A piercing method for manufacturing a seamless pipe capable of suppressing the rotary forging effects and suppressing the redundant shear strain without excessive narrowing of the roll diameter is provided. This method is characterized by holding a feed angle .beta. and a cross angle .gamma. of main rolls in a range satisfying the following expressions (1) to (3), setting the relationship between outer diameter "d.sub.0" of the solid billet and the outer diameter "d" and thickness "t" of a hollow piece after piercing so as to satisfy the following expression (4), and further setting the relationship between inlet diameter D.sub.1 and outlet diameter D.sub.2 of the main roll with the above-mentioned "d.sub.0", "d" and .gamma. so as to satisfy the following expression (5) 8.degree..ltoreq..beta..ltoreq.20.degree. (1) 5.degree..ltoreq..gamma..ltoreq.35.degree. (2) 15.degree..ltoreq..beta.+.gamma..ltoreq.50.degree. (3) 1.5.ltoreq.-.psi..sub.r/.psi..sub..theta..ltoreq.4.5 (4) (d/d.sub.0)/(0.75+0.025.gamma.).ltoreq.D.sub.2/D.sub.1 (5) In the expression (4), .psi..sub.r=1n(2t/d.sub.0) and .psi..sub..theta.=1n{2(d-t)/d.sub.0}.