I've read the Terminal ballistics study over the years, IMO there is some info to be gleaned from it but on the whole it adds nothing to our knowledge that we already don't understand although terms and definitions of effects get jumbled and miss used it's not very hard at all to see what happens in the field. There is some laughable stuff in that study that makes it real hard to read, there is a lot of personal issues trying to be covered in science which basically make a person have to sift through the entire work and decide where the science is speaking and where it's there to support personal feelings. All he's doing is shooting into wet paper and measuring stuff and acting like it translates to anything on game, anyone who has shot enough wet phone books or jugs then taken them to game understands that sometimes you get something similar and sometimes your not even close!! A scientific approach is interesting and worthy of the effort but in the end each animal is different, each shot is different, we have no set control or media that is in fact the same as shooting a game animal, we never will because we can not replicate the systems at work in a living being.
We can all skew results with easy, I can take a light copper bullet and shoot it at a range that the impact will open it nicely but it won't have enough momentum behind it to over come a shoulder or neck hit on an elk and will deflect, that does not mean all copper bullets are crap, that means I exceeded their operational capability, I'm then left with a decision, to just say their all crap or to learn what operational parameters I can run them in to get my desired out come.
If someone thinks there is any bullet made that is immune to failure or operator failure their smoking some good stuff. I can load a variety of bullets, copper, bonded or cup and core and either make them look like rock stars or complete dudes just by choosing launch or range velocities and shot placements that do not favor that bullet.
I've seen the "just wait" line used a lot from guys engaging someone who shoots a Berger bullet, 12 years ago I was done hunting, I was just over having to shoot elk multiple time, cutting their throats because of small wound channels and since the Barnes bullet and how it function was in my mind the best and only way to do it I had come to the point I'd rather not hunt than do it this way. The ONLY reason I'm hunting today is because of Berger bullets, I was done until I heard a rumor about these bullets and saw a short video of guys crushing elk, turned out to be John Burns.
For me the change was so stark, not only in lethality but in the meat quality when I changed from Barnes to Berger it was amazing, it still took me a couple years to stop packing two loads and just shoot the Bergers but the final point came when I shot an elk with bonded bullet and she was still on her feet and while not well she was not expiring, it was a close shot that I did not want to take with a Berger but I did not want to take the time to change, I shot her a couple inches lower from the first round and she immediately fell and didn't move. When I gutted her, the bonded bullet simple made a small wound channel through her lungs and exited, she was dead but was taking her time, blood shot was more than I like. The Berger bullet did not exit, the entrance looked like you shoved a nail into her with so little blood shot I just trimmed the hole out to the ribs. Her heart and lungs were minced, not a hole but utter carnage inside a 4 inch path ending on the of side where I could see cuts from bullet bouncing of the insides.
All this to high light for every guy with a lot of experience you will get different answers, different methods, different shot placement and different needs how we get there may be completely opposite from each other, which proves that having a solid science based single solution is impossible in this situation.
Just to be clear meat quality is of paramount importance to me, I've cut over 12,000 MT big game animals and not only quality of the meat was held to the highest standards but we also tracked yields so quantity is also very important but I will trade a couple pounds of meat loss for quick clean kills, I also will trade a little meat loss for no game loss, you loose an elk with a broken shoulder because of a bullet that won't shed frontal area and penetrate and you could have afforded loosing 10-12 lbs by using a bullet that will shed that frontal area but has the mass to continue penetrating into the chest cavity. One of the most interesting things I've seen was a bullet I caught in a steel plate, it was a Cutting edge bullet, mid way though the plate there is the bullet, next to it are a bunch of holes from frangible bullets that cut nice clean holes and penetrated completely, the CEB just had to much frontal area vs mass and stopped, always though that was interesting.
This year we are shooting very few Bergers, we like testing bullet and enjoy learning so this year will be ELD-X and Hammers getting air time, maybe we'll add some more bullets to what we already have confidence in but I like making decisions based on my personal requirements, I think this is the only way to be completely happy with what you do!!
