On the subject of match bullets for hunting, I just want to post this here in case anyone was interested…
Check out the book “Practical guide to long range hunting cartridges - 2nd edition” by Nathan Foster. Over 500 pages of terminal ballistic research on game animals, match bullet construction and usage, necropsy pictures, and information on most any calibers use at long range. It’s probably the biggest collection of information on match bullets for hunting that you’ll find in one place.
It was published in 2017 (1st edition was 2013), but the key players in match bullets were already around. Just for context this was around the time of the introduction of the 147g Eldm. Hopefully he releases a third edition, but regardless if you can internalize the principles of terminal ballistics and bullet construction, you can apply the same logic to any new bullet design.
Foster has been researching terminal ballistics on live game for over a decade in New Zealand. So he has year round opportunities to hunt/cull game. From goats, to 1200lb ferral cattle. He runs the site ballisticstudies which includes a plethora of info, a forum, and it’s where his books can be purchased. The forum is mostly New Zealand boys, Aussies, South Africans, and Europeans with lots of interesting perspectives and experiences.
Nathan is pretty old school. His preferences reflect that in his books and it’s most notable in his favored traditional shooting style which is best applied with heavy recoiling field rifles. However, he consistently drops animals at over 1000 yards regularly, so just in case some of his preferences don’t jive with the current PRS influenced group think, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. His research into the science of terminal ballistics and bullet construction is fantastic and well worth the cost of the read.
Info on match bullets and real terminal performance on live animals is few and far in between. If you like stuff like this, vote with your dollar, and support those who put in the time and effort.
On a closing note, there’s plenty of info on bonded bullets, cup and cores, monolithics, and etc for anyone interested in those as well.
Here are a few good article ls to wet the whistle with…
How bullets kill:
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/Effective+Game+Killing.html
Monolithics can be inhumane:
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/Homogenous+copper+bullets+can+be+inhumane.html