Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers The Mighty Silvertip (348)

Thanks to a couple of members here 348 Bullets from the lower 48 made it safely into my hands donated for testing. I received 6 precious 250 grain Silvertips and 35 Speer 180 grainers. I promised to try and ring out their secrets, so here goes.



Lets start with the 180 grain Speers. These are a flat-nosed design similar to the 35 caliber 180 grain which I always had good luck with. Slammed into wet and dry newsprint at close to 2700 ft/sec these bullets stopped expanding at the cannelure or just past and penetrated very well as well as retaining a lot of weight. They act a lot like a bonded core bullet. If these still were made I'd go buy a lot of 500. Caribou to Elk capable and they seem to be accurate as well.


The 250 Silvertips are an interesting bullet. Expansion is devastating. Penetration? Not so much. In fact the 180 Speers penetrated about as well. Nothing left the kind of holes in the test media like the big Winchester bullet, however. I'd expect fast kills on up to moose sized game but the Woodleigh is more reliable, expands reliably and penetrates much better.



Where does that leave us today? I think the 348 never had it so good. The 200 FlexTip shoots as flat or flatter than the 180 Speer and penetrates in a similar fashion. The 200 FN Hornady is a great all-rounder and for really big stuff the 200 Swift is a super reliable penetrator. I don't think we ever had it so good! They also can be made to shoot to the same point of impact. (Still wish I could go buy some 180 grain Speers though!)




Video of the testing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvhkTOha3W0

Those Speer's look really good too bad they don't make them anymore. The Silvertip's are a bit disappointing the Woodleigh, Swift and Hornady look great too. Always enjoy looking at your video's on Youtube...........

The Silvertips have a light jacket which seems to be a bit brittle. Pretty sure they would kill medium sized game like a freight train however.

I cannot view the youtube video. It wants me to create a channel?

Sorry..fixed the link should work now.

The testing apparatus. 7" Wet newsprint followed by dry.

Thanks for these tests, really great information!

WOW! Awesome bullet test! I dig that old 348 Winchester.

North61,

Have you tested Hawk's 180gr bullets?

They are too pricey up here in Canada.

Well I'm going to give them a try with some H4350 and see how they do for a deer hunting load. I could just use my 30-30 but I definitely want to get a deer with my 71! I've watched your videos and they pushed me to buy a model 71 (browning).

Has anyone taken anything with the Winchester 200gr powerpoints introduced a couple years ago? My experience with the silvertips is they don't expand well on lung shots, have always had good success with the powerpoints. Have been using the 250 woodleighs but have a good supply of the powerpoints just haven't used any yet. Thanks for the test!

From Terminal Ballistic Research ( A great online resource)
"Winchester all so produced Power-Point (soft point ) loads for a time however it was the Silvertip that produced the most spectacular results. Furthermore, a good number of hunters utilized the 250 grain Silvertip in the far reaches of Canada and Alaska for Moose hunting. The Silvertip could achieve desirable one shot kills but it must be understood that all energy was expended rapidly and that penetration at close ranges was somewhat limited in comparison to modern premium bullet designs."

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.348+Winchester.html

North:

This is a valuable research area: bullet performance and field characteristics.

I correspond with Dr. Stephen Herrero at the University of Calgary. He wrote
"Bear Attacks and Their Avoidance"-one of the best books on human-bear interaction.
The US Forest Service published recommendations on effective cartridges for handling
brown-grizzly-polar bears that become problem bears. The 458-375-338 were top
of the list.
No one has spent that much time answering the real question: Will
a fast lever action rifle response time give you an edge with a rifle like the 1886-Model 71
in 348 WCF? My answer is that MOST rifle shooters can handle a lever gun faster than a bolt gun.
Combined with cartridges loaded with Swift, Woodleigh or Alaska Bullet works bullets-
you have an edge on bear spray- if its a tough grizzly.

The 71 has four things going for it as a defense rifle for bears IMO.

1) It operates in a velocity range that supports excellent bullet action and good penetration. 22-2500 seems like a good velocity range for dangerous game.
2) The bullet weight of 200-250 grain is adequate and in an 8 pound rifle makes for extremely controllable recoil recovery for a fast 2nd shot
3) The extraordinary stock design makes for very elegant pointability
4) While a very well trained man can do great things with a bolt for a normal person the lever is going to give a faster 2nd shot.(IMO) This is especially true for the very smooth 71 with the excellent angle of attack afforded by the pistol grip

Not sure how to test all the above but I do not feel under gunned with the 348 in my hands.