Since we are describing bullet failure, I think it's also necessary to describe bullet success.
In Golf, equipment manufacturers make a great deal of.money marketing the latest and greatest driver.....launch angle, trampoline effect, centre of gravity.....yada yad yada. In truth most shots are 100 yards.and in. The same applies to game. Most shots are short range.....despite what long range hunting shows.would have you believe.
My ideas.of success
Bullet killed the animal quickly and humanely ....one bullet, not counting coupe de gras
Performed as designed and marketed
Transferred energy to animal....wound channel, bone/organ destruction
Feel free to add
I remember as a kid, Model 99 308, short range Moose, often finding cup n core factory ammo bullets. Perfectly mushroomed in the offside hide. Perfect performance for a short range 308/303 velocity. Would this work for 600 yards, dont know, probably not. Would it kill a typical Mule deer buck, almost certainly.....say 150 on meat hooks....compared to 600-50 for interior Moose.
I dont really know how to express it, but you need to match the bullet to end use. A African solid is.not going to expand at any range; while a quasi target bullet, highly frangible, designed to expand at sub 1800 ft/sec might blow up and have horrible performance at 30 yards. Take a 150 gr .308 bullet traveling 3400+ ft/sec from a 300 rum, compare that to a 147gr eldx doing 2600 from a 6.5 creedmore....basically the extremes. Both are expected to kill, both would.....results would be drastically different depending on game size/resistance, range, and bullet stoutness/frangibility. Now add other methods, an arrow simply slices, imparting little or no "shock" or energy, a large/slow bullet (thinking hard cast 45/70) has a large frontal area....penetrates, minimal expansion, imparts some energy>>>>so close to how a arrow kills, but no hydrostatic shockwave/blood bubbles or enormous wound channel.
Then there's another dimension....speed of kill/ease of tracking vs excess meat damage. One finds little meat loss from arrows, people talk about eating right to the hole with 45/70. However, it's wise to let a arrowed deer bed down and bleed out......and a 45/70 is not necessarily a bear stopper, killer yes, but not a energy transfer/stopper. The other extreme is the hyper speed shoulder shot, turning most of a quarter into Rottweiler food. Match the hatch....right bullet, caliber, for range and species.
I'm rambling, but to summarize. Define failure and success? Dead or got away? A quarter of bloodshot Jello? Bullet recovered or large exit wound? Bang flop or three hours of tracking?
I seem to be moving away from 3000 +ft/sec Magnums.....one.day I will dig out my tonnage of original Barnes X bullets. Looks like buckmaster is the guy to buy them. Getting back to the original poll, I havent had any failures.with partitions.
Dave.
