I'm a little confused about some of the commentary here. I read numerous comments from folks (myself included) who have had good experience (actual personal experience) taking deer and other critters with the Sierra 85gr HPBT. I then read arguments from a few folks who have no personal experience with this exact bullet but are hell bent on telling everyone it's no good for killing deer size game based solely on something they read in a manual. Personally I couldn't really care less if anyone else likes to hunt with this bullet. Don't buy 'em and there will be more for me to buy and load. Do those of you who continue to argue against this bullet for deer have any specific real life experience where you have made an accurate shot on the vitals of a deer and the deer failed to perform as intended? If so I'd love to hear about it. Maybe I've been lucky with my experience this year using this bullet. Maybe I haven't been lucky. Maybe the bullet will actually make a quick kill on a whitetail deer if placed into the vitals. Neither of the deer I killed with this bullet this year had exit wounds. The doe dropped right where she stood and the buck took two or three steps, fell down, kicked for about 15 seconds, then expired. All 7 pigs, between 100-225 lbs, were shot behind the ear and dropped where they stood. They were all shot from the luxury of a blind where I had a good rest and was able to make that kind of shot. I honestly didn't pay that close attention to exit wounds on any of the pigs but I don't recall seeing any. It really didn't matter. They were all dead right there. The coyote had a small entrance and small exit, again dropped in his tracks but I realize we are discussing deer size game specifically. I don't suggest that this is the best bullet on earth for killing deer. Sure there are many others made that will do the job as well and some probably better for certain situations. That can be said for many "hunting" bullets in many calibers. The original post referred to the lack of an exit wound for blood trailing purposes but also mentioned that the deer only moved 20 yards before expiring. Looks like from my experience and others we can say that "no exit wound" is at least somewhat common with the 85HPBT. So what I'm reading repeatedly are accounts from hunters who use and are happy with the performance of this bullet based on successful personal experience... followed by arguments from folks who don't have any negative personal experiences but argue against the bullet anyways. Makes perfect sense.

Well I typed this then read where BOBO says that he had this bullet blow up on impact of a whitetail. Somehow I missed that before. That must've been kinda funny looking. What did the deer do? Walk/run off injured or unharmed? I've never had any kind of bullet "blow up" on impact and I do a lot of varmint hunting with small frangible bullets. How fast were you pushing that 85HPBT?

I've never had any kind of bullet "blow up" on impact and I do a lot of varmint hunting with small frangible bullets.

I'm a little confused about some of the commentary here. I read numerous comments from folks (myself included) who have had good experience (actual personal experience) taking deer and other critters with the Sierra 85gr HPBT. I then read arguments from a few folks who have no personal experience with this exact bullet but are hell bent on telling everyone it's no good for killing deer size game based solely on something they read in a manual. Personally I couldn't really care less if anyone else likes to hunt with this bullet. Don't buy 'em and there will be more for me to buy and load. Do those of you who continue to argue against this bullet for deer have any specific real life experience where you have made an accurate shot on the vitals of a deer and the deer failed to perform as intended? If so I'd love to hear about it. Maybe I've been lucky with my experience this year using this bullet. Maybe I haven't been lucky. Maybe the bullet will actually make a quick kill on a whitetail deer if placed into the vitals. Neither of the deer I killed with this bullet this year had exit wounds. The doe dropped right where she stood and the buck took two or three steps, fell down, kicked for about 15 seconds, then expired. All 7 pigs, between 100-225 lbs, were shot behind the ear and dropped where they stood. They were all shot from the luxury of a blind where I had a good rest and was able to make that kind of shot. I honestly didn't pay that close attention to exit wounds on any of the pigs but I don't recall seeing any. It really didn't matter. They were all dead right there. The coyote had a small entrance and small exit, again dropped in his tracks but I realize we are discussing deer size game specifically. I don't suggest that this is the best bullet on earth for killing deer. Sure there are many others made that will do the job as well and some probably better for certain situations. That can be said for many "hunting" bullets in many calibers. The original post referred to the lack of an exit wound for blood trailing purposes but also mentioned that the deer only moved 20 yards before expiring. Looks like from my experience and others we can say that "no exit wound" is at least somewhat common with the 85HPBT. So what I'm reading repeatedly are accounts from hunters who use and are happy with the performance of this bullet based on successful personal experience... followed by arguments from folks who don't have any negative personal experiences but argue against the bullet anyways. Makes perfect sense.

Well I typed this then read where BOBO says that he had this bullet blow up on impact of a whitetail. Somehow I missed that before. That must've been kinda funny looking. What did the deer do? Walk/run off injured or unharmed? I've never had any kind of bullet "blow up" on impact and I do a lot of varmint hunting with small frangible bullets. How fast were you pushing that 85HPBT?

Something shy of 300 deer I've shot, and never had a bullet blow up (that I know of). Maybe it's because I shoot em in the lungs and not the leg bones.

And I have seen deer with jaws blown off and chunks of face missing. Generally, I think that's from the poor shooters taking shots that they shouldn't. I guided for a time, and I have seen my share of poor shots. Had a guy in my jeep once when the ranch foreman radioed me and told me to shoot all the does I saw because we were 300 does below what we were supposed to take off the ranch. Well, I told the guy in my jeep that we were going to do some serious shooting, starting now. He was the guest, so I let him shoot first. He missed 7 in a row from less than 100 yards in less than an hour. Geez. Handed him my rifle and he got a few. But it was people like that who shouldn't be doing head shots.

But...that's off topic. As for 243 bullets, I'd probably go for Partitions or Accubonds.

Interesting stuff BOBO,
The only time I have ever seen a bullet do something like that was when a kid shot a deer through some brush. Clearly the brush caused expansion before impact on the deer. We finally found the deer and had to finish it off.
Makes me wonder if there were any unseen/unknown (bird, bug, limb, etc) forces at work for the shots mentioned. I think it would be difficult to say for sure.
I like to line up hogs and get two-for-one shots, I did this three times in 2014. The second hog gets blasted similar to what you explain.

80gr TTSX.

I stopped using GK after I had one blow up on impact.

80gr TTSX is the perfect pill of the speed of the 243

google barnes failures, ya i think not.

In a 243 the Nosler Partition is hard to beat 65+ years and it is still the standard that premium bullets are compared to for a reason. Want to go higher tech get some Nosler Accubonds.

google barnes failures, ya i think not.