooting an elk with a 243 win and a 100 grain corelokt or such. It just means my distances and shot angles have to be watched and have to be ready to say no.
