Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Old School Winchester Silver Tips- Any Good??

I remember using these on deer 35 years ago but all I remember was dead critters. Are they a good stout bullet or explosive or somewhere in between?
I’m going to load some to test on hogs and see how they shake out.

Oh man! I’d run em!

I know they knock deer and bear down just fine!

Plus, they just look cool!

Those just make me wanna load em in the old 06 and take to the woods myself!

They do have some cool factor!...Rambo looking bullets!!

😂

They do the job. I killed some deer and a Moose and a Bear with them.

wack em and stack em. i use those in 30-30, 300 blk out, 7.62x39 ,300 savage, 308 win, and 30-06. had 500 of them now down to 250
have killed deer, elk and moose with them. never lost one. never recovered a bullet so no data there.

I’d love to have a pile of them!

They’re excellent deer killers back where I come from.

I keep those on hand for vampires, just in case.

They were a good bullet for their time an early controlled expansion bullet. They usually penetrated well but sometimes I think the cap would come off and then they would expand like crazy but not penetrate very well, still killed stuff.

One PH used to like them for Leopard, he would peel the tip off to create a big soft nose.

The early ones had a tin alloy tip, at some point they switched to an aluminum cap. Some thought this ruined the bullet, I couldn't tell much difference.

The 30-30 ones were great in 308 they worked fine but nothing stood out about them. Pigs will hate them.

Anybody ever run them in a .300 Win or .300 Weatherby?

Hogs are a damn fine ballistic gelatin . I’ll probably try’m in the 308 and 30-06 first.

There are actually 3 or 4 different types and construction of the Silvertip bullets. The first type had a harder nickle silver "silvertip" jacket that extended to the base of the bullet. These were the bullets that gained a reputation for deep penetration. These early bullets disappeared around 1955. The type show are just a standard cup and core bullet with a very thin aluminum cap covering just the tip of the bullet. The tip is so soft that they often deform under recoil in the magazine box of heavy recoiling rifles. Will perform like about any cup and core. I had one completely come apart on an elk shot with a 348 Win at 200 yards. Then there was a short run of a 3rd generation silvertip that came on the scene in the late 80's IIRC. This bullet had a horrible reputation. A gun writer shot a porcupine , twice, with a 300 Win Mag. Neither bullet exited. Then along came the ballistic silvertip. I have not heard how this preforms.

I just bought a box of 220 grain Silvertips for the 300 Mag in the old yellow Winchester box. I'd love to try them on something large

First iteration was supposed to be good. Supposedly the second were too soft. It was especially problematic in .375" where some folks got in trouble on big stuff.

Story was 2nd were not in production very long before the "corrected" third type. Saw a thread on another forum years back with pics demonstrating external differences between the short-lived 2nd and 3rd iterations.

Still have boxes of .308", .338", .375", .257", .277". Best I can tell all from '70s and '80s. No issues with the .308" 180 gr or .375" 300 gr on deer. They are a bit quicker to expand vs a Rem CL, and not as accurate, IME. The .375 300 enjoyed a good reputation, and I found it does not lack for penetration - at least not at H&H/Ruger velocities.

There are poor performance anecdotes for literally every bullet ever made.

Vampire killers, have shot three vampires, full pass through, DRT

I had some of these in 180 grain in a 300H&H back in the '70's to shoot a couple deer and a small bear. They were old then. The shots were at close range, under 50 yds. They pretty much blew up didn't penetrate well, all three were broadside behind the shoulder shots, two died pretty quick, but one deer ran about 300 yds, big wound on the surface, lungs and heart were full of fine shrapnel, no real hole in them, looked like they were hit with fine birdshot.

This is good news. I had feared they might be too soft.

I shot a big pig in the shoulder with a 180 out of a 30/06. Blood everywhere and never found him. Months later my cousins caught and killed him with their dogs. He had a big knot on his left shoulder, when they cut it open my Silvertip was flattened out like a half dollar against the shoulder blade.

The week before I’d shot a big buck up the chute as he ran away, that one broke the pelvis and exited the front of his chest.

Too squirrelly for me.

Had one blow up on a deer shoulder years ago from a .308 Win. It was old ammo even then. Never bothered with it again. I have a full yellow box of .358 Win 250 gr Silvertips taking up space. Happy Trails

Do you wanna part with them? I’d love to have them.

Let me make sure I can find them first. I could be persuaded to part with them.

God damn it Scotty, get to work!!

Got 3 pigged again!! Haha

Some of my most treasured ammunition is the three boxes or so I have of .303 Savage with 190 grain roundnose Silvertips. They shoot well in my 99 and are absolutely deadly on deer. Have also killed a couple good caribou with them.

IIRC it was Boddington that shot a Kodiak bear with a 375 H&H and 300 grain Silvertips. After several broadside shoulder shots it finally succumb to blood loss. He pulled what was left of the bullets and minimal penetration and the bullets were pretty much in pieces.

Okay, let me know what I owe you for em. Appreciate you looking for em.



You gotta be quick buddy! I just snagged another Whelen today. Older Tang safety red pad gun. Shoots decent so far.

