I've been hunting with a 7-08 as my primary deer caliber for about 15 years now, and my experiences have lead me to the 140 grn Nosler BT. It's a great cup and draw bullet that performs flawlessly if you consider its purpose. I'm currently on my 8th DRT with this combination, which is what I'm really looking for in a deer bullet.
I went through a well constructed bullet faze when I was younger, but I started noticing animals never dropped on impact, and generally covered a significant amount of ground. I noticed small entrance wounds, with fairly small exits. Dead animals for sure, but they often covered some ground, and many caught several bullets because I don't stop shooting until they stop wiggling.
Somewhere along the line I decided more fragile bullets were called for with thin skinned game. I hunt Texas a fair amount between Devine and El Paso, and that's thick country, and I prefer not to have to trail an animal. The same applies for my home state of Oregon, and Idaho which I hunt every year as well. These are brushy, thickly vegetated landscapes, and trailing a deer can be tough. The less robust bullets like the BT, SST, Interlock, etc., work wonders in that they open quickly causing a fair amount of damage. If you keep the bullet in the boiler room, you don't have much blood shoting either. I have shot a few through shoulders and they've always penetrated to the far side (even through both shoulders of big Northern white tails), and often exiting. In this situation there's some blood shot, but it's far from extreme.
The BT's I've recovered have almost always maintained about 50% of their original weight, which again, is all I can ask of a quick opening, fast killing bullet.
