I was just thinking about something, I was raised to hunt by my grandfather and my Uncle Jim. Grandfather used a 1917 Parker SxS with 34" barrels choked extra full/extra full and Uncle Jim had 2 rifles that I knew about, both Weatherby Mark Vs in 240 Weatherby and 257 Weatherby and he always preached to me that a SP bonded bullet would kill anything and everything needed killing. He traveled all over the world, took me moose, elk, sheep, antelope, mule deer and whitetail hunting and I used both of those rifles. He passed away in 1986 after a lengthy battle with cancer, my aunt Lillian gave me those two rifles the day we buried him. There's not a bit of finish on the 240 and a good portion is missing on the 257. We never found his stash of ammo, if he had one. I didn't use a tipped bullet until the late 90s early 2000s, for the ranges I hunted back then, my favorite bullet was a Winchester Super-X Power-Point for the 30'06 and 243. I used a Weatherby loaded SP of some kind in the Win-Tuff XTR 300 Weatherby that I killed my first bull elk with, got the elk and 13 stitches over my right eye. I think there was as much or more blood on me as the elk, angles and such, valuable lesson.
My first "ballistic tip" outing was disastrous, I shot a big for our area 9 point, saw the hit/splash, but never recovered the deer. At the time, we attributed the failure to a combination of things, too close a range, too much velocity and poor placement(too far forward on the shoulder/scapula). I am not saying that a SP would have had a different outcome, but up until that point, I had never failed to recover a game animal shot with a soft point.
My first and only outing with Hornady tipped bullets was the ELD-X, 3 shots, 3 different outcomes, huge wound channel on a doe shot over 300yds, pencil in and pencil out on a buck shot at approximately 100yds and perfect performance on a buck at 140yds, all 3 from a 300 WSM. This was early in the history of the ELD line, maybe it was an unfair assessment, but I haven't been back down that road and don't plan to.
I will say that of all the bullets on the shelf during covid, I could find Hornady at several retailers in various calibers, excluding 6.5mm and 7mm.
I use Berger, Nosler and Barnes primarily, but I have built up a solid stash of soft points in 224, 6.5mm, 7mm and 308, Bergers in all 4 and 6mm.
I don't know if Hornady figured it out or stumbled onto the solution, doesn't matter, don't care.
There are accurate bullets from a variety of manufacturers in various shapes and sizes, it's conceivable, revolutionary, doubtful since HP and SPs were already in wide use.
Hornady did give us rubber tipped bullets for our lever guns, never figured that one out or used one.
My first "ballistic tip" outing was disastrous, I shot a big for our area 9 point, saw the hit/splash, but never recovered the deer. At the time, we attributed the failure to a combination of things, too close a range, too much velocity and poor placement(too far forward on the shoulder/scapula). I am not saying that a SP would have had a different outcome, but up until that point, I had never failed to recover a game animal shot with a soft point.
My first and only outing with Hornady tipped bullets was the ELD-X, 3 shots, 3 different outcomes, huge wound channel on a doe shot over 300yds, pencil in and pencil out on a buck shot at approximately 100yds and perfect performance on a buck at 140yds, all 3 from a 300 WSM. This was early in the history of the ELD line, maybe it was an unfair assessment, but I haven't been back down that road and don't plan to.
I will say that of all the bullets on the shelf during covid, I could find Hornady at several retailers in various calibers, excluding 6.5mm and 7mm.
I use Berger, Nosler and Barnes primarily, but I have built up a solid stash of soft points in 224, 6.5mm, 7mm and 308, Bergers in all 4 and 6mm.
I don't know if Hornady figured it out or stumbled onto the solution, doesn't matter, don't care.
There are accurate bullets from a variety of manufacturers in various shapes and sizes, it's conceivable, revolutionary, doubtful since HP and SPs were already in wide use.
Hornady did give us rubber tipped bullets for our lever guns, never figured that one out or used one.
