Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Winchester 190 grain 303 ammo

I've got 25 boxes of it, and am wondering if I should reload for the 303 and sell this stuff off to pay for lap dances or what?

Is it prized for it's performance or is it easily replaceable with your handloads? Swore I'd never reload for the 303 but dang it, looks like I might after all. What would you all do with 25 boxes of the 190 silvertips? I'm inclined to sell them off.

I'd give one of them to my buddy Seafire...if I was you....

I would love to buy a box just for nostalgia and to display with my 1895's. My father believed that the silvertip was the only bullet appropriate for his .32 Winchester Special. I would think that they may be worth a couple dollars and with 25 boxes I think you may be looking at quite a few lap dances, not just one. I load .303 Savage so I am in no danger of ever shooting them.

You shouldn't have any trouble selling them.

If they aren't all sold already...

Me personally I would sell them, but that's just me. I and a lot of other guys can build quality loads but there's a heckuva lot of guys who don't handload who could use some quality factory ammo.

What is the box design that they are in?

One grizzly bear box iirc pretty beat up, and two or three newer styles, including the newer white box. I think I have some Remington too.

Laying there thinking about this last night, I remembered I have about 800 180 semi pointed bullets, and about the same number of 150's either of which would be perfect for the 303.

Shoot them! Its good stuff. And then save the brass for reloading.

As a reloader I can't bring myself to shoot all that. I don't need much 303 ammo for as little as I'd shoot it.

Maybe consider it a lifetime supply. I'd take a box out to the range to see what you can do with it and then record the results as a control group on which to gauge the success of your reloads. Plus that will give you good brass to start reloading with.

I'm sure that picture already has some guys salivating!

I was just wondering if the 190 Silvertip does something magic in the 303 or if any old bullet will do as well? I'm not a factory ammunition guy and definitely have no experience with the 303. I remember as a kid hearing the silvertips "blew up" when fired from the 30/06. How would I know, I was just a kid then.

I don't know how the 190-grain Silvertips perform as a hunting bullet but they do seem to be the Holy Grail of 303 ammo. Maybe you should do some range testing and get back to us with the results. I'm sure it would be interesting and generate a degree of interest. Got any big barrels of water or left over phone books for doing some expansion/explosion tests?

Any old bullet will do- within reason. To me the big caveat is if said bullets are to be used for hunting they must be able to expand at sedate .303 velocities. That pretty much only includes .30-30 class bullets. Others may (and probably do) expand well, but without testing I would only trust the bullets intended for lower velocities.

I still don't get the fascination with the 190 grain .303 loads. I have settled on using 170 grain .30-30 bullets for my .303 loads and that is all I would ever use for a hunting load. But, that's me.

Roy, sell 'em and buy some Speer 170 grain thutty thutty boolits and never look back.

come on Gary, you know perfectly well that plain old lead bullets won't kill anymore! it takes the jacket to cause death.
i use 170 g silver tips in my 30-30 with good results (because i haven't found a 303 yet} or i just cast up some #2 alloy 180's and go kill sh..stuff

170, 180, 190

It's all minutia really.

It's an interesting talking point and topic of discussion, but they are all going to produce the same results at the end of the day.

Yeah but reloading is all about minutia. It’s like tying flies. It’s for some but not most. And it’s all good.

I doubt the 190 silvertips will blow up though I have heard they are soft. My son shot a buck this past November with the 303S. He used his dad's 150 grain silvertip fp load and as far as I can tell the bullet is still going. Made a great blood trail too. 100 yard follow up but he was a dead buck walking.

In 2015 I fired six Winchester 190 gr SuperX .303 silvertips from my 20" 99F to see what they would do. Averaged 1791 fps with extreme spead 51fps. High was 1821 fps. This was the first time I fired the rifle, so group size was meaningless (a little under 1" at 25 yds).

I have killed several deer with the 190 silver tips, all one shot kills! out of a 1907 B 1899, that gun loves them!