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This holds only--repeat, only--for Sierra .30 bullets:
I had a 150-grain SPBT blow up in a mule deer's neck. No exit. It was at about 30 yards. 26" on the '06, loaded max. My estimated muzzle velocity, based on my experiences with holdover and Sierra's external ballistic tables for trajectory, was around 3,100 ft/sec.
A Sierra fellow got into the discussion here at TFL. He stated that I had driven the bullet too fast for the range at which I hit the deer. The jacket on the boat-tail is a tad thinner than on the flat-base. Had the velocity at impact been down around 2,700, it probably would not have blown apart. He further stated that a 150-grain flat-base would probably have held together.
Velocity at time of impact is thus a factor.
All other kills, at longer ranges, have had the boat-tail to be very effective; generally with exit wounds.
In the mule deer incident, the blowup didn't matter. A neck shot is a neck shot, and the deer didn't go anywhere from where he was lying as I walked up on him.
Art
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