Got a question about Round Nose Bullets

[Wendyj]

I have a buddy that swears by 150 grain round nose bulletswent in his 300 Winchester short mag for hunting 200 yards and in. He says he uses them for bear and hogs for the expansion. Most shots 100 and in but some longer. Has anyone on here used the round nose in a 30 caliber bolt action? I have some but only load 30-30 with them.

[hoghunting]

I use Hornady 165 gr Interbonds in my 300 WSM and they work great on hogs, deer and coyotes. Some of my shots are much longer than 200 yds though. The velocity of a 150 gr bullet in a 300 WSM is about 800 - 900 fps faster than the .30-30, I'm sure your friend gets plenty of expansion, penetration with that lighter jacket would be my concern.

[Wendyj]

The ones I have are 150 grain Interbonds. Thought I might try a few and see how they grouped. May even buy some a little heavier if they shoot well. Loaded one up and shot it in swampy area behind shed and sure did open like a petal and penetrated pretty deep through the mud. I've only been shooting 180 Sgks and 190 Nosler Accubonds for longer ranges but the round nose are pretty inexpensive at our local Acadamy sports. Our hog hunting land is all brush and swamp. It's a Savage and I've got to have extractor work done on the bolt. It doesn't stick and pulls bullet out but won't throw it out of chamber without excessive and quick bolt pull. Don't want to be pulling bullets out by hand around bunch of big boars.

[jmr40]

I wouldn't use them, especially if he is running full power 300 WSM loads. The point of the round nose is to aid expansion with slower 30-30 class cartridges impacting at around 1600-2000 fps. At the muzzle he should be 3200-3300 fps unless he is downloading them. And you can only go so slow, the starting loads for 150/300WSM is around 3000 fps.

I loaded some in my 308 at about 2500 fps and that is as fast as I'd recommend with those bullets.

On a well placed shot into the lungs I'm sure they would create lots of damage and impressive wounds. But minimal penetration. On a less than perfect shot or one at a bad angle it would create an ugly wound, but not one that would put game down quickly.

A 180-220 gr RN from the 300 WSM would be a tougher bullet, and impact slower. And a better choice if he want to use RN bullets. But there is no disadvantage to using pointed bullets. I think your buddy is over thinking this and has been lucky so far.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

TiP: Most devastating hole making bullet I found in a 30 cal lead jacketed is either the 150 or 170 grain F-P 30-30 bullet seated into a 30-06 brass. That's the only jacketed bullets I've used for years in my 300 Savage and too my 06. Assume performance in the field.

[Jimro]

Remington put out a 220gr round nose soft point for 30-06 some years back, I don't know if they still carry the load.

A 150gr round nose would seem light to me, but there is no doubt it'll provide way more expansion than needed at full velocity. If he drops the velocity down to normal levels, it would make for a fine hunting round for people who are recoil sensitive.

I'm not against flat nose or round nose bullets for hunting.

Jimro

[Unclenick]

Sierra also makes RN Pro-hunters (as well as soft points) in 150, 180, and 220 grains, same as Hornady does. An advantage to the round nose shape is that the heavier weights are shorter than their pointed counterparts, so it takes less barrel twist to stabilize them. The 220 is just fine with a 10" twist, for example.

As to impact velocity, the smart thing is to call the maker of your particular bullet and just ask what impact velocity range it is designed for. I called Nosler once and asked about a bullet of theirs. They had little pictures of it expanded at several velocities ranging from 1800 to 3200 fps. But it talking to the tech on the other end, he said he really thought it was better to limit this particular bullet to 3000 fps because it would hold together better. You won't get that kind of experience-based information from published specs designed to help the product compete with others, so I recommend making the call.

[FrankenMauser]

Has anyone on here used the round nose in a 30 caliber bolt action? I have some but only load 30-30 with them.

Yep.
Several bullets.
Several rifles.

Round nose bullets work just fine.
Just be sure to match the designed expansion velocity with the cartridge and intended use.


