Jacketed Soft Point

A soft point leaves the lead core bare at the nose while the jacket covers the shank. The exposed lead starts deforming on impact and the jacket follows, producing expansion that is more gradual than a jacketed hollow point. Hunters favor it on game where penetration matters as much as upset.

Aerodynamically the soft round nose or blunt tip costs ballistic coefficient compared with a sleek polymer-tipped or open-tip match bullet. A soft point is a terminal-performance choice, not a long-range one.