madsenshooter wrote on Aug 19^th, 2017 at 12:27am:

I think you'd do best experimenting with 168s and up.

Whelen's favorable comments were in regards to the 172 through 190 spitzers back then, that's why I planned to start with 168. While I'll follow your advice and work upward in weight, eventually I'll want to work downward, for my bony teenager didn't care for the recoil in my rifle firing the 220 RN.

I hadn't seen that Nosler. I don't think I've ever seen a BTRN; a BT is usually on some spitzer. The Nosler that caught my eye was the ABLR, with opening speeds as low as 1300 combined with very high BC, but as you say, "outta my price range."