---

If you call Sierra or Speer for information on intended expansion velocities, don't be surprised if you don't get an answer. I've never gotten a good answer from them, even with really simple requests like, 'Which of your .30 caliber bullets will hold together on deer at 100 yards from .300 Win Mag?'

Case in point: About 2 years ago, I contacted both companies to see what the approximate lower expansion threshold was for some .452" and .458" bullets that I was considering for a wildcat, due to the bullets' specific nose geometry.
Over a two-week period, I got various answers ranging from,
"Well, the XXX is probably designed for..."
to, "We don't really have that kind of information..."
to, "Just tell us what cartridge it is and we'll tell you which bullet to use...".

Most of the time, it seemed like the person talking to me was just flipping through a copy of the company's reloading manual to see what cartridges they listed with each bullet.

The best answer I have ever gotten from Speer or Sierra came from a guy that was introduced as a Speer 'ballistician' on the phone. His answer was essentially, "We can't tell anyone that a given bullet will work at any given velocity, since people tend to blame us when things don't go as desired, and we don't really do expansion testing []. So you should probably just buy a box of each bullet and test them."


However...
Nosler, Hornady, Swift, Woodleigh, and Norma (and some others) will tell you flat-out (if the information isn't already readily available): 'It was designed for use in XX cartridge to YY cartridge from #### to #### fps.'

[briandg]

A round nose bullet tears open more easily and quickly. It's necessary for slower round. The limit I would place on them would be about 2,500 fps at speed of impact. Running them too fast ma cause breakup and inhibit penetration.

If they work for him on pigs, that's good. It's sounds good. I don't suggest a round nose in anything that is .308 or higher. That isn't what they are generally intended for, but of course, they are sold and used.

[Unclenick]

…and the 220 grain bullets will be under 2500 fps, even from a 30-06. I'm pretty sure they were intended for the 30-40 Krag, though, which used a round nose in the first place. I note that a lot of the testing in 30-06 in the Brownell study at the U of M from 1965 was with RN bullets. I think they were generally more popular back then.

[Jimro]

Unclenick,

Don't forget the original 30-03 load also pushed the same 220gr round nose as the earlier 30-40 Krag round. Just faster

The 156gr round nose 6.5x55 Swede load was used for decades, and still civilian hunters use 160gr round nose bullets with very good success on Scandinavian moose.

The 175gr round nose 7x57 load also had a lot of adherents, the FMJ version had very deep penetration even through elephant skull, although soft points are probably a better choice for deer to moose

Jimro

[Nevmavrick]

It sounds like a good idea to me. The biggest reason to use the RN is that the lead in the nose is larger.
Bullets is the old days were made for lower velocities, and the lead sticking out was reduced as the magnums came along.
For those who remember the old Winchester Silvertip, it was a large softpoint with an aluminum cover. (I still have some at my bench). Those that remember what Keith and O'Conner wrote will remember the Western Tool and Copper Works that worked so well, large soft points...
I use RNs in my boltaction .300 Savage, .257 Roberts, and have some around for my 8x57 Mauser.
I wouldn't recommend .30-30 bullets in the .300Wissum because the jackets are weaker for the smaller cartridge, but the RNs just start expanding better and should work fine in thebigger cases.
To lower the velocities in the mag, go to a faster powder like 4227, or 4198 and use a filler. I use dacron.
Have fun,
Gene

[briandg]

The silvertip, if I understood it correctly, was made with the cap to delay expansion for a few inches. Instead of popping right open on impact, the aluminum cap had to be torn open first. This was in theory going to allow higher velocity rounds to hold together a bit longer, and still function well at lower velocities.

[Gunplummer]

I have loaded 150 Grain Remington RNCL in my 7.62x39 for years. Very accurate and work well on deer. I have been unable to get them for a while now.

[briandg]

Being that the ballistics of the round are pretty near the old 30-30, and th a rnsp is the classic bullet is that bullet, you might as well lump it in with one of the century old classic rounds.