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

back in the mid-late 70's i used 150gr roundnose core-lokts in my 270 to kill several moose, a few caribou, and at least one black bear. they never failed. i still have some that i shoot just for grins, but use spitzers for hunting. if all i has was 150gr roundnose bullets, i'd not be concerned about on-game performance.

Can't find many RN bullets for my 223AI, so I guess I'll keep throwing TSX's at deer with it, regardless of the fact that I don't perch in a tree.

Speer RN 105's for my little .243 make bugholes in paper and nice 1-1/4" holes in deerz. It shoots the RN better than spitzers.

I use the Hornady 180 gr RN in a model 70 .30-'06, because that is what the rifle shoots best. For my hunting it works as well as anything else.

I like the RNs just fine.

From what I'm hearing here from everyone, the roundnoses are just as accurate at 200 yards as a spitzer and they mushroom pretty good. Anyone care to recommend a good RN for a 35 Whelen for whitetail? I'm currently using Nosler BT's. They are now obsolete and my supply is drying up.Accubonds are equilavent but I don't think I need a premium bullet for whitetails. I don't think Ill be shooting much over 200 yards in the MI UP. Accuracy is paramount as I need to be able to thread the needle in popple whips and slashings.

The plain old Remington 200gr PSP CL's will kill anything in NA from your whelen. Most of the round nose .35's are designed for the .35 remington will be pretty explosive pushed at whelen speeds.

Weagle

Hornady InterLocks; 200 grain RNs. If they don't shoot, for some strange reason, try the 250s.

Shooting 200 gr Corelokts out of my Whelen and very accurate. Also, 180gr roundnose from my 308 Ruger Compact. They do a great job with the lower velocity.

I've used 150 gr. in a 270 and 180 and 220 gr. in my 308 and 30-06. Work fine. They don't seem to make as much bloodshot meat either.

Whoever thinks the RN bullet is not accurate past 200 yards has not shot very many of them. My .06 will consistently shoot 220 gr RN just as good as 180 gr Game Kings to 300 yds and then some. My longest kill on two cow elk was 347 yarsd, lasered, shot both within 2 minute.
All this hype about needing spitzer boat tails is just the same marketing Kool AId that all the guys are buying into with Barnes bullet.Prior to that was that you needed a belt on a magnum case.
Look at the numbers of a 220 gr RN, .06 and a 225 gr Whelen and they come out pretty darn close to the same.

Smack and elk or deer with one and watch it turn belly up and you will see the advantage of using heavy for caliber bullets, which RN's usually give you

Yes, but never exclusively though. Although, looking back over the past few years the deer kills and the terrain I killed them in I could have used them elusively and I would have never been handicapped.

I'm much more a partition fan, but I have used .30 cal 180rn, and the 154gr .284 RN and found that they kill and shoot very well.

I agree with you on this. However the streak will be very short lived and I'm 100% sure of that.

I was hunting the Mississippi River when the deer management programs came into being. We killed deer buy the hundreds in an attempt to get the numbers to where the deer had food to eat. I started shooting a 338 with hand loaded 250 gr. RN Hornadys traveling at 2700fps. I never had to track a deer and haven't to this day. The big round nose just simply leaves them DRT(Dead Right There).

they certainly are my preference..

no scientific facts, just observations..

for some reason they seem more accurate overall.. and I do think they open up better...at either high or low velocity..

and since most game is taken within well under 250 yds, you are not overly handicapped by MV loss...can have an effect on trajectory, but when it impacts the target it has no ill effect on penetration...

plus they look retro and cool...

Haven't put a RN through any of my bolt actions since I was a kid...in fact, the last one was when I was about 15 (40 years ago...!), a 150 gr. 30.06 at a bull moose about 60 yds away. It never even so much as flinched a hair...just fell over dead about 15 seconds later.

Two reasons:

1) I spent a lot of dough over the years building up to my current couple of hunting rifles, on customizing, at the range, on scopes, getting them to that certain level of proficiency and confidence. For all of that, why would I, for lack of a better way to put it, cheap out on ammo to use when that moment of truth I burn tons of gas and hike miles for finally happens? To save fifty cents on a bullet???

Even in my Marlin 30-30, anything but a LeverEvolution bullet just doesn't cut it for me. In fact, I didn't even bring it out to hunt with until this ammo came along, mostly because I wasn't satisfied, even on whitetail, with pretty much being limited to 150 yds. 250 yds, that's a whole other story.

2) Where I live and hunt, here in the East Kootenays of BC, 300 yard plus shots for that hog muley or elk I've been after forever are a very real possibility, if not probability. But then again, when I lived out in Alberta, a 350 yd. opportunity on a 190 class 350 pound whitetail buck from hell was also something that stuck in the back of my mind a lot!

Premium boat-tailed spitzer bullets that fly true, long, flat and retain the maximum amount of energy are a no-brainer.

Just my own thinking. To each his own, eh!

Yes, I load up the ol RN projectiles for my 20" barreled 98/40 Mauser in 308. No particular reason other than it's not a go to hunting rifle and the RN bullets just look right/nostalgic with that rifle. I have no doubt they would do the job on game though, worked great in my old 30-30 for deer.

In one of my rifles, a heavy RN bullet was the most accurate bullet that rifle has yet seen. Plus, there is a definite nostalgic/cool factor going for it. Never carried one in the field though...

Sadly, a lot of the RN bullets are being / have been discontinued. The 6.5mm 160g Sierra and 6.5mm 160g Hornady, the 7mm 154g Hornady...

That 160 6.5 Sierra has been remarkably accurate in every 6.5 I have tried them in! I hate it when good bullets are discontinued!!!!

I've killed deer with my 35Whelen and I've always used the Hornady 200Gr RN. My 700 classic gets 2700fps with them and MOA groups. The bullets hold together well and don't give alot of bloodshot meat. I once shot a nice fat 6pt at about 40 yds quatering towards meand drove one of those Hornady RN from stem to stern. Don't ever doubt the ability of the Hornady RN to stay intact even at Whelen velocities.