Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer, Norma Bullet Question

I have a couple hundred Norma 30 caliber, 180 gr bullets, Part #67628. They are a silver colored spitzer bullet with kind of a yellow plastic tip. I can't find any info on them and I'm wondering if you are familiar with them. I was going to load some up in a 30-06 for elk this fall if they would be good for deep penetration, weight retention, etc. Would you have any info on these bullets or are you familiar with them at all? Also if anybody is else is familiar with them certainly chime in. Thanks.

Not Mule Deer, but hey are rather popular here in Europe.

They expand violently, and the front of the jacket tents to rupture projecting fragments and destroying a lot of tissue.

At "das Springfield" speeds you should get good penetration. Not like you would from a Partition, but goood penetration though.

I still have half a box of older .308 Norma Magnum factory ammo with a very similar bullet. They were steel jacketed if memory serves. I don't recall any negative reports as to performance.

I had the bullets that you mention in 30-06 Norma factory loads,they called them a dual core.As I recall ,they were accurate and showed good speed .I never got to use any on game.

A magnet will tell you if they're steel jackets or not.

I use to use some Norma 130 gr 30 cal BT colored like that.I don't think there was any steel in them.A steel jacket would not be condusive to good barrel life

My 6.5x54 has silver bullets that are magnetic.They are 139 semi point and 156 roundnose they say are softpoints?? [img:center][/img] [img:center][/img]

I've several boxes of vintage 156gr lead tipped RN Norma 6.5 bullets They are magnetic but I suspect not because the jackets are steel.

The jackets are most likely cupronickel and the magnetic quality is probably due to the iron that is alloyed in cupronickel as a strengthening agent.

Looking forward to MD's input to clear this up.

Thanks Carbon.Doing anything with those bullet's?

Just some testing on paper. They consistently make better groups than the 160 gr Hornady RN in my 6.5x55 M38 Husqvarna so I am hoarding them for future wet work.

I have no idea about those particular Norma bullets, since I've never used them. About the only Norma bullets I use are Oryx, because I like them a lot.

I used a lot of 130 gr sliver colored Norma bullets in my 270 back in the early 70s. what is odd compared to today, they were the least expensive bullets I could get then for my 270.
It was some kind of stainless steel that was used to make the jackets because you could pick them up with a magnet.

They killed deer ok, but were rather brittle and always came apart. I never lost a deer hit with one, but i also never had one hold together either.

Thanks everyone. It sure doesn't sound like a good elk bullet.

Isn't stainless steel nonmagnetic?
I killed quite a few deer with the 130 gr,30 cal n Normas. Most were bang/flop and I don't remember losing any deer while using them.
Most of my deer hunting back then was on the Jicarilla Indian Reservation in Northern New Mexico. $20 trespass fee and another $2-$5 for the 2nd deer. Plus the NM tags which I don't remember how much they were,but I think $12or so

Depends on what kind of stainless steel it is.

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2012/3/21/a-century-of-brass-and-bullets/

The NRA article referenced above has some information on the dual core bullet - the one with the yellow plastic tip and steel case. It says they referred to it as the "Silver Flash".

This article states. The Silverblixt was a dual-core bullet with a hardened lead rear core to help with weight retention and penetration, and a softer lead front core to aid with expansion and tissue destruction. The Alaska bullet had a homogenous lead core and a generous soft-point. Both had gilding metal (95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc) jackets.

So no steel in the bullets. Seems the cases at one time or another were steel,perhaps leading to the statement that they were magnetic

You might want to send an email to Norma with the part number. They're good about answering.
That part number correlates to what Norma called the "Dual Core" in old reloading data. They don't make it anymore, using the Nosler Partition for that application. They still make the "Plastic Point" that looks very similar in the same weights. They don't penetrate deeply, but expand quickly.
Norma stopped using steel in the jackets, but I'm not sure when. I've only used Norma bullets since about 2006 and have only seen the steel jackets on old ammo.

D

Maybe I'll email Norma and ask about them.

I assume the 156 gr RN on the left was the same one they used to load in the 6.5x55 in the 1990's. My only wolf to date was shot with one of those. It was facing me and I found the bullet in the back end of the wolf, the core separated but it did penetrate pretty good.