Euro style .308 bullets or what?

[Big Bad]

I recently bought a couple of boxes of Sellier and Beloit .308 hunting cartridges, heavy-ish in 180gr, and am curious about their rounded style bullets as opposed to what you usually see in that calibre of ammo. Is the rounded style intended for some special purpose.

By way of illustration, this is a Sellier and Beloit round below, followed by a a couple of standard pointy rounds with the same weight bullet.

 

[AB3006]

I got some of these in 30-06. Same bullet, rounded nose. They'll be fine for hunting out to 200 yards, with their Minutes of Deer accuracy.

I've fired 10 so far beyond this distance, and they start diverging pretty badly, at least out of my rifle (Howa 1500, 22"bbl, 1:10" twist).

I'll try them out of my 24" Husqvarna next time.

 

[weasel1]

Believe it or not, that is the most accurate box factory ammo I have found so far that I use in my Savage Axis Precision II. I can shoot cloverleafs @100 with it. I keep a good stash of it on hand

 

[Big Bad]

Believe it or not, that is the most accurate box factory ammo I have found so far that I use in my Savage Axis Precision II. I can shoot cloverleafs @100 with it. I keep a good stash of it on hand

Glad to hear that. From what you can tell by appearance, it does seem to be high quality stuff.

I was also wondering if the bullet shape would improve or detract on its performance on different kinds of game.

 

[Hand Skills]

Ya, round noses are preferred in parts of the world where terminal performance is more important than ballistic coefficient.

They tend to open a little faster than 'spitzer' profiles.

Just because North Americans seem to believe that Ballistic Coefficient is a bullet's primary attribute, well, not everyone see it that way

(Sad to see Core-lokts come with plastic tips now... Exposed lead tips generally initiate expannsion more rapidly and reliably than plastic tips. There are a few theories on why this is the case)

 

[MiG25]

I've used the S&B 7.62x54R 180 grainer that looks just like that. It has a bit more jam than the 308 but it works very well on Deer.

 

[Falconflyer]

How is the velocity?
A few years ago I purchased a couple of boxes of S&B 357 magnum, I was a bit suspicious of the "snap" and decided to run a few over my crono and found they were barely faster than 38 Special!

 

[Joel]

Plenty of round noses like that available in America too. Just about every bullet maker has a 30 cal 180gr round nose

Whether or not they actually do anything different enough to matter when they hit animals is very uncertain lol. Think its all between the ears personally.

Plastic tips do not "intiate expansion". They fall off on impact within about the first inch of travel...if even. Bullet construction matters way more in terms of how violently a bullet opens. Look at a Ballistic Tip bullet. "It doesn't open fast enough" is not a complaint I ever heard lol.

The "Core Lokt Tipped" is just a Hornady SST loaded by Remington, just like their "Bronze Point" or "Accutip" or whatever it was always was.

 

[legi0n]

150RN are my best shooting reloads in 308. best groups to 200y and best expansion from a 16" barrel

 

[Joel]

150RN are my best shooting reloads in 308. best groups to 200y and best expansion from a 16" barrel

Are they made for 30-30s?

 

[legi0n]

Are they made for 30-30s?

I have no clue.
they are the 30 Cal .308 150 gr InterLock RN Item #3035

 

[Joel]

I have no clue.
they are the 30 Cal .308 150 gr InterLock RN Item #3035

Got ya! If they are I was thinking what a great bullet for a short barreled 308! But seems like they are anyway haha. Their 170 must be great for that job too

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

Are they made for 30-30s?

Yep. They show 150 RNFP ammo.
https://www.sellier-bellot.cz/en/products/rifle-ammunition/rifle-ammunition-sp/

 

[Ganderite]

Round nose bullets have a flat base. Never saw a boar tailed RN bullet. For many rifles with less than match quality barrel a, a flat base will usually shot much better than a boattail.

 

[Paul_T]

I load 160gr Hornady RN in 6.5x55. Excellent bullet

You have to remember before Spitzers came about, Military bullets were RN.
They are still around today for hunting and used when weight is more important than velocity.

FWIW in a modern action and the modern bullets I'm loading the 160's to 2570fps while my 140gr spitzer (SST) are at 2800.

 

[Dosing]

I recently bought a couple of boxes of Sellier and Beloit .308 hunting cartridges, heavy-ish in 180gr, and am curious about their rounded style bullets as opposed to what you usually see in that calibre of ammo. Is the rounded style intended for some special purpose.

By way of illustration, this is a Sellier and Beloit round below, followed by a a couple of standard pointy rounds with the same weight bullet.

View attachment 784964

A number of makers used them as a simple design more so than anything these days. They used to be seen as a way by some makers to put the most mass in the shortest bullet, and then ensuring a larger wound channel as they are (if built properly) supposed to mushroom a bit while still plowing through. If you check out a number of the Euro makers they will recommend a 308 180spire or rn for the same class of game, just tell you the old round nose design will make a wider and longer wound cavity.
Honestly S&B is about on par with cheap Win/Fed/Remmy, and the Euros have tons of factory loaded stuff with Speer, Nosler, Barnes etc, and of course the old Euro designs, to a point I would say they have more options usually than we do.

 

[WhelanLad]

we get heaps of S and B down under, its good stuff typically. good brass to reload also.