Oh nice brother.

I used the 150 grain FP version in my .30-30 to kill a couple truckloads of deer in my youth. They just plain worked.

My granddad and uncles all used Silvertips for in about everything, 308, 300 Savage, 30-06, 270... Never remember any gun fights where they didn’t work well.



Thanks JMan

I have used them in 3006 on a moose at about 100 yards and it worked fine. About 70 or 71% retained weight. I shot 3 times 2 exited but one was still in the moose against hide on far side. I had wanted to use nosler partitions but they wouldn't shoot accurately in my gun so I used these. I talked to Ed Matunis who worked for winchester and he advised me that they were designed for 300 H&H velocities i.e. 2880, I also read a lot of Finn Aagard who used the 270 gr power point on lion and liked it. I figured if these two guys used winchester bullets and liked them I could use them on a deer or moose. I was not disappointed. I also used the 150 gr power point from at the same gun on deer and it worked perfectly,although I always got complete penetration.

Anybody? Absolutely. Wish I could find some

My dad always used them when he went elk hunting. He always brought meat home. 30-06

I lucked into a bag of 100 in the 308 cal fp silver tips about 1 month a go same guy had bag of 100 150 pointed 308 silvertips .bought them for 8 bucks a bag thought that was a fair score. Mb

I used them in my 06, and they are my go too bullet.

In fact I have a pile of silver tip 30 cal 180 grain bullets I’m getting ready to start using.

Killed a fair amount of deer with the 200gr .358 winchester factory load and they performed perfectly. I have a few factory rounds left + 50 or so bullets for my current .358.

They work like most lead tipped bullets...

Why? Because that's what they are

Don’t be so darned logical!

I’ve got a few boxes of 200 grains ST’s for my 348 Win.... need to air them out

Something like in the 90's or so, Midway had bulk Silver Tips for sale cheap. If I remember correctly Winchester was stopping production of the Silver Tip and Midway bought the left overs. I ordered several boxes of these in different calibers and broke them down in to plastic bags of 50 and sold the through my Gun Shop. They went quickly and I never heard a complaint about them. Wish I had purchased more at the time.

I used a few in my .300 Savage. I thought they were too soft. Too much bloodshot meat for me.I switched to Power Points.

I still use those bullets in .300 Savage and .308 Winchester when I can find them.

Shot a dozen or so deer with 130 grain 270 Silvertips and my largest hog with them. Still have a box of 130’s that came in a plain white box from Midway many years ago. Should load them and shoot a few more deer with them.
GreggH

Bayed a big sow this past Tuesday ( approximately 260 plus lbs ). Put a 150 gr Winnie Silver Tip from a Marlin 336 30-30 in her at approximately 50 yds behind the left shoulder when dogs moved out of the way. Spun her around and put another about 4" back from the first. She died. Shot a smaller 125 ish sow at about the same distance behind the left shoulder. Went about 20 steps and died. Works in my 30-30......I've used them on big boars. Shoot em in the shield and they don't pass through when there's a chance on hitting a dog on the other side. Usually find it against the hide or shield on opposite side.

i have a bunch of silvertips for my 358 and they knock the crap out of deer.

Had a friend give me his custom 300 Win Mag years ago (nice fella). He also handed me several original boxes of WW silver tip ammo. Need to try em out.

I wonder how the silver tips compare to the Remington Bronze Points? My buddy hand I split a box of 500 270/130 grain component bullets years ago. Unloaded mine at a gun show...never got em to shoot well.

I have a couple of boxes for the 257 Roberts. IIRC they are 117gr and possibly some 180's fpr a 300 H&H. I'll have to give them a try.

I buy them every time I see them.

You and me both. The closest thing I have is my 180gr powerpoints. My fwt loves them though...

I tried them in 30-06 150 grain and in 270 130 grain and they were REALLY awful. Complete explosive blow-ups on deer. I killed 2 deer with my 270 and 2 deer with the 30-06 and all 4 showed extreme fragmentation the likes of which I have never seen with any other bullets. I killed one deer with the 270 at about 300 yards and one at about 200, and the 2 deer I killed with the 30-06s were both at about 250.

But with the 30-30 in 170 grain and in the 300 grain 375H&H I had pretty good luck with them.

In all cases you get the aluminum nose fragmenting, but in the 30-30 I had good kills with exits on deer and the 375 did the same on elk and bear.

I believe the jacket is fairly thick on the 375 but that's just a guess, and the 30-30 kills were at around 75 and 140 yards and the bullet are blow enough to not blow up so suddenly as they were with the 30-06s and the 270s, maybe because they were going pretty slow at impact. Maybe is you loaded them in a 308 or a 300 savage they would not shatter, but I can't say for certain. I never shot anything with a silvertip 30 cal in the 180 grain weight.
The ones I shot were always very accurate and in one of my 270s, the 130 gr STs were REALLY accurate. Just sucked on larger game, but for shooting rock-chucks and jack rabbits they were really cool.

I used them for years with good results in 30 caliber for Wisconsin deer. Never had any trouble but also do not recall any recovered bullets to look at.