@michael458 can certainly add meaningful experience to this inquiry.
I, too, have worked up loads for my rifles (from 257 Wby through 458 Lott) with various CEB brass bullets and found very similar POI between the matched solids and raptors in the larger calibers which the solids are available. Specifically, 375 H&H with 275gr/300gr, 416 Rem Mag 370gr/400gr, and 458 Lott 470gr/500gr and 420gr/450gr.
I'm planning to use some of the ER Raptors in 257 Wby and 300 Win Mag this fall on whitetail.
Let's see, where to start.... I have shot literally a few hundred animals with Raptors, from Impala size to buffalo of course. I have been to the field with calibers from .366 to .500 caliber with Raptors.
All Raptors behave the same way in aqueous material, animal tissue. From .224 to .620 caliber. Once inside the material, or animal tissue, about 1.5 inches the BLADES shear from the main bullet in an explosive action. This is why you see such massive tissue destruction on the entrance. Once these BLADES shear, they travel along with the main center bullet, that is now acting like a full wadcutter solid, the nose of which is like a broken beer bottle. For roughly 4-5 inches of penetration the blades are working close to the center bullet, as penetration increases the blades are moving away from center, after 4-5 inches they are not slicing and dicing organs, blood vessels and all other tissue they come in contact with. Smaller calibers the blades are small of course, they do not radiate as far from center as the larger caliber blades do. Larger calibers the blades will actually exit broadside deer/impala size animals about 10 inches or so from center. They are BLADES, they are not petals. Petals push, these things slice and dice, you can see the edge of the blades are ragged sharp and penetrate far deeper than they have weight to do so............The main remaining bullet, I think they call it the Blunt Trauma something or other, is a broken beer bottle full caliber solid. It penetrates deep and straight, and will exit most of the time, end to end buffalo and larger caliber this bullet will travel 4+ feet.....Exits are Caliber Size, there is no big blown out exits, and in the beginning I heard a lot of BS about the bullet "Blowing UP" on entrance, and "Penciling through" on exit, not working........ Bull S**T........ these are the folks that observe outside only....... Look inside, and you will see everything in between destroyed, mush....... organs pulverized to mush, blood, you never in your life seen so much blood, this is the blades slicing and dicing in 6 different directions, everything they come in contact with. From .224 to .620 this is how they all work.
Raptors love velocity, the more the better, and there is NO UPPER END, nothing we can shoot from our shoulders anyway...... In the instance of BIG BORE Raptors, they CANNOT FAIL. The only thing a Raptor can do is at very low velocity impacts, they might not shear! Well, if they do not shear, they react like a full caliber solid, they still penetrate like crazy and smash anything they come in contact with. Low velocity shear points are 1600 fps or so on most, some are designed to shear at much lower velocity, such as the 250 Socom Raptor in .458 caliber down to 1200 fps.
Raptors DO NOT LIKE BRUSH...... they are not brush busters at all, so don't attempt to shoot through brush, if they come in contact with brush, then they may very well loose stability. If you have to shoot through brush, there is no better brush buster than a a CEB Solid..... I know, I shot trees, branches, limbs and everything else with the solids and they keep going....
In small bore I shoot .224 and .308. I don't hunt with either. I load 50 Raptors in 223. In ALL MY .308 caliber guns, 300 BLK, 7.62X40, 30/30, 308 Winchester and 300 Winchester I use one bullet, the 100 Flat Base Raptor...... it is Wicked. I have a lot of local friends, and over the years I have loaded nothing but the 100 FB Raptor for them and their deer hunting, hog hunting and even black bear....... Out of at least 150 deer/hogs and bear, the furthest any of these has gone is 5 steps.....99% of the shots, including black bear, were all DRT on the spot, end of story....... I have a few 338s, and the 176 ER Raptor is good, but I don't care much for the ER part, I would much rather have a Flat Base. In .358 caliber rifles, the 150 Brass and 160 Copper Raptors are just wicked, and will accomplish most any mission asked of a .358 Caliber cartridge. I have 358 STA and 358 RUM......the big RUM runs those at 3700+ fps......... Then I skip up to 9.3 caliber and use exclusively the 200 Flat Base Raptor, it is wicked, and will do anything you want to do with 9.3 caliber. I have shot 20+ animals with this, including several zebra and wildebeest and it is extremely effective......... Then I go to 416 and one of my favorites here is 225 Raptors for anything less than buffalo, excellent Alaskan and all Plains game type bullet. I have shot buffalo with them as well, but would move to the heavier Safari Raptors and Solids for that work. 458 Caliber, regardless of cartridge and capacity, you never need more than the 420 Raptors for buffalo, and 450 Solids for everything else......... My .500 caliber rifles are various and have several combinations of Raptors and Solids designed for them. MY 500s are true .500 caliber......
When an animal is taken with a Raptor, and anyone as witness for the first time, this is the comment you always hear, over and over, time and time again.... Sam and I laugh at it, because its always the same "I have never seen anything like that".......... LOL
Questions?
