Like everything else in life, "It all depends." The specific bullet and the velocity to which it is loaded is a lot more important than whether it is spitzer or RN.

The .257 RNs by Hornady and Remington are the only thing to use if you are hunting deer with a .25-35 and probably the best choice for woods hunting with a .250-3000. I can't think of a time I would want them in a .25-06.

The Hornady 154 RNs have a fabulous record in the 7x57, but I sure would not use them in any of the magnums.

The list can go on just short of forever.

You can have the best of both worlds. GS custom HV bullets are solid spitzers that when pushed hard, mushroom like a barnes x, then shed their petals to form a flat point. All the BC advantages with the knockdowm power of a flat point. Check out the website, lots of pictures of recovered bullets from animals and testing media. Their flat points are pretty interesting too.

quote:

Originally posted by rickt300:
I find it interesting that every time the subject of round nose bullets comes up here comes the "spitzers are better" crowd. Or they say that spitzers have been designed to do anything a RN bullet can do and better. BS, RN bullets work best at velocities under 2200 fps and expand at lower velocities than standard soft point spitzers. for 90% of all deer hunting RN bullets are arguably the best bullets bar none and their close brothers the flat point? bullets are right in there. The 30-30 and 35 have been proving this for years.

There's a lot of truth here, primarily because deer hunting usually results in shots at 200 yards or less, usually a lot less. In addition, I happen to favor the flatnose even more than a round nose, especially in low-velocity ammo like the .45 Colt or .44/40, etc.

However, you DO have to drive the big exposed-lead roundnose variety slower because they tend to open faster, and can be caused to come apart completely without adequate penetrtion, if going too fast. This is the reason why people like Elmer Keith insisted that the .30/40 Krag was a better killer than the .30/'06 - he was using the wrong bullets in the '06!!

I like and use round nose bullets for hunting all the time, especially in big bore rifles for dangerous game but the fact is the spitzers will do anything a RN bullet will do and then some, that is why the "spitzers are better" crowd speaks up when the subject is approached...

The 30-30 and 35 proved nothing except that flat nose bullet work better in their magazines..

Bottom line is they are both fine bullets today and bullet construction is what makes or breaks a bullet regardless of the shape of its nose, at least from a killing standpoint...the spitzers have a better balistic coeficient and they, of course, shoot flatter but not by a heck of a lot.

I will use both as long as both are available, but to argue that a RN is a superior bullet shape is better for anything is ridiculas and has more to do with nostalgia than knowledge..

As to sales, Spitzers probably out sell RN by 1000 to one, otherwise the bullet makers would make more of them and not be discontinueing the ones we have...

Well maybe so but I think Rn and Fn bullets work better out of low velocity cartridges than spitzers do. The blunt bullets are deigned to doat 75 yards what spitzers do at 300 yards.

I want to thank blackbearhunter for starting an intersting discussion - I got alot of interesting reading out of this...... and bye-the-bye I love RN's.

I use both spitzers and RN's in many calibers I load for while evaluating the performance along the way, the primary point being that the beast died a quick death along the way.

When off to Scotland wouldn't consider taking anything less that a premium spitzer for shots than COULD be rather looongish on the moor and for my favorite lowveld farm in RSA take almost exclusively RN's in heavier than normal weights for their caliber say, 300 RN in 375 H&H as opposed to 260 spitzers and 286's rather than pointed 250's in 9.3. They jsut seem to work better under the circumstances which are normally shots at fairly close distances.

Color me stupid but I've never taken a really looong shot at game like I read about in some magazines cause the hunting part is about getting closer, if I want to shoot at distance then I go to the rifle range. What I'm trying to say is that whether Spitzer or RN the couple of inches difference on the ballitics tables has never impacted on my hunting.

Cheers,

Gerry

Reading this thread gave me the idea of trying some RN in my 300 Winny.
So I loaded some 180 Hornady RN and, I must say, I was delighted with the results.

In two different guns, each put three into a sub-moa on the first try.

Now I have dilemma, do I take some RN with me for Plains game in May?

Terry,

Just do it!

One of my hunting pals recently purchased a .300 Weatherby, the best groups (not groups actually, clover-leafs) we got after trying a number of different premium spitzer bullets were from good, old, vanilla flavored Hornady 180 gr. RN's.

I shoot a few Wild Boar in Europe every year and for the past couple of years did away with my premium spitzers for our night-time Boar-bashing at distances from 25-70 yards. The Hornady's shoot from snout to poop chute through a Wild Boar and leave golf ball size exit holes. We get to do the forensics cause they're dead not very far from where they get shot!

I'll be the first to admit a European Wild Boar isn't a Blue Wildebeast, Zebra or Eland, but the current furror about premium spitzer bullets that cost $67.00 for 25 is lost on me at the moment. (I know hunters, not shooters that have scopes on their rifles for years that cost less than a 50 box of XXX premium grade bullets). Especially after the first 200-250 go down-range before you finally find the sweet spot! Yea, I still use the premium stuff but the .30 caliber 180 & 220 RN's are still one heck of a bullet!

Have a great time in May, I'm right behind you in June/July!

Cheers,

Gerry

The shape of a bullet nose has nothing to do with killing power or whatever you want to call it, not in todays world of modern techknowledgy, ONLY bullet construction can do that, the thickness or the jacket, the taper, the binding of the jacket, the partition and its placement, the consistency of the lead or the depth of the hollow point, or its cuts, these are the things that make a difference in how a bullet reacts on an animal, not the shape of the nose....

I will put a Northfork spitzer against any RN bullet for any amount of money or a Woodleigh bonded core bullet...

That said I use both and I use a lot of good RN bullets, but I sure don't by all the BS on RN bullets that I hear on this board..both spitzer and RN are good bullets if the construction is correct for the game being hunted and the rest is pure unadultrated BS.....