My go-to rifle is a 700 BDl 264. And the only bullet that I'll use in it now is a flat base original X bullet. I do lose a bit of down range velocity, but it punches ragged holes at 100 meters.
140 grain X bullets zip out at approx 3180 at the muzzle in front of 72grains of H870 (not quite max, but I can deal with lower velocity for increased accuracy). And these bullets penetrate better than anything else I've found yet. I've so far recovered 2 of them out of 27 big game animals, and not one of those critters has needed a second shot yet. The last was a nice bull moose that a buddy shot with my rifle after missing him 4 times with his '06. Complete penetration pass through, ( mind you it was only 311 yards) quartering on, impact in front of the near shoulder on the neck, broke the neck, and exited the off side shoulder blade and knuckle. A four foot penetration hole you could poke a pool cue through.
130 grain X bullets (original flat base) are pushed by 74.5 grains of H870, and whistle along around 3320 at the muzzle ( at least at this elevation, this fall anyway, new load) And they shoot into about a half an inch, or a little more. Recovered the one that I shot into a big whitetail buck this fall, end on, slightly quartering in, hit the chest, one rib, and found it in front of the hind quarter under the hide.
The other one i found was a few years back, whitetail buck, 327 yards, end on, 140 grain X, hit him in the orbital socket and travelled the entire length of his spine half an inch to the right of his spinal cord. Found that one lodged in his tail. Talk about bang flop.
Kind of off topic, sorry about that. I just found the flat base bullets to shoot a lot better in my particular rifle than anything else.
