Shot a muley buck at 618 yards few years ago with the 168g vld at 2950fps, on point of shoulder. He dropped on the spot but was far from dead. Bullet didn't even make it halfway through the chest cavity. I couldn't finish him off from that distance because he kept trying to get up and falling down the hill. I eventually made my way across the canyon and finished him off with a neck shot. Upon skinning is where I found "pieces" of the 168g VLD barely making it past the shoulder of where I hit him.
I switched to 180's the next year to see if that would solve the problem and thats where I ran into an entirely different problem. Shot another muley buck about 100 yards behind the shoulder and he just stood there like nothing even happened. After about a minute, I put another one in his shoulder this time. After about 30 seconds, he finally fell over. Upon retrieving this one, it was very very hard to find the exit holes. Upon gutting and skinning him out, internal damage was nill and the exit holes were the size of needles. No more VLD's for me from my 7 RM on deer...
Also have had my issues with the 162g AMAX. These are only going 2850-2900fps. Wacked a very very nice 4x4 muley at 790 yards behind the front shoulder and that bullet totally blew up as well. At least it made it halfway through the chest cavity, turned the insides to mush, he went about 25 yards before expiring. I would have liked to seen an exit at 790 yards [beeep]. Worse yet, what if I had hit his shoulder?? Would have turned out exactly like the 168g VLD where the buck would have not been dead and flopping all around trying to get back up.
I"m going to give the 162g AMAX 1 more try this year, that is if I even take it...My 338 EDGE w/300g SMK"s is now my dedicated LR deer/elk/bear rifle. The 7 RM is just used for a lighter weight back up rig for when I dont wanna pack my 12 lb EDGE.
Have never lost an animal with a target bullet, but I've definately had my issues with them. Really the only target bullet I trust on game anymore is the 338" 300g SMK where it can lose all the weight it wants, its still got some serious power and with that kinda SD, it gets the job done everytime no matter what.