It isn't what I want the bullet to do, but what Berger claims which is that one of the things that makes their bullets so good is hydrostatic shock. I can't think of a better place for hydrostatic shock to be killing the animal than right behind the ear, pretty much right next to the spine and the brain stem, both. This should have been a perfect use of the Berger bullet despite not directly impacting the spine or hitting the head. The animal was still conscious.
Imperfect shot? LOL, few shots are perfect from what I see but I can live with classifying the shot as "imperfect." Though I will add that "behind the ear" is a traditionally held spot as a "perfect" shot on hogs and one where the Berger should shine. I personally think that is a bad way of thinking, particularly because of the hog I have pictured above where a behind the ear shot just went through soft tissue and the hog survived and healed up (mostly) before I killed it (with another imperfect shot with my normal ammo into the thoracic cavity). If you don't hit the skull or spine when shooting "behind the ear," then you are relying on hydrostatic shock to skill the animal as there just isn't much there that is vital, just neck muscle.
My normal ammo costs about 60% of what Berger costs and performs very well (Hornady SST). It is much more expensive than FMJ. If I am going to have to rely on shot perfection (which is a good goal, no doubt), then I might as well use FMJ ammo for my perfect shots and save a bunch of money.
I have now shot 9 hogs with the Berger VLD-Hunting 130 gr. ammo loaded by Precision Firearms that I have recovered and 1 that I have not. These were non-running hogs at the time of the shot. The unrecovered hog was a low neck shot. Hydrostatic shot did not stop or drop the hog. Two more were neck/boilerroom shots (one described below) that resulted in hogs that ran after the shot as well. Despite Berger's promotion of hydrostatic shock, I do not see it as a reliable stopping factor on hogs. It is a bonus if you get it, no doubt, sort of like with other hunting rounds.
Two more hogs that I did shoot through the boilerroom ran as well. They did die, but that is what I would expect from about any bullet when damage the heart, resulting in hypotension. Go figure.
This is NOT to say that the Berger VLD-Hunting isn't a fine hunting round. Measured, I have gotten as much as 20-22" inches of penetration (a lot for a frangible round) that takes out a lot of smaller bone. I have not hit a humerus, yet. This was a quartered toward shot that entered at the neck/shoulder juncture and blasted through the boiler room, and exited on the other side after taking out three ribs on a 270 lb boar. There was an amazing amount of soft tissue damage. For this hog and a couple others I have dissected, soft tissue damage is often extensive and sometimes in unexpected manners (wider area than expected). This hog ran 20 yards or so with a damaged heart and at least one lung and losing a LOT of blood. Hypotension and not hydrostatic shock would appear to be the cause of death. video
https://youtu.be/3TqQvIZ-W3E Description of the wound exam is found here.
http://www.lonestarboars.com/threads/270-lb-boar-with-berger-vld-hunting.5578/page-2#post-60426 This includes some pretty gory images, hence why I didn't post here.
In one case, I shot a hog through the forehead and part of the round exited an estimated 26" back on the side by the lower ribs (distance estimated from photo and not measured at the time). So it blew through the front of the skull on entry, bottom/back of the skull to exit the head, down the neck and through the chest to exit at the lower ribs. That is very impressive penetration. video
https://youtu.be/06vi9skcWrU
So the 6.5 Grendel Berger VLD-Hunting 130 gr. is a fine hunting round, but hydrostatic shock does not appear to be its strong suit, thought massive tissue damage and penetration do.