Any time the XTP’s - or FTX’s, really - come up, there’s always that gut check of bullet failures. Which, by most common standards, sure, the weight loss they suffer would be considered a failure.
But if you consider “failure” of a bullet in terms of failing to quickly and effectively kill the target animal when placed appropriately, then a guy has to consider - how did those folks get those bullets back to measure their fragmentation loss and weight retention?
Some other guys might consider failing to pass through as a “failure.” Well - how did those folks know the bullet didn’t pass through?
For either case: Dead is dead.
I would never consider taking an XTP or FTX on anything bigger than deer, and by saying that, I mean NEVER, and also mean nothing bigger than deer. I’ve recovered these bullets myself, and contemplated the poor weight retention and failure to pass through many times while I supped on venison killed by them.
Maybe I’m biased. I’m a coyote hunter at the core, because I can do that 365 1/4 days per year and my family has a few million dollars wrapped up in cattle - I’ve sold thousands of furs over the years, and really don’t mind NOT having an exit wound. I like to dump my energy in the pumphouse and not waste anything else. If game were running a mile afterwards, maybe I’d worry more about having a hole in each side. But when they fall on a spectrum somewhere between tipping over and staggering 30yrds, I don’t worry much.
I have had the same relationship with polymer tipped, non-bonded bullets like NBT’s, SST’s, CT BST’s. I won’t even pretend these bullets retain weight to any acceptable standard, and quite often, the core separates from the jacket. Exit wounds are often odd shaped and small, and not in line with the preliminary wound tract. That is, if any exit wound presents at all, and there are jacket fragments throughout the chest cavity and ribs (to the point of being easy to cut yourself as you scoop out the lung & blood jello salad they leave). Absolute and complete bullet destruction, a failure by any measure. But I’ve eaten nearly a hundred deer taken with these bullets.
My worst consequence for using the XTP’s on deer so far has really been a few shards of jacket in my buck-sgetti or deer-ox. If I lose one next season, I’d expect I’m due to make a bad shot as the shooter, or have a statistical “WTH just happened?” event which all hunters have eventually.
I’m not saying they’re great bullets, but rather the common standards/definitions of “bullet failures” might not be the best measure of terminal performance.
