Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters old school Winchester silvertip bullets?

Thanks for clearing that up, John. As I posted earlier, Winchester never made a 140 gr Silvertip.

While I never loaded it, I "heard" that the Silvertip Supreme was indeed a very poor bullet on game. My experience was that the regular 130 gr ST with the heavy jacket was performing so well, that I never looked beyond that.

Ted

Winchester DID make a 140gr 277 SilverTip, as MD said in the early 90's. I got a good deal on a a large supply years ago, and have taken a lot of deer with them.

Did you not see the evidence from Oehler's software? Would you like me to send you one?

Yes, I would like to see one.

Every Silvertip bullet I have ever seen, 270, 308, 303, 338, 358, and 375, had the bullet point covered in bright metal of some kind, usually aluminum, not exposed lead. My understanding is that that is where their name originated.

Are the ones you have exposed lead or metal covered?

Thanks,
Ted

Yukoner,

As I recall, the only Silvertip Supreme .270 bullet Winchester made was a 140-grain, apparently as a compromise between 130 and 150. Plus, some other companies were making 140 .270's by then, which were proving fairly popular, probably because rifle loonies are always looking to plug any perceived "gap," no matter how small.

And when they discontinued the Silvertip Supreme, it was replaced by the 140-grain Fail Safe.

Thanks John.

Did the 140 gr Supreme have an aluminum tip? If so, that's what southtexas must have.

Ted

I've tanked a couple of bull elk with the Winchester Failsafe .284" 140-grain bullets. Man, they died fast.

It wasn't long after they started making them and both Al Corzine and Glenn Weeks recommended them ... superb elk bullet, for sure.

Steve

yukoner,

Yeah, they pretty much looked like the "old school" Silvertips, except for the boattail.

When people say "old school"

Correct, they have the silver metal covering over the tip, and a boat tail. And the tip is a little more pointed than their old 130gr Silvertip flat base bullet

Yeah, they wanted to increase BC over the original version.

Those look cool, I bet those 150's would be a bit messy on game though......

Shot my first moose with the 220 gr Sivertip in a 30-06 around 1990 or so, it worked but I did have a jacket and core separation so started handloading and used the 180 gr Speer G.S. with good success after that. Shot a bear as well with the 220's and another with the 180 gr version and they seemed to work fine.

Yes, this is the reason success/failure has been and IS mentioned even in this thread. I've used the 'old school' ST with good success. Others not so much.

Here are some old school 30 cal 150 ST my son bought from Midway several years ago. Because of the uncertainty of performance I've not loaded any yet. I need to test these and get some idea IF I want to shoot deer with them or not.

I have a boat load of older silver tips but since I have never owned anything in .277 caliber, I have none of those. I have had good luck with them across the board. I have mostly used them in 30-30, 30-06 and 300 H&H. The 180 grain Silvertip did a great job on elk. No complaints with either weight in the 30-30.

My dad had a box of Remington Bronze points in .270. If there was ever a worse bullet for elk hunting in that caliber, I haven't seen it! Very messy!

my wife got her first black bear with a 300 hh and 220 grains. first and last we use it ... core separation too ...

I'm sure the extra speed of the 300 H&H did it no favours.....

dennis,

I had a 150-grain Silvertip from a .30-06 factory load come apart and fail to penetrate beyond the shoulder of a forkhorn mule deer at 200 yards. Found what was left of the flattened jacket against the ribs on the same side after I tracked him down and put another through the ribs--which exited. That was in the mid-1980's.

Could give other examples of both good and bad performance from original ST's, the reason I gave up on 'em. Some batches worked well, but others didn't--and it was hard to figure what would be the result.

I shot my first deer with a 300H&H and original 180gr. Silvertips, forkhorn whitetail at most 50 yds broadside. It ran a couple hundred yds, I found it down with its head up so shot it at the base of the ear. Nearly blew its head apart but the bullet never exited, head was like a bag of crunchy bone soup with eyeballs popped out of the sockets, drooping cockeyed antlers. First shot in the shoulder blew up just under the hide, with only bits and pieces of shrapnel penetrating into the heart/lungs. My girlfriends dad was showing me how to gut it and kept looking at the wound, couldn't believe how a gun/cartridge that big didn't go threw a deer, his 30-30 nearly always went clean thru.

Okay, got it! I stand corrected, and appreciate learning something new today.

Have you tried them on game at all?
Ted

I have heard that but the few animals I have shot with them have been perfect kills. I have quite a few old rounds from the 70s and 80s. Seemed like a good idea to hang onto them!