--- I'm sure this is a simple question to you guys , --- but I was wondering how important keeping to a round-nose design is when selecting a D.G softpoint round - ??

---- Especially for back-up rifles , of the Boltgun persuasion -- ?? ---- And/or in High Population Brown-Bear environs , where short- range charges are most probable .

I've read that even well designed Spitzers don't feed as reliably as Round-nose , and ditto for anything with a meplat - ??

------------ Thanks , --- MMCOUGAR .

It's not at all important.

There are 'spitzers', cup points, flatpoints, etc. that feed fine in DGRs.

George

quote:

I've read that even well designed Spitzers don't feed as reliably as Round-nose , and ditto for anything with a meplat - ??

A rifle that has properly set up feeding, will feed anything. My Lott, will even feed empty cases from the magazine. NF FPs will feed so well, that you can not even feel them being picked up by the bolt. If your rifle will not feed properly it is not the bullets fault. Get it fixed.

Keith

On the elephant culls in the late 1980's in zim we shot c25,000 ele. Art Alphin from A square was present at many of those culls and helped me dissect hundreds of those ele. His conclusion was that a blunt round nosed bullet was optimal. I concluded that a flat point was optimal. I had thousands of flat nosed "banded" Solids lathe turned for Zim Parks .404's and .425's as a result of my findings on those culls. Art Supplied us with thousands of rounds of .30-06, .375 and .458 Win.

I still say that I was right

It all depends on the rifle. Generally, round nose and flat points cause less headaches, but, like George and Keith said, in a well built DGR, the rifle should digest any and all.

The only caveat is the bullet weight. With some monometals, which are lighter than lead, it takes a longer bullet to get to the same weight as a lead bullet. My personal opinion is that most feeding issues are the result of using a bullet that is too long and puts the cartridge at a length beyond the standard OAL. You see that most often when people try to use the crimp groove on the cartridge rather than crimping to the OAL.

It goes without saying that any caartridges you take hunting should be cycled (SAFELY) through the rifle before the hunt to insure there are no feeding issues.

Geoff from Woodleigh bullets recommends the Protected Point SOFT over the round nose soft for the heavy DG with the liter calibers. In particular with the 9.3's and 375H&H on Buffalo.

I haven't ever heard of anybody having a feeding problem with Swift A-Frames or NorthFork SS bullets. I think they or any other similar profile bullets ought to feed just fine and they are excellent soft nose bullets. I use them in my .375, my .404 Jeffery and my .416 Rigby.

the only bullet I've ever had feeding trouble with in a bolt gun were very square nosed bullets.

Never have I had a problem with round nose or sptizers.

My double never has problem feeding anything.

A proper rifle will feed most any bullet, but its up to you to determine that..

My favorite bullet is the Northfork cup point, it is just deadly if it will feed in your gun..I also love Northforks flat nose solid and a flat nose solid is way more effective than any round nose solid..I levied all the gun companies for years to produce such a bullet and finally some years ago GS Customs and then Northfork did so..I always figured that since a Keith flat nose wadcutter worked so well in the .357 and 44, then wouldn't a simular bullet work in a rifle..I was told it wouldn't, but GS Customs and Northfork proved they did, and now the US company that protested the loudest are producing a flat nose solid, but without the needed cutting shoulder, the bullet needs that wadcutter shoulder IMO..

The Woodleigh RN soft is a great bullet,it kills very well indeed. In the Woodleigh bullets (a great bullet btw) the SP will out penetrate the RN but the RN does more internal damage, both are excellent bullets and I am cutting hairs here as either will do exactly what it is designed to do...