I am of mixed thoughts in regard to round-nosed bullets. I suppose my biggest decision in this matter is 20-some years ago when I started reloading and folks at Shooters.com suggested 165-grain Hornady SPs. Previously I had hunted for years with 180-grain round noses with good results. I have to say the 165-grainers did just as good a job.
Mind you, in those days, I was mostly hunting out of bow-centric treestands. I didn't have a 100+ yard kill for years to come.
I'm going through my inventory right now, and I see the following:
For the Kar 98 Mauser, I'm shooting 175-grain Hornady RNs.
For the 25-06, I'm shooting 117 grain Hornady RNs.
For the 35 Whelen, my standard load is 200 Grain Rem SPCLs.
All the rest of my deer battery are shooting pointy bullets. I can't say any one of the RNs are specifically better than their SP analogs. In most instances, I resorted to RN simply because I was getting poor accuracy from the SPs and was trolling about for an alternative.
Last year, I shot the camp record long shot, taking a nice buck at 200 yards with my 30-06. It was my first test of going from 165-grain Hornady SPs down to 150-grainers. I got a lifetime supply several years ago of the latter, and it seemed like a good way to use them.
Look, I'm not going to knock round noses; I'm not going to lionize spire-points. Honestly, in 40-some seasons, I haven't come close to telling the difference.
The 35 Whelen is possibly one exception. My first year out with the Whelenizer went like this:
Hubert D. Buck meets Mister Whelen3 shots into the boiler room at 80 yards, and the buck just stood there and took it. It was weird. It was creepy. I was looking for answers. Somebody said I should switch from Remington 200 grain PSPCLs to the round-nosed equivalent, thinking the spire points were a bit to tough to expand. I would have tried anything not to have that happen again, and I have to say I never had a repeat. Whether the bullet change had anything to do with it, I don't know.
