So, you have a better facility in which to test bullets than the bullet manufacturers?
To answer your question, as far as a facility goes, no. I have enough common sense and education however to work through enough variables to come to a valid conclusion to a problem. When I initially started testing bullets I was in my early teens, and testing to me at that time simply meant shooting them into some type of media from which they could be recovers and examined. This was usually water jugs or wet news paper, set up in some sort of order, that allowed me to see what the penetration would be. While this is FAR from lab spec testing, it is still widely used by many to test loads and obtain results.
When I got my first Contender it was specifically purchased for a handgun only hunt. As such, I wanted to be able to use a bullet capable of reaching the firearms max potential. As you mention folks spewing ad nauseum ballistics, yes these have to be considered. If you haven't learned this then you need to go back to the books as it is a VERY important part of developing a load. I worked up my load procedure, then using the velocities I had gathered from this, I looked at the available bullets. From this I chose the ones I wanted to work with, which to me would give the most reliable chance of expansion, within the velocity range I could attain. From this I started load development with three different bullets of different manufacture. I contacted these manufacturers and ask what their testing had shown for the velocity ranges from which I had. When they could not answer me, I was left with no choice but to use my own testing. This testing quickly allowed that the very best bullet for the intended purpose and to the intended ranges was the 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. It proved time and time again at ranges from 50 through 300 yards to be the most accurate, and most reliable in expansion at he velocities I was able to use with the 14" barrel. They preformed flawlessly on the doe I shot at a lasered 283 yards, from a prone position resting the handgun across my day pack. This was the absolute closest I could get to the deer after an hour and a half stalk through the scrub brush on the property I was hunting.
Now, I do not know how you go about testing if you do at all, but when I work on a specific load I usually work on every aspect of it for well into a years time before I am fully confident in it. I do not simply pick a particular bullet based upon someone else experiences and call it good. I do not take my hunting lightly, nor will I go into the woods with a rifle I do not feel is up to my expectations, and I do not adhere to the pie plate sized dead deer criteria that most seem to accept. If my rifle won't shoot at a minimum of 1" or better at 100yds I simply don't use it, and I prefer this to be 200yds or more. Believe it or not, simply the way I am.
This has ZERO that's NOTHING to do with ability. It doesn't matter if you can hit coke cans at 1000 yds. All the ability in the world won't help the man behind the trigger control the uncontrollable: Wind and animal movement.
Your absolutely right, but you leave out the part about conditions being perfect, and the animal being relaxed, and undisturbed. While this might be hard for you to fathom, they do stand still, and do so at times for extended periods. While you are correct they all have the ability to move at any given time, they also have the same ability to stand there just as well.
To deliberately hunt animals that are far away makes no sense, and your own little sarcastic remarks won't change my mind. By the way, do YOU have a 600 yd. range available to you? I do, it's about 200 yds. from where I'm sitting right now. And having used said range, I fully understand long range shooting and more important the effects of the elements on long range shooting. Why don't you state your credentials?
You're like so many others on the internet who quote, ad nauseum, ballistics. I said it once and I'll say it again, there is no one bullet that is perfect at 100 yds. and 1000+ yds.
Posts like the one above from waffen should be considered by every hunter who thinks he needs to lob bullets at animals on the distant horizon.
I personally do NOT deliberately as you put it, set out to shoot any critter at an extended range. I do however deliberately practice out to ranges much further than I usually shoot them, and if I AM hunting in an area which i do on occaision where the ranges could easily exceed some specific range limit, I will use my own judgment as to whether or not I and the equipment I have with me at the time are capable of making the shot under the specific conditions present at the time.
One other point you make above, your right, there is no one particular bullet which is perfect for every situation, and this is why I test the ones I feel are going to be the best to determine if they actually are or not, under the velocities, that I will be using them at. Without doing this, there is simply no way to know for sure. Even if it isn't some lab on a White Sands testing facility, it is still better than some uneducated guess. With out testing the performance of a particular bullet, you might as well be guessing at the velocity of your load based upon what the book says it is.