When I've guided elk hunts or have hunted brown bear and elk, the roundnose and flatnose bullets were often the choice of experienced hunters. It seems to me that within the normal hunting ranges the advantages of these bullets are reliable expansion, deep penetration and more reliable feeding in bolt action rifles.

They aren't the most popular bullet shape today for N American hunting and sometimes I am left to wonder the reason. But, for me, when chasing the big game on this continent, I load the roundnose.

Let us see,
At short range the BC of the Spire point is of no consequence and the boat tail is not yet stable. So the answer to the problem is to get the most punch for the dollar and the flat base bullet with a flatnose or round nose is just the ticket.

As to feeding, you will note that just about every DG bullet is a round nose, no accident that.

Then of course, it might be real simple; Like, most of the folks that can afford the paid hunt are old codgers, like us, and the RN, FN might just be a throwback to what Dad or Grandpaw carried, a big Remington Corelock bullet.
Ed

marketability
they've been around for as long as bullets have been around.
But I can't even imagine the dude that struts into his local Gander Mtn. buys a 30-378 WM and specifies RN bullets. It won't happen often.
Don't get me wrong, I use RN bullets, in some applications I prefer them but they lack the "magnum, ultra-magnum, super duper ultra magnum zing" that bullets with names like Triple Shock, Trophy bonded, Accubond have.
hype sells

Hype sells to some folks. Course there in again, I do have two WSM guns.
Ed

yep.........theres a long list of things that 'hype' sold me. thats how I knew it worked so well.
Besides working quite well for hunting out to a couple yards yards, RN bullets are often much cheaper to buy as they are so often over looked. Best thing that ever happened to a .35 cal bullet that I could find for my .357 max was a Sierra 200 gr. RN.....they were accurate enough we could shoot pds with them at 150 yds. They also knocked mule deer over like bowling balls.

You delibrately posted this contraversy didn't you Handloader...?

I cut my teeth on Remington Core-lokt 170 grain RN for my .30-30 Winchester. I now use a Speer 170 grain FN. If I had no choice I would go back to the Remington bullet with no grief. I use Sierra 180 and 165 grain Gamekings in my .30-06 mostly because I have the Browning A-bolt for my long work. I have been experimenting with 165 grain BTHP. Impressed with accuracy at 200 yards, but need to sink one in a game animal to see what they do. If I, again, had no choice I would go to Core-Locts for the .30-06 too. I have always had good luck with Remington ammuntion and reloading components...

Swampfox,
I've never had a problem with boat tail bullets and stability. from 50 to 200 yards the 165 BT spitzer shoots mighty well in both my 30-06's. The only flat points that I use are for pistolsand then only because they don't make a 140 grain spitzer for my 357's. If they did I would try it just to see if it worked. The bullets in my 06 deliver more tollerance for wind, very slightly better velocity retention and good terminal ballistics. I hunt in Washington and it is always between 50 and 200 yards. On paper they are a lot more accurate then the flat base bullets. My group size drops 50% at 100 yards with boat tail bullets, from .75" to .5" on the average. Sorry to see that they don't work well for you.

All I've ever used are spitzers. I suppose it had something to do with the fact that the bullet I wished to use was only available as a spitzer. Although for most big game shots out to 100-150 yds, heck even 200 yds a round nose still has enough punch to do the job.