My first introduction to A-Square was in the early 1980s following the end of the Rhodesian war. Working for Safari Club International, I had the task of jump-starting the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian professional hunting community disrupted by the terrorists. The assignment was to arrange mixed plains-game hunts for groups of SCI members and work with the PHs operating in the Lowveldt.

In the course of this work, I picked up a monograph from the local office of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management entitled. Ballistics In Perspective--A Guide for Weapon Choice in the Hunting of Game in Zimbabwe, by M. La Grange. Mentioned prominently by La Grange were Art Alphin's .375, .460, .495 and .500 A-Square cartridges. Upon returning to the States, I made it a mission to track down Alphin and his A-Square company.

As it turned out. Colonel Arthur B. Alphin was teaching at West Point while designing and making cartridges. bullets and rifles on the side. Through all the years of our friendship, I have found Art has a very fertile and inventive turn of mind, creating products as unique as they are well engineered and practical. Take for example, his "Triad" of bullets.

The concept of the "Triad" was to develop three bullets for each big game caliber with the same shape and weight, the same velocity, the same zero, trajectory and point-of-impact, and vary only in their internal construction. The objective was to enable the hunter to match the bullet perfectly to the game at a moment's notice without having to re-zero his rifle.

The idea is so logical, so simple and so invaluable in the field when pursuing a mixed bag of big game that might include dangerous as well as non-dangerous species, one would have thought the "majors" would have addressed the issue decades ago. Not so, but Alphin did.

A-Square's "Triad" consists of three bullets: the Monolithic Solid, the Dead Tough Softpoint and the Lion Load Softpoint.

Take the Monolithic Solid. This Is a "solid" solid. It's machine turned from a rod of a leaded bronze alloy. As its name implies, the Monolithic Solid is designed to penetrate without deforming or deviating off course, and it does. Having seen recovered bullets taken from elephant and Cape buffalo. I can attest to its performance. In many cases, you could reload...