What is the consensus on a 30 caliber 180 grain round nose bullet? Hornady vs sierra. Or are they both pretty good bullets? I have a load for my 308 that shoots bug holes with the 180 gr. sierra. Have yet to try the hornady version.

All I have ever used was Sierra, so can't say .180 in the .038, 220 in the.06. A lot of folks poo-poo how accurate they are or say they are not any good past 200yards. bull feces.

I don’t know what you’re looking to hunt but I can’t see a 308 stressing out a 180 grain bullet. Should be about as perfect as it gets for impact speeds you’d use a RN for.

I was looking at an old Hornady manual today for loads for my 300H&H. 220gr RNs @ 2600fps are only 14" low at 300yds.

Haven't tried it yet.

Been thinking about trying some. My M70 .308 has a throat like Linda Lovelace. No way will pointy bullets loaded to magazine length come close. Looked around recently and there were none available. Shots here are close, so BC’s not much of a concern.

Over the years I've taken deer at 300 to 400 yds using a 220 grain RN... use to be my favorite bullet in an 06.
not flat shooting necessarily, but with its sectional density and wt, it was certainly wind defying...

If you knew how to compensate and get it to hit targets at that distance, there was no problem downing a deer with proper shot placement.
at 300, impact foot pounds, wasn't a big number.. but every time I've done it, it would pass right thru the deers vitals and exit out the other side.

that is why I am a big believer in sectional density... all I ever got was a bang/flop ending...

there would be a small bullet hole going in and a small one on exit... but post mortem processing, it would look like the lungs, heart and chest cavity
had been stirred with a chain saw. each time the deer went down at the shot.
]
I still prefer a RN first then an SMP second, then a ballistic tip, and a partition style 4th...haven't used a lot of Barnes, but only like two kills with them... both in 22 caliber out of a 22.250... both were bang/flop scenarios also.

You better get them while you can. People want spitzers. With a few exceptions, RNs will disappear. Fast and pointy is king!

I've got a box of the well regarded Woodleigh Weldcore 180's for my .308 Savage M_99. Have yet to try them as I'm working thru all the 180 Speer Mag tips & Hot cores 1st.

Have a few black bears on my terminal list.

41

Probably a lot of truth in that. Although for a lot of these guys' application they will work just fine. When I was a kid, I burned up quite a few 220gr RN bullets in my 30-06. Just be careful, the 250 doesn't work well in the 308 win:

Picked up several hundred Hornady 220 RN on hopes to try in an 30-06. Trouble is there's only elk and bear season and that's it here so that's pretty limited. I'm already trying out an 270win for first time so I just wish there was.other things to hunt. Oh well .

I am not a gunwriter. I have tried both Sierra and Hornady round nose 180 grain bullets in my .308 Winchester rifles (I have seven; I really only need one). They are both reliable.


I shot 180 grain Sierra round nose bullets for several years in my .308's hunting whitetail deer in the north central Pennsylvanian woods (this is hardly long range shooting). I switched to Hornady because they are slightly softer. They can be very accurate if the rifle likes them (I had a Ruger No. 1 in .308 for a while which despised both Sierra and Hornady, but loved the Speer 180 grain roundnose, which I believe is now discontinued). The Sierra may be a bit more accurate than the Hornady (One inch five shot groups at 100 yards vs one and a quarter inch.) The Hornady was accurate enough to take out a coyote with a dead center hit a couple of years ago. They open up well and exit with a good blood trail. I occasionally try other bullets and keep returning to them in the rifles that like them.

I laid in a good supply of the Hornadys a few years ago when they were still inexpensive and available. As the years pass, I probably now have a lifetime supply.

GrimJim

As long as there tube fed 30/30's, they will still make round nose and flat nose bullets.

If I could find more Hornady RN 220’s I’d buy em. Maybe even a few 180’s. Got a good supply of 150’s.

But my favorite are 220’s. They are pure magic in the .30 Army! 😁

Maybe I’ll try the 220 grain Hornadys again. So far no luck regarding acceptable accuracy. I think I still have a partial box unless I gave it away.

