What caliber? My experience has been opposite even shooting with 308.. they do expand quickly

Shot a 8 with the interlock in .270 the other day quartering to me. Bullet was just under the skin on the other side. Deer didnt bleed much except where i found him but he was definitely dead. Dug bullet out. It mushroomed real good and was in one piece still.

30-06 and 7MM-08

Hornady has always been inconsistent. You just got a bad box. Always test when changing lot to lot. And that includes bullets you load yourself. It's funny to me that people say similar to what you said and look at me like I just sprouted another head when I tell them that's just a Hornady thing.

Also, the reason people are so often unimpressed by the 6.5CM is most factory loads are too slow. Handload an 120gr NBT or similar and you'll like it same as most any other deer rifle.

7-08

SST is a ballistic tip, it will not mushroom or hold together like a corelokt or similar bullet. Only deer I had DRT was a buck I hit right in heart. All others ran off into thick cover, I was lucky to recover them all.

I’m in the Barnes crowd due to the no exit with the SST. I reload them myself and push them fast. Most deer don’t take a step

Agreed. That’s how they are built. Some people love em, some don’t. I just want an exit wound so if they do run, you can follow a blood trail. With no exit, it is like a vacuum and not much blood at all