Personally, I think the classic Core Lokt bullets are still excellent choices for hunting most game.
I think the main areas where they fall short of the current premium bonded/partitioned/monolithic bullets is when (a) you are using hot magnums where old-style cup and core bullets can come apart too quickly or (b) you are pushing the capacities of a cartridge (ex. using .243 for elk) where you need maximum penetration for effect. IMO its in these cases the premium bullets really start to shine.
I agree with you on most of this. However if using the heavier for caliber CL's for example a 120gr in .257, 180gr in .308, and such, they can and do still do a great job. In my 25-06 AI, I can very easily hit the mid 3300fps range with the 28" barrel. I use the 120CL almost exclusively in it for two reasons. One they shoot around 1.5" at 300yds which is about as good as I can ask for, the other is they have proven to be simply outstanding on shots as close as 20yds out to past 500 on various sized critters.
In the link below are some pictures of one such example. I caught a roughly 280'ish pound boar hog out where he shouldn't have been. I got the trigger to break just as he was hitting the thick stuff, and the CL took him down so fast I actually thought I missed him.
Hunting 2010
If you look at the pics you can see that he was sporting a fairly decent shield, and I recovered the bullet on the offside just under the hide. The range was only 110yds at most best as I could figure, and even with hitting the shield, and the muddy hide it still helps up great.
What has been even more impressive to me, was when I caught about a dozen or so in the 35'ish pound range up under a tree top. I managed 5 hogs out of six shots. None of them was messed up any worse had I shot them with a cast solid from my revolver. The entry was caliber sized and the exits were about nickle sized, everything in between was normal.
This all said, I do believe there are better bullets out there, but you end up paying for that little bit extra, plus a LOT of advertising along with it. If I need extreme performance I simply look to the Partition. If simply looking to put food on the table, I'm not concerned with the added cost of the premiums. I know what the bullets I use do, and I know where they go when I pull the trigger, and I also know "WHEN" and "WHEN NOT" to pull the trigger. I have let plenty of deer walk that a LOT folks would have paid BIG bucks to have a chance at. It doesn't bother me in the least. I know I did the right thing, and they will still be there spreading their genes a little longer.
I read more and more of people saying use North Fork or Barnes so when you shoot you know you going to get from A-hole to appetite penetration on that once in a lifetime critter. I have more respect for the things I hunt than to shoot on in the rear hoping it is going down, no matter what the case might be. The ONLY time I would choose a shot like that would be on a follow up of an already wounded animal where there was no other choice and it needed to be stopped. Even in that case however, a standard C&C bullet will break one down rather quickly and efficiently.
There again the argument is always "well elk don't just drop on the spot, I've seen them go for miles". I believe that, but elk, nor anything else, will go for miles, if the initial shot was put where it should have been in the first place. I also don't go in for the, "I only have three days to put meat on the ground, and I want a bullet that will get the job done from any angle", either. It isn't an excuse to shoot an animal in the flank, hoping to get through to the vitals, nor does it suffice for a lack of practice, accuracy, or respect for the game.
In my albums there are some VERY fine free range river bottom bucks, and plenty of hogs I have taken. None of the ammo was of a "PREMIUM" nature, other than a possibly being hand loaded. In fact my biggest hogs over 400 pounds, and my best buck to date a 21" inside spread 8 point, which dressed out at 178# were taken with factory 150gr CL's out of a 16.5" barreled .308. The buck, nor any of the hogs went more than 30yds after the shot. Hard to argue with that sort of performance time and time again.