Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Round nose bullets in bolt guns.

Any one use them? Why?

Cause BC does not matter in about 97% of all hunting situations.

I use a 154 Hornady RN in my 7mm-08 carbine. Very accurate and where I hunted this yr, no chance of a shot over 150 yds. Worked well

What will a round nose do that a flat base spitzer won't?

Get more weight in to the same length bullet, which can help stabilization in barrels with an iffy twist for the bullet weight desired.

That makes sense. Any truth to a round nose cup and core offering more expansion? Does a round nose have a propensity to not separate as easily as a spitzer?

Separation propensity is entirely the responsibility of design.

If that's you main concern, shoot a mono-metal bullet.

As to offering more expansion, again, responsibility of design.

cause on some occasions 12 years ago I would want to try something else like 180 grain round nose bullets in a 30-06.
works the same as everything else I have shot into a small wt deer.

Been handloading for years and have never bought a box of round nose bullets. Other than the use of rifles with tubular magazines and adding weight without extending COAL is about all the uses I can think of. If anyone can educate me more on the uses of round nose bullets, chime in. No riddles please.

I was given about a thousand 180 gr RN so I run them out of an 06 sometimes....

Good info. Thank you. I need to start keeping a notebook by subject for all the stuff I learn on here.

They're good for loads in cartridges like the 30-40 Krag, .300 Savage, etc., more reliable expansion at their downrange velocities IMO. And it may be just a subjective thing, but I think RN's hit game harder than spire points at equal ranges.

If I ever get around to loading a 175 gr. bullet in my 7x57, it will be a round nose.

And give better feeding in rifles that feed iffy with spitzer bullets. This was more of a concern in years past than it is today

Old time Maine lumberjacks swore by them for those BIG Maine whitetails.....I think the big bluenoses are very cool.

The last paragraph above put an added dimension to all of my short actions. Things to ponder for sure.

Here is a little information on advantages of using 'round nose' bullets from A-Square Ammunition;

"The round-nose configuration also has an advantage in performance on the target. A round-nose bullet can be made with controlled expansion features which will work with absolute reliability over a very wide spectrum of impact velocities. This is not true for the highly streamlined spitzer bullet. The little room available in the nose leaves the design engineer with only a few things that can be done for reliable control of the expansion. This creates an engineering imperative which results in a relatively narrow spectrum of impact velocities at which the spitzer will properly perform."

But anyway, I've always felt that there wasn't any 'major' advantage of using spitzer bullets unless you are talking about ranges of 200 yards or greater.

Over the years I've used a lot of round nose factory 220 GR Core-Lokt's in my 30-06 when I expected the shooting distances to be less than 200 yards.

They do an excellent job on larger big game. Probably all in my head but it seems like the round nose bullets with a larger frontal area provide more 'bang/flop' kills.

You don't see many spitzers loaded in rifles for stopping dangerous game.....

The most hunted game in the USA is the Whitetail.

The preferred method of "hunting" them is the treestand.

The average shot at whitetails from a treestand is under 100 yards (closer to 50 or less).

A roundnose fits the above scenario to a tee... opens quickly to a wide mushroom.

I'll never understand the idea of a TSX or whatever "premium" bullet for whitetails from a treestand, let alone magnum cartridges and hubble scopes...

I've used a lot of RNs for hunting, particularly in the bigger calibers. As to TSXs they come into their own if you are using high velocity rounds. For whitetails it really doesn't matter unless of course you have a high stepping round. I've switched to TSXs in just about everything except my 450NE and my 416 Rigby. The former because of regulation (Hornady DGX/S) and the latter Swift A Frames because I have a lifetime supply. I've killed a lot of game out to 300 and some with RNs out of my 375 and 06. jorge

I think it's one thing to load a TSX (or whatever Premium) for a mixed bag hunt where truly large game could be included, and another thing to load them for deer-only game inside 100 yards... the former seems prudent, the latter foolish.

But hell, this is a hobby...