I've used the 180 gr. Sierra round nose back when I lived in California. I hunted the Northwest corner of the state and they worked just fine on deer. There were Black Bears there as well so the state issued two tags for bear for IIRC, $200. Bring in the ears of two bears and you got two more tags for free.Guess those days are long gone now. Never used a 180 gr. Hornady as for some reason my San Francisco LGSs back then either could get them ot just didn't bother. It wasn't into sometime in the mid 1970s that I bought a Hornady bullet. That was to feed a new to me .243 I just bought. I've shot a few Hornady bullets when doing load work ups IIRC, the only game shot was four or maybe five deer when I let neighborhood kids do a deer hunt with my rifle. They worked just fine.
PJ

The trouble there is that a bullet designed for 30-30 velocities might not work well in a 300magnum or vice versa.

Looks right to me.

At normal hunting ranges <300 yards, the POI difference in RN vs pointy means nothing on big game.

However the reliabilty of a big cup and core is well worth a bit more drop.

The 220s 30s are great, shame we can't get the 250 Woodleighs any more.

I have 500 of the Hornady 160 6.5s as they will kill anything in the lower 48.

I bought 400 pcs of 175gr RNs for a 275Rigby I was having built. Mastermind me didn't account for the short throat on the match reamer so I couldn't use them.

Had to go with 120gr NBTs instead.

I had a friend who wanted me to set up his new Mod 742 (back in the early 80s) 30-06 with a scope and zero it for him. Gave me the rifle/scope and a wad of cash. I mounted the Weaver 2x7 on it, and started out with plain Corlokts in 150ptd. It didn't want to shoot well. On a whim, I tried a box of 180 RN Corlokts, and bingo, shot like a varmint rifle! We went to GA and he shot a 180 pound buck out around 80 yds. Nice, 50 cent pc hole all the way through, no bloodshot meat. He thought I was "an expert", ha. Had another friend who used nothing but the 220 RN Corlokts on those small SE Tex bucks/hogs.

4D can rent you a throating reamer.

Great looking load there Super Cub!! May load some for my .300 H & H this fall.

My first Deer rifle that I purchased was a Remington 788 in .308 Win. My Father and Uncle happened to attend an auction one day and he won 6 boxes of Remington 180 Cor-lokt RN cartridges for my rifle. We went to zero the rifles before the Michigan opener at my uncle's place, the target, which was simply a plastic coffee can lid nailed to a pallet at 100 yards, was all he ever used for checking zero of his rifles. I lined up for my first shot, aiming at the galvanized roofing nail in the center, and promptly knocked the coffee lid right off the pallet. My Uncle, a slightly cynical sort, asked where I had been aiming, to which I replied "the nail". He tacked it back up and snorted "try it again"......so I did! LOL took the nail right out and flopped the lid onto the ground.....Uncle grudgingly mumbled " that's good enough"! LOL Sure miss him and my father.......

The purpose of that family story is to highlight that I too found RN bullets (especially the Remington Cor-Lokt 180 .308 Win) to be amazingly accurate, and every deer I fired at with that rifle/load died almost instantly. Wish I had more of that old load for that rifle, which I still own.

Frog----OUT

I've shot some deer with that very factory load. It works.

I thought about that but don't want to mess with the rifle now. It shoots 120gr NBTs consistently well for deer and 160gr NPs for moose.

Probably 40 years back before I stopped reloading for others, a friend asked me to load some 308 for his rifle. At that time, I was pretty sure I could top most any factory load available with my handloads so I asked him to send a few of what he was shooting along with the rifle. I wanted to brag a little about the accuracy of my handloads. They turned out to be the 180 RN Remington CLs. Bottom line was that what I sent back to him DID NOT better the Remingtons. Not sure I even matched them.

I've got an old book titled "The Grizzly Bear" in which the author hunted grizzlies in the western US and Canada with an Winchester HI Wall 45-100 if I recall correctly. While on an hunt in Idaho he and his partner managed to get ahold of an 30-40 Krag and they ended up taking an grizzly with it. From what I recall it mentioned how impressed they were with the performance of the fast moving 30-40. This was before the advent of the 30-06 and probably Spitzer bullets and I think it's safe to assume that they were using heavy for caliber 200 or most likely 220gr roundnose bullets which were perfect for the area in the Lochsa they were hunting in.

