Before the fairly recent emergence of the monolithic type solid, a solid was as described: a completly covered jacketed shell over either lead or sometimes as like the DGS, steel and then lead. Hornady solids have always enjoyed a good reputation and I can personally vouch for them as it took a total of one to put my second buff down with a neck/shoulder shot at over 140 yards way back in 1990! And yes sometimes solids of the old type deform but then as you just pointed out, so did one of your mono's apparently. Even years ago many hunters would state that whatever solid they used could almost be used again. As James.Grage also points out his buff did not repel the DGS. I think too much is made of mono solids and for that matter modern iterations of various bullets. In the old days "solids" were often called "full patch" bullets.