Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bullet history, bronze points and silver tips?

One of the guys in our camp got hassled by a game warden once, back in the mid-80's, for using Bronze Points. The guy claimed they were "armor piercing ammo" due to the fact there was no lead exposed! It took a lot of convincing before the ignoramus decided not to write a ticket.

My story about the Rem Bronze Points is similar to others here. I liked the looks and the aerodynamics and they were accurate. I thot with the point protecting the tip they ought to be the cat's meow.

But then I read of their explosiveness so I never hunted them.


These WW STs I bought many yrs ago from Midway.



I have been 'told' these with the small ring in front of the cannelure were manufactured with heavier jackets for higher velocity. So far I can't verify that.



Jerry

10 Years ago in Northern Michigan I shot a Buck in the left front shoulder with a 303 Savage 190 grain factory Silver Tip. The bullet blew apart on impact, tracked the deer for a half mile until no more blood trail. Later that afternoon someone from the next camp shot the same deer. I went to look at it hanging on the buck pole. The front shoulder was a complete mess but the bullet did not penetrate into the vitals. That was the last Silver Tip I shot at a deer. Now the 303 Savage in not a high velocity round. Approx 2000 feet per second with the 190 grain bullet. The deer was at 65 yards when I pulled the trigger. I have shot other deer with the same rifle and 150 grain Hornady Round Nose hand loads that had complete penetration and dead deer. Not a Silver Tip fan, although they look kind cool in a Vintage Rifle, but I will not go back to them. Still have serveral boxes of factory rounds.

I guessing there's a reason John Nosler came out with the Partition.

Remington specifically marketed the bronze points as long range bullets that would open up reliably after velocity had dropped. Their ads always showed a smiling sheep or antelope hunter who had used them for some 400 yard shot. The idea being that the metal point drove into the lead and initiated expansion. If they hit at a high impact velocity they would open way too fast.

I can imagine Remington’s frustration when they specifically told people “use them for when you need something that opens reliably at longer range”, the implication being that they were not best used at shorter ranges, and then people complained that they opened up too fast when an animal was shot at 100 yards. Recall that the first Ballistic Tips were scorned as being too explosive until Nosler finally put a thicker jacket on the heavier ones.

I bought a bunch of 165 grain .30 caliber bronze points cheap through the classifieds here and used them for practice rounds but they grouped about as well as most any other standard bullet.

Iv killed a few deer with the 190 grain silver tip bullets, they worked very well in my 303 savage 99s! if anyone has any of the 190s and would like to sell them send me a PM!

Jim,

A Montana rancher I worked for after getting out of high school (my first full-time job) claimed that Bronze Points were favored by bear hunters, because their "tough tips" penetrated better on bears. Of course, he'd never shot any kind of bear, or any big game except antelope and deer.

In fact, he was as FOS on every rifle subject as anybody I've ever known, but was as willing to lecture anybody on any of them as a 20-year-old gun counter nitwit.

Have shot many a big whitetail with 180gr. Silvertip factory loads out of an '06. They were my dads and are in yellow and red boxes. Maybe these old bullets are tougher or I just get lucky but I have had absolutely perfect results over the years. Never had a bullet blow up even through both shoulders. Have had them lose a bunch of weight but it doesn't bother me because they have got the job done. Wouldn't use them on anything bigger than deer though. Have no experience with Bronze Points. MD knows way more about this stuff than I do though. Just my experience with old rounds.

Shot my first buck with my gramps 300H&H and 180 silvertips, came in a blue and yellow box with the angry grizzly picture on it. They were pretty old even back then, there were only 3 or 4 left in the box. I put them in my pocket and went hunting. Saw a buck maybe 40-50 yards walking broadside, shot it tight behind the shoulder thru the ribs, it went about 50 yds and laid down. Walked up and shot it in the neck, nearly decapitated it. The first shot hit a rib, fragmented and broke/smashed both ribs either side of the one it hit, there was nothing but shrapnel got to the lungs judging by the many little lacerations in an eight or ten inch diameter area behind the ribcage into the lungs.

I started shooting silver tip bullets about 1965. At first I shot just 130 270 bullets. I only recovered two, but they weighed 98 and 100 grains. both shot into deer. I also shot one moose with3006 and 180 gr silver tips. I shot it three times recovered two which averaged 71% weight retention and the 3rd was a pass thru. Broadside about 100 yards. I had an acquaintance who was a market hunter in the 1950s . He used a 3006 with 150 silvertips for elk. No comments on the results except he kept using them.

Yep, that was so everyone that uses them wont have to worry about shooting a decent group...because it aint going to happen!!!! In all fairness, they are killers and you don't really need great groups to kill deer or bear.

I will add that the tip of the bronze point bullet is not bronze...it is in fact aluminum that has been color anodized dark gold. I always thought it was funny how in the 70's Remington advertised the 130 grain 270 BP as having a MV of like 3150 or so. It did out of their 26" test barrel and Remington hadn't made a 270 with anything but a 22 inch barrel for 20 years!!!!

I think this thread shows, if nothing else, how far we've come over the years in consistent bullet performance.

I've killed some deer with Bronze Point 130s out of a .270, they were "decisively" killed, at that. Lightning bolts killed slower than those Bronze Points. I tried them after having some unhappy experiences with early Ballistic Tips and Gamekings.

I also killed a couple deer with 180gr. Bronze Points out of a .30/06, they killed quickly, too.
I've had nothing but good results from them, I was sorely disappointed when Remington quit selling them as component bullets.

I went to the ProHunter Sierras after that, with excellent results, but I really liked the Bronze Points, as the bullet noses didn't deform in the magazine of my Ruger 77s like typical softpoints did, and again, I wasn't happy with Ballistic Tips, so they were a decent alternative.

A local gunsmith hated them, but he thinks that deer require a .338, too. I didn't take much stock in his opinions.

I had very good luck with 170 Silvertips in my 30-30 back when I could find them. Even killed a Bull Moose with them.

The first time I saw the Army's M855A1 bullet I immediately thought of the Remington Bronze Points.

The first half-dozen or so Texas whitetails that I shot with the .30-06 that I bought the summer that I graduated high school were taken with W-W factory ammo and 150-grain Silver Tips. Being totally clueless about the finer points of bullet performance, I was just glad to have dead deer. I don't recall any particularly destructive aftermaths and, best I can recall, they were all one-shot kills.

When I started reloading a few years later, I used both Speer and Sierra 150-grain bullets. My experiences with those started me down the road to 30 years of shooting nothing but Partitions at big game.

I shot a few deer with the 130gr Bronze Point 270win load. I specifically remember a cloud of hair floating briefly above the animals after they dropped.

170 grain .30-30 silvertips are pure poison on deer.

I like thinking about the old boxes of factory ammo.

I grew up in a family that meat hunted, and didn't spend much time practicing or sighting in.

box of ammo lasted a longtime.

as a kid I remember wondering about the possible differences between Winchester ammo, and Western ammo. Thw W vs the X

and what about Peters vs Remington???

Yep, pretty cool, wasn't it? I shot a couple deer that must have been hit EXACTLY right, as they did everything but backflips on the way down (actually, one DID do a backflip, about 4 feet into the air, and came down facing the opposite direction she'd been traveling).

Another deer hit the ground so hard he bounced, literally. Those two deer really cemented my opinions on the Bronze Points.