Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Round nose or spitzer ?

Which would you consider best for black bear over bait and why ? I've killed 23 bear with Hornady's spitzer but some would go 60 yds or so before recovery. Someone mentioned the round nose was better but I've never shot a bear with one. What do you experienced bear hunters think ?

Forgot to mention used a .250 grn .358 winchester

I can't imagine that the the few who went 60 yards or so would have fallen dead if you had been shooting a RN bullet. Am guessing that the spot you drilled a hole through made the difference.

If not, then bears are like people. Some are a little more committed than others.

If you've killed 23 bears with that combo...I don't think I'd try to fix something that ain't broke...
Ingwe

"For many years I�ve owned a Savage 99 Featherweight in .358, inherited from outdoor writer Norm Strung. This rifle has also provided much hunting experience with the round, both Norm�s and mine, the reason I almost exclusively shoot 250-grain Hornady roundnoses in the rifle today, loaded to the former factory ballistics of around 2,250fps. Both Norm and I discovered that spitzer 250s loaded to 2,250 fps did not kill as well as faster-expanding roundnose 250s. At 200 yards spitzers sometimes didn�t expand much at all, the reason Nosler doesn�t list .358 data for its 250-grain Partition."

from:
.338 Federal and .358 Winchester
Peas in a Pod?
by John Barsness
Handloader Magazine #254, August-September 2008

Cheers!
-Bob F.

Mostly it depends on bullet construction as opposed to round nose or spitzer...However, in most bullets the RN is a bit softer and expands faster and for some reason it seems to be more reliable as to expansion or so it has seemed to me over the years..I first noticed this in the Rem. Corelokt in that the RN was the better performer, also in the Woodleighs the RN expands larger and always perfectly..Again, I am not sure of this statement and it only reflects my suspecions and its certainly argueable. My other suspecion is perhaps the choice is nostalgic more than anything else.

Is one better than the other as to killing power, I'm not sure, but both seem to work very well...

I do know that for herd hunting buffalo with Woodleighs I use the RN as penetration is less and internal damage is a bit more. For hunting bachalor bulls I use the woodleigh PP spitzer as it knocks two holes in'em and penetrates like the dickens..

Probably an age old conversation that will never be answered.

Thank you, reloading stuff is hard to get around here. I have two more bear hunts planned and all I have left is 1/4 box of Hornady spitzers, should do the trick as my blr has not changed zero in 10 yrs.

I recently started playing with the .358 Win , and may use it for the same purpose, Mine is a 99 also.
I think (and this is from zero experence just an edjucated guess) that the speer 220 grain flat nose would be a great bullet for black bear over bait.
Designed for the .356 winchester , and driven to as much as 2400 FPS I bet it would be a great choice.
But it seems your load has done prety well for you,
...tj3006

TJ,
I think the 220 gr. Speer is way too soft for bear..I have seen it used on deer and it was basically a failure, but it killed the deer instantly..I know that in contridictory to some, but its a fact based on bullet performance in that it blew up. but like most fragile missles they either kill like lightening or they wound and the game is lost, its a crap shoot IMO.

I shot a deer at about 300 yards across a canyon with a 200 or 250 gr. Speer, can't remember which but pretty sure it was 250 I aimed high between the horns figuring on a lot of drop, and I apparantly wiggled on instead of off and the bullet found the sticking spot in the white of the neck, as he faced me. That bullet exploded and resulted in an instant kill of course. Again too soft IMO..This was in the late 60s or early 70s, and a lot of changes could have taken place since then..

I found back then that most bullets in the .35 calibers were a tad soft for my taste until the advent of the 225 gr. Nosler..I suspect that is because they were intended to work at 35 Rem. velocities and 358 velocities and that in itself is contridictory..I also had a neat little 99F Sav. 99 in .358. I only used it on Mule Deer.

I've always been a fan of thr RN for still hunting the thick stuff of Northern WI and MN. Herters 220's in my 06 carbine(have one box left), Hornady 180's in my 300Sav and 308, and Hornady 250's in my 35 Whelen. They were the bullet that I was sure would get to the vitals whether the deer was coming, going or crossing.

I forgot I shot more than a couple with 175 in a 7mm Rem Mag also.

erich

Back in the early 1970s, I owned an old 1893 mauserin 7x57 that had been made into a very neat lightweight sporter by some unknown British gunsmith. Sorry, but i don't recall the name, but i do wish I'd kept that rifle. About the only ammo I could find was either federal or Winchester 175 gr. round nose bullets in factory loads. The fedeerals had a fairly small opening with not a lot of lead showing while the Winchester ammo had, sa the late ivory poacher John Tayol would say, "a greay big blue nose." the type of soft nose bullet he apparently liked for that type of cartridge. More than once, deer shot wit th Winchester ammo literally dropped on the spot, something that never happened with the Federal version. In fact, the only deer I ever lost with that rifle was shot with the Federal load. The wife and I tried tracking that deer for most of that day until it got too dark and part of the next wher we cound where the coyotes had finished the job. I never used that Federal 175 gr. ammo since that incident. I see Federal still makes that ammo but sadly, Winchester dropped way too long ago. I still have two boxes of those Winchester rounds left and always am on the look out for more at the gun shows.
I did get lucky at one show and found four boxes of Sierra's long discontinued 170 gr. round nose bullets which I also like very much. Somehow, they just seem right for use in the 7x57. After all, the cartridge did make it's reputation using that type bullet.
Paul B.

My dad once bought a box of 150gr. Core-Lokts by mistake, as he always shot 130's in his 270. He decided to see what the round noses would do on paper and they shot fine and very close to the same point of impact in his rifle. They really did a number on whitetails, but shots were generally under 100 yards. I was just a kid tagging along, but I don't remember ever seeing one take a step and we were never able to recover a bullet. Probably not the best pill for longer range work but those round noses really hammer them up close.

Dang man, sounds like you got more experience than I could hope to have and sounds like you've gotten great results from what you've been doing!

I shoot RNs nearly anytime I know to expect shorter range shots just because they're such reliable expanders. I'm working up a load for the Interlock 117 gr RN right now in my 257 AI for this fall's deer season.

They're retro .