Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Round nose bullets

Just bought a box of Hornady 200 grain 358’s, from Midway. Can’t wait to load some up.

I had 200-300 old Hornady 100g 6mm round nose bullets somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find them. My dad who doesn't reload bought them back in the 70's.

I never bothered to load them because I wasn't a fan of crap BCs even when I started loading for 6mm at 14 years old. They'd probably work pretty well in areas where short range shots are the most common. Where I've always hunted you always had to be ready for longer range shots so I never loaded RN rifle bullets. I'll go dig around I'm the basement. I did find some nosler 6mm 100g solid base bullets I forgot I had the other day. They aren't round nose but they were a pretty good bullet. I think ballistic tips replaced them.

Bb

I've got some 220 Hornady for the 30-06 all I've used them in is 30-40 krag decades ago. Also got them for my 338 cal. Today I'd wager the 338, 358, 375 are most available

I think rio7 or rockinbar was looking for some of those rn 100gr 6mm. If you want to peddle them.. Ask them..mb

I'm a big fan of Round Nose bullets and SMP....

I have several boxes of 100 gr RN Hornady bullets in 6mm.

Going to load some in a 6 x 45 this deer season this fall. Ought to work just fine at 200 yds or a little more.

my dad (RIP) had a Reminton m760 in '06 with a factory 180gr Remington RN. he killed alot of deer with it. my grandpap (RIP) and my uncle (RIP) had the same thing. when i was 13 - 14yo, my grandpap bought me a 1972 Winchester m94 in 30-30. man, did it kill deer!!! it was factory loads before i rolled my own, it was 150gr or 170gr RN or FP. Winchester, Remington, Federal, PMC...if i could find it, i'd shoot it. then came a day when the price went up, 30-30 went from $7 or $8 to $10.99 and the '06 went from around $10 - $12 to $18.99. well, i saved up and bought a Lyman reloading turret kit. before i saved up, my dad bought 5 cases (2500 rounds) of factory 180gr Rem RN (it was $8 or $9/20 cartridges). he said your kids' kids will have them after i'm gone. right now, i have about 2200 rounds left and my sons will shoot them.

anyway, i started reloading my 30-30 with 150gr and 170gr Hornady RN and H322. i killed alot of deer with the Hornadys. i also used (one or two years) the 125gr Seirra FNHP and it was good for deer. then i went thru the '06 phase (Rem a,b and cdl, mountain rifle and Savage m116 with the adjustable brake). i loaded 150, 165, 170 and 180gr Hornady RN, FP, and SP (i loaded up 150gr RN and 170gr FP that were for the 30-30 in the '06). a few years later,i sold them and i got a Reminton m760 in 308 Winchester. i loaded up some 170gr Hornady FP and i killed quite a few deer and a 398lbs black bear. my ex-wife used a Remington m7 in 243 with 100gr Hornady RN and 105gr Speer RN. then me and gunsmith (RIP) built a custom '98 FN Mauser in a 20" Douglas featherweight barrel in 7x57. i used a 139gr Hornady RN (discontinued) and it killed deer....a lot of deer. my oldest son now has it, but his stash is getting low (150+/- bullets). my dad got a Remington m7 (18.5" barrel) and i bought two of them (1 was fer me, the other was for my youngest son) and i decided on the 139gr Hornady FP (discontinued). my brothers had a Rem ADL in '06 that i loaded some 170gr Hornady FP. the deer they killed...man, it was like a bloodbath, blood on ground, blood up in trees.......man!!!

the past 10 years or so, i've been shooting cast bullets (or boolits) for deer. they all go FN, LFN AND WFN in 7x57, 30-40 Krag, 8x57, 35/30-30, 9.3x57, 444, 45-70 and the 500 Linebaugh. i do have a 280gr RN GC in 9.3x57, but i haven't killed with it. i have a 275gr WFN GC in 9.3x57 and that one is one of my favorites. i'm not big on speed, the velocities go from 1243fps (500 L) to 1926fps(30-40 Krag). yep, speed demons them all.

I'm going to go back and forth with 250 Hornady RNs and 210 NPs in the 338-06 project I am pulling together. BTW, duplicated Winchester factory 3006 barrel to be finished at 23".

