  The increase in the sensitivity of gravitational wave interferometers will
bring additional detections of binary black hole and double neutron star
mergers. It will also very likely add many merger events of black hole -
neutron star binaries. Distinguishing mixed binaries from binary black holes
mergers for high mass ratios could be challenging because in this situation the
neutron star coalesces with the black hole without experiencing significant
disruption. To investigate the transition of mixed binary mergers into those
behaving more like binary black hole coalescences, we present results from
merger simulations for different mass ratios. We show how the degree of
deformation and disruption of the neutron star impacts the inspiral and merger
dynamics, the properties of the final black hole, the accretion disk formed
from the circularization of the tidal debris, the gravitational waves, and the
strain spectrum and mismatches. The results also show the effectiveness of the
initial data method that generalizes the Bowen-York initial data for black hole
punctures to the case of binaries with neutron star companions.
