Alta;

HP's have long gotten a ridiculously unnecessary bad rap.

MOST HP's are made for shallow penetration or near fragmentation of the bullet, but they need not be. A long for caliber cast bullet w/ HP offers all the benefits of the HP PLUS the benefits of deep penetration common to cast bullets and FMJ's.

Seriously, a .458 caliber 500-600 grain properly designed HP cast bullet would do well on most all shots on heavy game. As you know, cast bullets can be made quite hard.

Years ago Jack Lott wrote a piece about a friend of his that lived in Thailand and illegally, I think} shot big whatever-they-call-tehm there buff. He only had a limited supply of factory bullets for the .458 Win Mag rifle he shot and used them, IIRC, in his .458 Lott Jack built for him. The .458 Win was carried by his "gunbearer" or servant or something and got the cast ones. Stroy short, Jack said the cast bullets performed very well at .458 Win Mag velocities and I see no reason to argue. A 500 grain hardened, cast bullet fired at 2000 fps should do everything a FMJ does. And it is hard to the core, not just hard at the jacket surface like some FMJ's.

It is dumbbraindead to harden wheelweights. Drop'em straight from the mold to a bucket of water PLACED SO NO WATER EVER GETS IN THE MELT.

Anyway, a longish bullet with a good HP should produce "custom bullet" performance on big game. In .458 if 80 or even 100 grains was blown off leaving a shaft of 400-420 grains to penetrate it should produce everything a guy wants in an expanding bullet on big game.