Save the match bullets for paper punching. If the manufacturer does not recommend match bullet for game hunting, I am going to say, that is a good enough recommendation for me. I have had the core come out of a Norma 30 cal hunting bullet, so why would I want to use a bullet that was not designed for expansion and integrity in meat?
And, what do you really get? If you don't think game bullets will shoot straight, go try some. It is surprising how well some game bullets will do at distance. I have not tested them all, but no real stinkers out to 300 yards, and beyond that, some of my game bullets shot very well indeed.
30 cal, pulled Fed Fusion
277 Fed Fusion pulled bullets
These 130's float at 600 yards, at least that is what I am claiming for the shots in the nine ring. Can't be me, right?
the rifle liked the 150 Fed Fusion pulled bullets
shot well at 600 yards
hunting bullet, you think you can't hit unless you have a match bullet?
while the 6.5 Swede M70 puked with core lokt's
same bullet did well in a M700
With quality bullets, I am going to say that aiming error is greater than bullet. Tight group sizes don't mean as much as having correct range estimates and being able to dope the wind. Match or game bullets still move in the wind, and you have to shoot enough under fish tailing conditions, or gusty conditions, to appreciate how much bullets drift.
I remember complaining one year in the pits at Camp Perry about the 600 yard conditions the day before. My 223 bullets were drifting 36 inches before they hit the target. Of course, some drifted more, some drifted less, wind is never a constant. And some old USMC on a target near by stumped up and told me when he won the 1000 yard service rifle match, with his M14, he had full left windage, and was aiming three targets over! I estimated his bullets were drifting forty feet, or so.
I heard an apocryphal tale of a marksman shooter with a rack grade Garand shooting at Camp Perry in gale like conditions. The story was, the shooter won the 600 yard match due to the randomness of his hold, his aim, the ammunition, his rifle, and wind gusts.
Could have happened, after you blow enough water out of your rear sight aperture, these fish stories sound plausible.