The most experienced game shooter I know (edit, ha! He heard the call and showed up above me), and a well known member of this site (even the vast majority of hunting celebrities will not have dropped as much large game, I hadn't realized the extent of it till we talked) has long argued the point overly hard bullets are less effective. He has a very strong point. TSXs have their place, when you want to shoot right through something big, but by and large will be less effective than a softer, lead core bullet. That doesn't mean TSXs and the like aren't lethal, they absolute are, but more game is bound to drop where it is or travel less with a softer bullet, this is true even for larger animals up to the threshold of the big bovines it would appear on vitals hits (bone is different). I started seeing this as I moved to cheap interlocs from TSXs for everything in .375, there is a difference. Now, I still load and use TSXs, I like no lead for meat my kids eat, and they work swell, but I'd opine they're behind softer bullets on everything we have in Canada with the possible exception of bison.
Ballistic tip if you want something frangible, as you suggested. It does come with meat damage however, depends what you're after.
