Premium bullets on soft skinned game?

[kombi1976]

I've looked at the different premium bullets available & their claims. For instance, many people rave about the Nosler Ballistic tips, the Barnes bullets and the Hornady V-Max & SSTs but I wonder about the practicality of using them on medium, soft-skinned game.
Have you guys found they fail to open up properly & tend to punch straight through without mushrooming successfully?
Or do they perform just as efficiently on lighter game as they do on heavy game that require controlled expansion?
So far I've been using Sierras Varminter HPs & GameKing HPBTs pretty much exclusively because they were good value & they perform o.k., but in the handloader's spirit of not knowing when to leave well enough alone(:D) I'm tempted to have a play with more expensive bullets. I might be chasing the Holy Grail but I figure I may as well have some fun.

[CAfrica]

Kombi,
 
Ballistic Tips & V-Max are not "premium" bullets in the sense that a premium bullet is a "strong" bullet.  These bullets are expensive and are "high quality", meaning little variation between bullets and excellent BC's compared to standard lead cores.
 
A "premium" bullet (in my book) is a bullet with a construction which is less likely to fail at high velocity on a tough target.  I had some "conventional" bullets break up completely at relatively low velocities and have lost my faith in them.  I now shoot premium bullets in anything that I load to over 2500ft/s.
 
You are right though that in smaller soft skinned game, there is no need for such bullets.  I would hate to be in the veldt, going after impala and then feel concerned that my bulllets will not work if I happened to run into a kudu or a blou wildebeest.  Even in these larger animals, a correctly placed bullet of any construction should do the job.  We all know that not all bullets are placed correctly though and if the bullet has to traverse a heavy shoulder bone or angle though a lot of tissue to get to the vitals a premium bullet is essential (my opinion).
 
One other thing, you will find that something like a Barnes X will cause less meat damage than a lead core bullet. The particles coming off a lead core bullet each form a secondary wound channel (which adds to its killing power if the hit is close to the vitals).  These particlas contribute to the "blood shot" effect in the meat.
 
As you say, if you reload, playing with these premium bullets is part of the fun.
 
Regards.
 
C

[Hunterbug]

Bullets like the Ballistic tip and SST tend to be more explosive due to the polymar tip. The V-Max is a varmint bullet that is designed to be very explosive, not something that I would use on anything that I wanted to eat. For the thin skinned game I use a regular old Hornady Interlock and I've never had a problem. The only time that I've ever used a premium bullet on deer is when I also had an elk tag.