Thank you for posting that email exchange and clarification on the velocity range direct from Hornady. A guy who shares good info like that is welcome here any time IMO.
Just ignore Mannlicher and other guys like that with nothing to contribute, I'm sorry that was your first experience with this forum.
No worries, I half wondered if Mannlicher doesn't even know the actual meaning of "spam" and maybe didn't even know what he was accusing me of. Anyway, in either case, I've lurked in this forum for a while as a non-user, and figured it was time I set up an account, log in, and contribute what info I could.
Along those lines, I shot a deer with the 158gr FP/XTP two days ago and thought I'd come back to comment on the performance. Shot was fired from an 18.5" barreled Marlin 1894C in 357 Magnum, using a near max load of Accurate No.9 that pushes the bullet at an average muzzle velocity of about 1750 FPS. Shot was broadside, or maybe slightly quartering away, on a doe at about 35 yards.
Bullet entered left side, perforated both lungs, and destroyed the two upper chambers of her heart. It broke through the ribs on her far side leaving about a 3/4" hole in them and, weirdly, then traveled about 6" forward under the skin before finally exiting. I was unable to recover the bullet because of the exit. She ran about 60 yards before collapsing, leaving a good blood trail from the entry wound the whole way. There was very little bleeding from the exit wound. Her field dressed weight was about 115 lbs.
Overall I'm happy with the performance of the bullet and this loading, and will keep using it. I think a longer shot's lower impact velocity would've resulted in slightly less expansion, and therefore better penetration and a cleaner exit with even more bleeding. Based on what I saw, I definitely wouldn't push it past Hornady's recommended max velocity of 1800 FPS, or it may expand too much for full penetration on larger deer.
That's my experience from a sample size of only 1, anyway. :-D
