My bro in law has had real bad luck with the Hornady 154 grain spire point in his 7mm mag; it just comes apart, even at ridiculous ranges.
A few years ago, he took one of his buddies elk hunting and drug along the seven. His friend took a long shot, one Mike told him not to, and wounded an elk. It was moving along pretty good, ducking and bobbing through the reprod up yonder side of the canyon heading for the timber. On Mike's 14th shot he managed to hit it and put it down. With the laser rangefinder, they measured that shot at 550 yards, much further than he'd ever consider shooting at an unwounded animal. Even at that distance, the 154 grain Hornady blew apart.
He didn't clue in, thinking it was a fluke.
The next year we were hunting with one of his other friends; they went one way, I another. I heard a couple shots. Being no dummy, I waited 2 hours, figuring that'd give them time to get the elk out.
Nope. Anyway, at 150 yards, using the same load as the long shot, he hit the elk a little too far back ... right crosswise at the diaphragm, and while it knocked the elk down it also blew up. Second shot was better placed and killed the elk but the bullet still blew apart.
We're not talkin' mere core/jacket separations ... we're talking about jacket in pieces and core fragmented.
I had pretty flaky results with the Hornady 180 grain spire point on various game from an '06.
If your gun shoots them accurately and you hunt in such a way that you have lotsa time to carefully place every shot ... in other words, if you're sniping instead of jump shooting and you're calling your shots within a half inch or so ... I'd use the Hornadys for deer. Not elk. Not moose.
That doesn't mean I don't like Hornady bullets ... I like their XTP pistol bullets a lot and I like their varmint bullets, and their FMJ solids have a fairly good reputation, but their expanding hunting bullets leave a lot to be desired. IMHO, of course.
For game I'm sold on the Nosler partitions; this year I may give the 145 grain Speer grand slam a whirl in my 7mm-08. They're a more expensive, but I think the game animals are worthy of the difference. I'm sport hunting, not subsistance hunting, and I have no excuse for cheaping out and wounding critters because of it.
