Note to readers: I have updated this article with the Miller Stability Formula from JBM  Ballistics which says 160 grain Round Nose is Stable enough in the 6.5 Creedmoor. Read on…

I have been a fan of round nose bullets to hunt deer in heavy cover thus I began to investigate my options for using my 6.5 Creedmoor that I used well on Texas deer; except with round nose bullets to provide more instant surface shock on entry and perhaps deflect less in heavy brush and a larger exit wound. Below is another article I penned recently.

Flat Nose and Round Nose Bullets for Big Game

What began to surface in my investigation is that there are very few companies which offer 160 grain round  nose in the 6.5 CM in a rifle with 8/1 twist rate.

Tim, a long time reader writes to try the Lapua Mega 155 grain round nose but it is not in stock anywhere I looked. This bullet has a length of 1.248 inches and would be over stabilized in my 6.5 Creedmoor according to Bison Ballistics below at a speed of 2400 fps. However, the  Miller Stability formula on the other hand in JBM  Ballistics below says the Lapua round nose 155 is stable enough and shades it in green. Tim is sending me some of the Lapua Mega 155 grain heads to try! Thanks Tim!

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi

https://bisonballistics.com/calculators/stability

In addition, the Miller Stability calculations from JBM ballistics says the Hornady 160 grain round nose, also not in stock,  with a length of 1.257 for Hornady’s round  nose is also STABLE according to the Miller Stability Formula which equals 2.445

I will  have to prove that out at the range if I can get some round nose bullets for the 6.5 Creedmoor.

If I cant get any of these round noses to test and validate then I would lean toward my .375 Ruger with my Speer 235 grain semi-spitzer below that I hand load down for deer delivering nearly 2000 ft-lbs at 100 yards.

The Speer 235 grain semi-spitzers are more round nosed and are great for brush and shorter distances to say 150 yards and will drop a deer in its tracks.  What is so great about round nose bullets is that the rounded nose is already mushroomed to a degree, as the bullet strikes the hide of the animal providing instant radial shock thus the deer have a tendency to drop right where they are hit.   Below is a chuckhawks article that talks about bullet shapes and likely killing power. A good read!

https://www.chuckhawks.com/big_game_bullets.htm

Good Hunting!

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Today’s bullet sales and profit seems to cater to where the bullet volume is. Specifically, sales cater to the long range crowd, shooting very low drag bullets and to the big game long range crowd. Long range in this case is beyond 200 yards which is a common sense limit for round nose ammo. Yes, I am one of those guys who likes to play with long range stuff but what about a hunter who owns rifles of odd calibers and/or those hunters who invariably do not hunt long range such as the deer hunters of my state of New Hampshire. These hunters often harvest deer in the woods at 40 to 60 yards on average with bullets that are of long range design.

And finally to those who believe, like  me, that a well placed round or flat nose or semi-spitzer bullet will drop game faster than a fully pointed spitzer would because more energy is delivered to the animal given that the range to the game animal needs to be relatively short, say 100 yards or less. Of course energy, frontal area of the bullet, and sectional density play a part.

The tug of a bullet entering game hide is, for all practical purposes, crushingly more powerful for a round or flat nose bullet than for a pencil pointed bullet which pokes a hole in the hide. In fact, you can often hear the slap (surface shock) of a flat or round nose which often instantly drops the game and highly recommended for dangerous game. I shot a red doe with a .375 dia flat nose bullet traveling at 1500 fps and she went 20 yards. Similar to the .375 Winchester or 38-55.. That speed is too slow for a spitzer to even open up and mushroom. Spitzers often need at least 1800fps to mushroom adequately. Semi- spitzers mushroom faster as they are more rounded.

Of course there are pro’s and con’s.

I have harvested deer with spitzers which mushroom ideally and have harvested with round and flat nose as well. Both work! My limited experience is that game seems to drop more often, on the spot, with round or flat nose than with spitzers give that it is short range. On long range I trust Nosler AccuBonds and E-Tips. Round nose and flat nose bullets are still out there. Hornady, Barnes, Speer and Sierra  makes them too.

My Texas buck in 2018 was taken with a muzzleloader and semi-spitzer tip and a flat hollow point design under the tip. He never took a step. Of course 150 grains of powder and a 300 grain bullet dropped him right there because of the huge energy delivered and frontal surface area.

My brother loves his 444 Marlin lever action with 240 grain flat points for New Hampshire thick stuff. Otherwise he likes his 300 win mag that does it all. I like the .375 Ruger for hunting everything because I handload. Of course, if it is a rifle, I love them all and of nearly every caliber.

Great campfire fodder!

© Copyright 2020

Some of my readers are looking for info on 26 Nosler for Moose.

The 26 Nosler (6.5 mm) is ideally suited as a long range rifle/cartridge combo that is more geared to Elk, large deer, and most African Plains game.

YES, it is a capable North American moose and African Eland Cartridge but not the quote “best”, ceteris paribus, in my estimation, meaning, good, better, best. 

Most moose are taken within 300 yards and often less than 100 yards. Truth is, 300 yards is short range for the 26 Nosler on elk and deer. 

The reason to own a 26 Nosler is that you are going to do a lot of hunting at ranges from 200 to 800 yards after your moose hunt for game such as elk and deer or on an African Plains game Safari. The 26 Nosler is not a target rifle, it is a serious long range hunting cartridge/rifle. 

