CLASSIC SOFTPOINTS FOR BIG GAME

Still Viable for Modern Big-Game Hunting

- Patrick Meitin

As a teen, I relentlessly pursued desert mule deer, aoudad sheep, elk and the occasional pronghorn with a decent degree of success. I used utilitarian rifles chambered for cartridges that would be deemed “highly marginal” by today’s standards – especially for elk. I shot a lot of generic softpoints fished from factory boxes, though I started handloading when elk entered the equation because the only rifles I owned were decidedly marginal for the species, and the outdoor magazine gospel I consumed so greedily indicated Nosler Partitions were the solution. Partitions were not available in factory ammunition in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I’ve grown to appreciate the best examples of today’s premium bullets and use them frequently, as I’m still in the habit of using marginal cartridges on big game. This is particularly true of the wild hogs I shoot annually. But it’s also difficult to dismiss all the bull elk I witnessed being tagged during 23 years of guiding and outfitting, most felled by “plain-Jane” softpoints fired from standard-issue deer cartridges.

Today, premium, controlled-expansion bullets are all the rage with serious big-game hunters – whatever premium means, and controlled expansion itself is a nebulous term. We all know what these terms are