Hornady spent a pile of money developing and testing the Amax. They determined it to be an excellent target bullet but decided it was deficient for hunting porposes. After all they spent on it, if it was a good hunting bullet, they surely would have said so to increase sales. But, they didn't. They specifically said it's too fragile for hunting so don't use it.
So, a few gun writers who weren't in on the testing write about it so that negates all of Hornady's testing.
I wonder how many recommendations would be more accurate if they said "I shot 3 elk with this bullet and found 1 of them so it's a great bullet."
The reason Hornady changed the hunting bullet recommendation in the literature isn't because the AMAX doesn't work very well in the role/use.
