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I know this is a old thread, and just wanted to share my experiences on these bullets. It may help someone else is all. I have been using both bullets since they were introduced (yes I'm old) on both Deer, Elk, and Bear. We used to be able to buy the BT in boxes of 100 in any weight and caliber....ohhhh some of the old days I do miss. Those are the largest/toughest animals, and reality is I have used them for everything I have shot. I pretty much disregard everything but Elk and Bear as my experience has been any "standard soft point" factory bullet will easily and quickly kill Deer sized and down. The major and multiple noticeable failures on animal between these two bullets (ELK, BEAR) has been the BT and there have been many not just one. Yes, the BT has worked but also failed often. The AB performance on target has been consistent and much more effective. The answer the OP's question I have loaded for several (at least 5-6) rifles over the last 15 years that shot both bullets exactly the same with the exact same load. The velocity, POI, and trajectory etc. matched. I have had just as many not shoot to the same POI.
Holy smokes that really sucks. I know there are people who have seen more heart shot animals in their life both firearm and bow. I don't know the exact number, and this last year I've seen two so far. One muzzle loader, one rifle, and I have been hunting well over 40 years. For several years in a row I shot dozens of deer on depredation permits. I have never one time seen any animal with a bullet (even 224 FMJ) hole in the heart live for more than a minute. I'm glad I dont hunt the same deer you hunt. LOL
That is just weird. Weird things do happen though. Perhaps a faulty batch or something, bit of a head scratcher. Weirdest thing I've seen wasn't bullet failure, but a whitetail buck's "failure" to die as swiftly as all logic dictates he should have. This was with a 270 at about 150 yards, old reliable hornady interlocks 130 grain at 3200 fps muzzle. I can't image that a .30 cal magnum or really anything short of a cannon would have visited more violence upon the creature. Evidence of completely violent expansion WITH an exist wound that, under the skin, was over three inches wide, with a a two inch shard of shattered rib bone laying in the snow 6 feet behind where he was standing. That super vivid BRIGHT red spray extending out to said rib chunk indicating at least one destroyed lung. It was quartering downhill towards me, bullet entered through a shoulder, completely destroyed that quarter of meat unfortunately, upon field dressing it was revealed the side of the heart got clipped, perhaps by a fragment, and one of the arteries was completely severed. And as I mentioned, offside lung completely destroyed, with a huge free bleeding exit wound. Better bullet performance is hardly possible as far as lethality is concerned. That buck I tracked over half a mile and when I found him bedded down he started trying to get up again, shot him in the head and finished the job. There was no blood left to drain, to this day it is beyond me how this happened, all