Anyway just a throwback out of an old book back when the 220gr roundnose ruled the roost for game hunting.

Great story!!! Thanks.

This years choice for elk. .30 US and I will be shooting Hornady220 RN’s!

I have a copy of that book also..mb

I used the same Hornady on my one and (so far) only bear. I used an 1895 Browning in 30/40. My guide was impressed the way it went penetrated the bear and drilled through a 5" sapling on the other side. Bear died quick and no bloodshot meat.

I had a 783 I got on the cheap that I tried to 220RN Hornady's in. Good Lord would that thing group em with 4831.... Sold the gun before I ever got to hunt with it tho.

Some years I've had incredibly good luck finding bullets. Some deals you just dream about. There's the time at a gun show where a guy set up next to and started piling boxes upon boxes of Nosler Partitions in .270, 7MM and 30 caliber. Said he was too old the shoot anymore so selling off what he had. We dickered a little bibe and settled $10.00 a box for the bullets and I bought everything he had. Wiped out my gun buying money but I have a lifetime and then some of Nosler bullets.

However, what I consider my real wins are the 170 gr; Sierra 7mms and .30 caliber 220 gr. Sierras I scored. Not much of a story on the 30s, just found them here and there at various gun shows and out of the way shops. The 175 gr. 7MMs though are a bit of a different thing Found them of all places in a little second hand store. Six boxes still sealed. Talking to the lady there I asked how much? She said she had no idea and she would have to ask the manager. Well after haggling with the manager I walked out for the place with all six of those still sealed boxes of bullets.

I haven't shot any in my .280 yet but they're accurate as all get out in my three 7x57 rifles. I dunno when Sierra dropped that bullet but it was already gone in 1973 when I called about trying to find some for a new to me 7x57 Mauser I bought. When I asked if They would ever do another run he somewhat snottily said, "Probably never."
PJ

I see that one seller on GB has Hornady 30 cal 220gr RN now for $30 per hundred. He has 11 boxes. Just FYI.

and $21 to ship!

Both hornady and sierra round nose bullets work the same on game. Buy whichever one you can find. There isnt a better bullet for on game performance when it comes to deer size game. They out perform a spitzer bullet in every way when you want an animal down on the ground as fast as possible. Dont let velocity scare you either. I've used them in everything from 3006 up to 30 nosler. They just flat out work and have been one of the most popular bullets in the mountains here for many, many years. Rem 7600 in 3006 with 180 gn round nose is the official deer setup for central pa woods

My favorite was the Speer 180 grain roundnose. Guess those are gone .. minus the half box on my shelf. While not a roundnose, the protected point version of the 180 grain partition shoots well in my .308. Eventually I plan to try the 170 grain roundnose partition as well. Why? Boredom! No practical reason for me to shoot anything but the 165 grain accubonds .. but I do anyway.

Tom

The listing I saw is from a place called 2A Tactical. The listing says $12 shipping. Not sure if you'd do better if you bought more than one box. I've never dealt with them before. I just saw the listing.

I'm not sure about the .308 caliber but use the Hornady 154's in the 7mm, Great bullet and stocked up when I could. As others have said, they are going away quick unless designed for lever action cartridges

I emailed them, they changed it

I took the .338WM RU77 caribou hunting, with 250 gr Horn. RN reloads that go MOA. It scared the caribou so badly we never saw even one in 4 days...

I'll give 'em another try for moose the last few days of season, back up north.. I hope the moose aren't such scaredy pants.

Actually, I have taken one moose with them, about 13 years ago. Took the top of his brain pan right off, at about 50 yards. When I skinned his top-knot off, the top of the brain pan came with it and the brain fell right out.

I have every confidence they will work at whatever range I can accurately place them, tho I doubt the moose will be over 150 yards if I get one this year. Probably under 100, but 400 is certainly do-able.

I've some Win? 30-06 RN factory loads- 180, I think. They don't feed well ( i.e. hard!, buggering up the nose) in the Rem 770, and have yet to try them out in the 98. They were very accurate at 100 in the 770 tho, even with the nose job.