 The 6.5 caliber has exceptional Sectional Density (greater than .28 and up to .299), thus great penetration, especially the 140 -142  grain in a Nosler AccuBond bullet or the Long Range version of the AB.

It is NOT about “bullet speed” for moose however.

Killing moose is about shot placement.

If you own a 26 Nosler and can practice to 300, 400, 500 or more yards with a solid field rest such as the Bog Death Grip® tri-pod or Caldwell® Field Pod, then go for it. 

However, if you can shoot “accurately” with a larger bore and a well constructed bullet with excellent Sectional Density then, I believe, you are better off. Moose don’t fall “often” at a killing shot and can run over 100 yards or more, maybe into a pond or down a hill in the wrong direction. I don’t favor field dressing a moose in a pond. Try to anchor him right then! Keep shooting till he’s down. 

Larger bores and recoil aside, my go-to’s for a regular every year moose caliber would be a 30-06, 7mm Rem. Mag. with 160 grain bullets, 300 Win. Mag., both with 180 grain Nosler AB, .338 Win Mag with 225 grain Nosler AB and the 375’s in 260 to 300 grain. The 30-06 will limit your distance shots to say 150 yards or so. The .270 Winchester can, like the 26 Nosler and other 6.5’s, do the job but I like larger calibers that can reach 200 to 300 yards with 2000 to 3000 ft-lbs delivered. The rest of my list are good to 300 yards or more.

If big bears are also on the menu, or if you are on their menu, then I would opt for the .338 and .375 with good shot placement. 

It is rare to kill moose at ranges over 300 yards.

Additionally, strong wind is a long range shot Achilles heel in the field, often 20 mph or more on a mountain thus windage will be a huge factor at those distant shots.

Recommended Reading below:

https://www.chuckhawks.com/want_better_sd.htm

My recent moose hunt.

I took a young 850 lb Newfoundland bull moose at 100 yards this past October with a .375 Ruger and Nosler 300 grain AccuBond traveling at 2500 fps. 

Every day in our Newfoundland hunt was a challenge. The wind was blowing 20 to 40  mph everyday and wind chill was in the minus column. If you did not have a fleece or knit face mask, then you didn’t have a face!

300 grain Nosler AccuBond recovered from moose retained 231 grains, 77% of its original weight.

The bull was coming to a cow call, and was taken as it eagerly trotted toward me in a near whiteout snow squall(snow was blowing sideways) with 30 mph wind. I waited till the bull neared 100 yards.  The bull veered to provide a quartering shot. I had already set up my BOG Death Grip tripod for sitting. At the shot, the bull stood for a few seconds, he looked bewildered,  wondering what had just happened, and fell stone dead. The 300 grain bullet entered the shoulder (nicked the lower edge of the scapula bone on entry), double lung shot delivering 3500 ft-lbs and settled on the skin of the far side after blowing through a rib bone (the bullet mushroomed to more than 3/4 inch). No exit wound. I never felt the recoil and my face was numb as if at my dentist from the cold anyway.

Great eating! The meat froze quickly.

Good Hunting!

© Copyright 2020

Some of my readers wish to know what the recoil is for a given rifle and bullet weight.  A great question! Perhaps they may word it differently, like “how much am I going to get beat-up by that rifles recoil?

Below is a website which shows up under NH Rifleman’s Menu for calculating recoil. In order for it to work you need to know the rifle weight in pounds, bullet weight in grains, speed in fps of the bullet and the amount of powder used in grains. Enter these quantities and your result is shown. 

http://www.shooterscalculator.com/recoil-calculator.php

That said, for many years there have been screw-on permanent or temporary recoil pads on the market which can cut the felt recoil in half or more.

I shoot a 375 Ruger at 9.5 pounds and a 300 grain bullet and say 55  grains of powder. Recoil for this 375 Ruger is around 38 ft-lbs. but with a recoil pad designed to cut felt recoil in half, the felt recoil is like 19 pounds, more like the .270 Winchester.

I can shoot my 375 in a T-Shirt off hand. However, if I am bench resting, I recommend a strap on shoulder pad too if I am shooting several rounds.

So don’t let published recoil stop you from shooting bigger, more powerful rifles.

Shoot smarter not harder!

© 2020

This is a word not often used in the ballistic lexicon where modern rifle bullets are concerned, but where you are shooting a muzzleloader, shotgun or a gas checked lead projectile it has a point of conceptual understanding and its benefits are huge!

Cast Bullet Gas Checks below.

https://detroitammoco.com/gas-checks/

I came across the word obturation when examining the using soft lead, copper or gas checks where the bullets base (sometimes concave) expands to fully engage the rifling in the barrel thus preventing the escape of gas around the slightly undersized bullet.

In the case of my TC 50 cal muzzle loader, I use PowerBelt™ Bullets with a synthetic concave gas check base which obturates, seals the gas, as the slightly undersized lead bullet exits thus providing maximum power and accuracy as the lead does contact the rifling. And it loads easier than plastic saboted bullets. See the story below.

When the muzzle-loader is fired the synthetic base expands providing the obturation (gas seal) to prevent gas to escape around the slightly smaller diameter bullet and thus increases the muzzle velocity and energy delivered. This the same concept for shooting a shotgun with bird-shot or a rifled slug/wad where the wad or plastic base obturates (seals to prevent gas from escaping around the pellets) upon ignition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obturation

Good Shooting!