Shooting round nose ammo from a lever rifle

V

valleyforge.1777

New member
I have a 357/38 Winchester model 94 Trapper, and I mostly shoot 38's. I know that one should not use pointy bullets (except maybe for those Hornady rounds with the flex-tip) in a tube-magazine lever rifle in order to prevent recoil from causing the bullet tips to fire the primers in the other rounds in the tube magazine. I get that. And, I know that flat point ammo is safe, and JHP's are safe because they don't cause a firing-pin effect on the primers of other rounds in the magazine tube. But what about true round nose ammo? I've got a bunch of Federal 130 grain 38 Special ammo, and those rounds are factory loaded with round nose bullets. Not, "round nose flat point" or "truncated cone", but really and truly round nose. Not, sort of round nose like on 9 mm FMJ rounds which are sort of oblong and the round nose is almost kind of pointy. These rounds are genuinely round nose bullets. Also, I've got a bunch of PMC bronze 132 grain 38 Specials and they also have a true round nose. Are these dangerous with regard to the tube magazine? When I shoot 38's from this lever rifle, the recoil is mild but I would never try shooting pointed-tip rounds with it. But what about these round nose rounds? Dangerous???
 
You can easily figure this out for yourself, no advanced engineering degree needed. :)
Put a bullet nose in one round against the primer of another round.
If the nose is pointed & small enough to contact the primer sufficiently to indent far enough to ignite it, you have a potential problem.
If not, you don't.

That's all there is to it.
Denis
 
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