Never had it happen before, although I have often read about this. Shot a decent Whitetail buck ( 153 B&C points), dressed weight 184 lbs, at lasered 227 yards, with a .308 ballistic tip Nosler 180 grain, Mv=3150 fps). Bullet hit under an approximate 45 degree angle smack centre shoulder blade.(Only available shot through a bunch of shrub). The bullet pulverized a section of shoulder blade about 2x2 inch, but interestingly did not penetrate through into the chest cavity. Bullet veered off towards the neck, travelling about 12 inch forward through the muscle part. Recovered part weighed 94.6 grains.
The buck dropped as pole-axed, recovering him lying on its side, paralyzed at the entire right side, but kicking and active at its left side. A swift knife trust in his heart finished him off mercifully, without meat spoilage.
I am not posting this as yet another breathless anouncement of another ballistic tip failure!!
In the contrary, for trophy deer the ballistic tip in my .300 Weatherby always put my trophy down with one shot for the last 18 years. I do not use the ballistic tip if I hunt only for meat.
I believe that this could have happened with any other bullet,shot under the same conditions, even one of the premiums. I thought that it was just an interesting observation that probably was related to the sharp angle it was fired at buckie the deer.

Maybe high vel., sharp nose profile & steep angle hitting bone. Maybe a simple RN soft would drill all the way thru?

I investigated gunshot wounds for a living. They do funny things at time. In a famous case in California, a guy tyring to comit suicide, shot himself in the head. He went out, but woke up and decided that maybe he didn't want to be dead after all. He made excuses for his injury as he went about his busiess. A few day later he had a problem; a pain. He went to the doctor with his probelm. An x-ray showed a lead slug next to his balls. He told the doc of the suicide attempt and the doc traced the path of the bullet after it bounced off his skull under his skin down to his scrotum.

Sorry I have to say this........... that's a tough way to put lead in your pencil.......