For those interested, LG Outdoors has Hornady (3515) .358 200gr RN for $44 and 7 bucks shipping.

I've come to prefer round noses. I've taken 1 deer at 200 yards, 150 grain PMC factory loaded .30-30, one at 150 yards, that with a muzzleloader and a 250 grain .45 caliber Hornady XTP.
The balance of my 54 deer have all been at 100 yards, or less. My 9 pointer this year, dropped to a 200 grain round nose Core Lokt, 7 feet from the muzzle of my .35 Remington.
I find no advantage to spitzers for my kind of hunting. Round noses tend to be kinda soft and make gooey chests even at modest velocities.

the area i hunt, 60 yards is a long shot. i shot a 8pt with my Ruger #1 in 270 Winchester with 130gr Nosler BT and IMR4320 at 12 feet. it went into the buck shoulder, fragmented and i made lung soup with chunks of heart. it ran about 25ish yards and fell over. i think that was the last time i used the Ruger.

i use cast FN bullets. in my 35/30-30 (JES Reboring) it is a 200gr RCBS FNGC and 2400/tuft of Dacron that goes 1726fps. it is a killer on deer. after the shot, they will jog about 15 - 25 yards, stop and look around and then fall. the deer don't run away after the shot, they jog. on the other hand, i use a 30-40 Krag and 173gr Ranch Dog (looks like a wide flat nose) and H4198 that goes 1930fps and every deer that i and my son have shot at, they go straight down. i hunt for meat, not antler size. i never liked throwing away parts of deer. i have been going behind the shoulder shots and with cast bullets, you be able to eat up to the hole(s). there is no bloodshot meat or chunks of bone like i used to have using jacketed bullets. also using cast, i never recover the bullet on deer. it will exit the deer and go off on its own.

I just got a Savage 99 in .300 Savage. I was thinking that a 150 grain round nose would be a nice bullet for 200 yards and less deer hunting. Anything I have found is designed for .30-30 velocities. Is there such a thing as a 30 caliber 150 or 165 grain round nose anymore?

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 Whelen

3 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.

When I lived in NH and hunted with a Remington 760 and Savage 99s in 300 Savage, I loaded the 170 grain Remington RNCL 30-30 component bullets. The thought was that they would expand more rapidly at 300 Savage velocities They worked fine, but no better or worse than the 180 grain Federal factory load that I could see. I was mostly still-hunting in dense woods, over-grown dairy pastures, and a few small open dairy pastures, so 100 yards would have been a long shot.

Both of this years bucks killed with RN bullets. 220grn. out of .30 US Army and 180grn. Rem. Factory Core-lokt out of .30 Govt. 1906.

I've killed elk in past with both the old Hornady 250 grn. .358" and their 200 grn. .358", both out of .35 WCF.

All total I got in the neighborhood of 2500 RN and FP's in various calibers. Haven't got to use them all on game, but so far I've seen no reason not to like them at woods ranges and reasonable velocities.

I used the Sierra 150gr RN for a 300 Savage and now my 308s. In both cartridges the bullets worked great. Good expansion and held together. These bullets are not 30-30 bullets.

https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/30-caliber-7-62mm-150-gr-rn/

I have 100 or so 6MM RN coming .but it will be next deer season before I can try them out. I like the 200gr RN in my 35 Whelan very little meat damage.

I knew a couple of old timers who loaded .30-06 with 170 grain round nose bullets designed for .30-30. They didn't like .30-06 recoil and loaded the 170 grain bullets a couple of hundred fps faster than .30-30 speed.

I've got a box of loaded ammo labeled, "Remington Express Core-Lokt 308 WIN 180 GR. CORE-LOKT SP R308W2."

Sure looks like a 180 gr Round nose to me. Can't be that old. Are they no longer manufactured?

Before I traded off my Rem 600 350 mag I hunted with both Hornady but finally settled on the old Hawk 250 gran soft nose rd points. They were actually the most accurate bullet I loaded for that rifle and they were bone crushers. The last moose I took lost both shoulders in a big way to that bullet. When I dug it out of the far shoulder bone I’d bet the bullet expanded to about 5/8” . I shot round nose out of my old 99 300 with similar performance on deer and elk. So yes I like them a lot.

Rick