Brush-busting caliber

Let me start by saying: I’m skeptical. The idea of a bullet from a rifle plowing through brush and being accurate and lethal on the other side…?

So, what about that? Dad, and sundry outdoors magazine writers I read as a kid, always talked about various rifle cartridges that were better at brush busting. It seems, generically, that flat nosed, heavy, slower bullets were considered better at this.  (Of course, by the same lore, smaller, lighter bullets will fling off into the never never if even the smallest blade of grass or twig dares touch them mid flight…) 45-70 Govt., .44 mag, .30-30, etc.

So is it true? Will some cartridges shoot through brush better than others? Has this been tested, or is it just hunter’s musings? …and, where would 450 Bushmaster figure into this?

I saw a video a while back on just this subject. They shot a whole bunch of cartridges at an arrangement of dowels with a target at a certain distance behind. I forget the distance or maybe there were several distances. What it boiled down to was it didn't matter the cartridge or bullet style, if you hit brush your chance of hitting the target dropped precipitously. It was to the point of being random chance if you hit or not. Even the 45-70 would keyhole after hitting "brush".

So, making a hit becomes random chance but heavier bullets can still land a killing shot when going sideways simply because they have the mass to penetrate even if they land sideways.

My Grandpa shot a .35 Remington for deer hunting in Northern Michigan. He would go deep into the brush and swore by it in the brush. But he could lever out shots faster than most people and do it accurately.