For now I'm sticking with the SST's. They are very accurate in my gun, and have resulted in many dead deer. I agree somewhat about the blood trail, but if you hit them right, they don't travel at all. With the accuracy that the gun gives me, I can pick and choose where I hit the deer. If there is no snow on the ground and the deer might cause a hard tracking job, I'll hit 'em with a high shoulder shot and they drop in their tracks. If there is snow on the ground like there is now, I'll aim a bit further back not to ruin any meat and punch thru both lungs. The snow shows any blood easily, and they usually don't go more than 30 Yds. Now, the velocity on impact matters, because Hornady designed them for impacts under 2200 or 2300 fps I believe. Anything over that, and they tend to act as a varmint bullet - massive destruction on impact, but not a whole bunch of penetration, especially if a major bone is hit. The doe that I took yesterday was on the smaller side, so I aimed so I'd miss both shoulders, but still thru the lungs. The SST (Shockwave Blem, actually) also took out part of the liver as it went thru her. The blood trail was a 1.5' x 3' spray as she ran, with a spray at every bound, and she only bounded 25 Yds before piling up. She was about 50 Yds away, and my MV is right under 2400 fps. Not much left of the lungs, and the part of the liver that was hit looked like it went thru a meat grinder.
Now, for an animal that is tougher than a deer, I definately would use a different bullet.
Blue-Dot-37.5
