As near as I can figure, bullet failure takes two principal forms:

1) underperformance where the bullet fails to expand;

2) overperformance where the bullet fragments.

Here's my question: Are you better off with a bullet that has a higher probability of penetrating and under-expanding or a bullet that has a higher probability of expanding and under-penetrating?

Thoughts?

I would lean toward assuring penetration rather than expansion, assuming one has placed the bullet properly.

That would be highly dependent on the circumstances.

It is hard to get expansion that is excessive on a prairie dog.

It is equally hard to get a solid to hold together "excessively" well on a head shot on an elephant.

But since you post this query in "Medium Calibers", I'll assume that you're talking about "medium game". In my observation, more game animals are and have been lost due to a bullet which fails to adequately expand, allowing the game to place a great deal of distance between the place it was shot and the place it expires. While hunters often complain of "soft" bullets "blowing up meat" or "making a mess" of "failing to penetrate and leave a blood trail", fewer of these failures to perform perfectly result in a lost animal than those failures of poorly-expanding bullets which fail to deliver enough trauma for a quick kill.

Lots of game has been killed with an FMJ, of course. But lots of it has never been recovered, either.

In Africa last year after plains game, our problem was too much penetration (shooting through animals) rather than poor expansion. With relatively good penetration, I'll take better expansion for killing. We used Nosler Partitions loaded too fast for the bullet to expand and do it's work properly in .300 Win. Mags.

I think it depends on bullet diameter. A .416 or .458 usually kills smaller game well w/ solids placed in the right spot. A .243 "penciling" thru might not give the same results. A bullet that blows up on a rib going in & fails to destroy the vitals is a wounded animal that you have to track & finish off.
I would always opt for a harder bullet than a too soft one. That's why I use heavy for caliber &/or Nosler partitions for all of my big game hunting, even for deer & antelope. I want an entry & exit hole, no plastic points for me (maybe the new Accubonds).
Frank, you can't load a bullet "too fast" so that is won't expand. The faster you drive a bullet the faster it expands. What you probably have is too heavy a bullet for too light an animal (ie, a 200grNP vs an Impala). Test some of your loads in wet phone books @ different speeds & you'll see what I mean.

[ 09-23-2003, 04:22: Message edited by: fredj338 ]

Depends on what you exactly mean by under penetrating. If a bullet blows up on the ribs without doing any serious lung damage, etc. then that's not good at all. I've seen some 55 grain .223 bullets that devastated the onside lung but didn't touch the offside lung but the deer was dead-right-there or within a few yards. If a bullet pencils all the way through with little damage that's not good but far better than a blow-up before vital organ damage. It will envolve some tracking but likely to be some blood to go by since there is an exit.

I mostly agree with Stonecreeks statements but I will try to take a different angle. To me its not about one vs the other. I am NOT a monolithic fan but on the other hand Ive never hunted an elephant either. If I were going to do a safari that included cape buff or something of that sort I would look at things entirley different than what has worked quite well for me around here.

There is a place, a time, a velocity and a distance which is appropriate for any given bullet through whatever chambering, and none of them should be selected without consideration of the other AND the game to be hunted. Thats the real beauty of handloading, its like fine tuning a race car or conducting an orchestra. Every piece of the puzzle is meant to fill a particular purpose and if you do it right the results can be rewarding and there are many ways to get a winner.

A higher probability of penetrating and under-expanding!!!

A bullet that fails to penetrate can't damage vital organs, even if it hits the right spot! A solid that hits the right spot will kill even if it doesn't expand! Why do you think they use solids on dangerous game in Africa??? BECAUSE IT PENETRATES!!!

"We used Nosler Partitions loaded too fast for the bullet to expand and do it's work properly in .300 Win. Mags."

How do you know the Nosler Partition failed to expand? If it went through the animal, you obviously didn't have a bullet to examine. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A NOSLER PARTITION BULLET to "go too fast to expand"!! What happens to the NPJ at extreme velocities is that the front section expands very violently, and often even the jacket petals fold back, leaving a small or nonexistent "mushroom", and the almost caliber-size rear portion exits the critter, leaving you nothing to look at to see how it performed. I believe that no-one has ever produced an example of a Nosler Partition bullet taken from a game animal that failed to perfornm exactly this way!! I'd love to see one, if it exists.

[ 09-28-2003, 19:27: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

The higher the velocity the faster a bullet expands providing it is a bullet designed to expand in the first place.It's funny but some individuals still spread the myths about some cartridges driving bullets too fast to expand.I thought that everyone would know better by now.