If anybody here is in love with Winchester .30 150 Silvertips, I found a stack of them on sale at a LGS. $15/ box. I grabbed a box for general purposes, I can go back and get more if you want some. 5 or 6 boxes left. Let me know before Saturday afternoon as I'll be gone from there then.

Wish the were 190 grain, I take a bunch!

That sounds like a good price. A buddy of mine loves them but we can't mail order out here.

If they were 190's I would have grabbed them all for you guys. (I shoot 190's that I make.)

Jeff, you mean you can't mail order components? One more reason for me to stay the heck out of California.

I'll take you up on the 5 or 6 remaining boxes. PM me please.

We can't mail order ammo. I'm not so sure about the components, though I think they are okay. Were these just the bullets? Even so, I don't seem to run across bulk Silvertips too much. I have a bag of 150s in my stash someplace. Bulk Remington Core Lokts yes - at least a few years ago yes. We do have an extra layer of bologna out here, but there are other things about this state I wouldn't trade for much else. You just have to stay out of the major urban areas to find them.

Years ago I stopped at a Cencex in Fesseden ND. They sold ammo. Low and behold they had 4 boxes of 190/303 ammo. I called my cousin and asked him he wanted them. He said no, I have 200 rounds. Even at 10$ a box.

I always thought 190 Silvertips were made of unobtanium.

Very nice of you to offer Greg. This community rocks!

Huh, never heard of 190's - I think I have a bulk bag of 180's though

I'd take any that are not spoken for !

plab

Note I said these are 150's. No 190 Silver tips.

I shoot 190's in .303 and .30-30, but cast not Silvertips.

Not to add to the confusion I may have helped create, but I always wished that Winchester had sold their .303 190-grain Silvertips in bulk.

It's a moot point, Plan. Went over at lunchtime and they were gone already.

I bet some lurker nabbed 'em. I tell ya', we're being watched...

They would've had to hit all nine shops in a ten mile radius of where I am this weekend.

I have a few boxs of the 190 silver tips got them along with an A in 303, I haven't taken a 303 out hunting yet so my question would be how they worked whitetail or bear.

A pal and I bought about 1000 of these years ago.. Trouble is the are not all the same, but they shoot great..

Years ago I bought a bunch of 165-grain Remington Core Lokts and found that there was a wide range in bullet weights per bag. I also came to the conclusion that bulk Core Lokts in .30-caliber didn't really seem to like being pushed at velocities greater than the .300 Savage - at least for purposes of putting small groups of holes on paper at 100-yards.

I missed out on the whole 190 Silvertip/.303 Savage experience. I went straight to 190 flat nose and 180 round nose cast bullets in mine. You can drive soft cast 190's at factory velocities in both .303 and .30-30- with all the benefits at pennies per shot and equal or better accuracy. What's not to like?

Gary,what mold do you use for the 190 flat nosed?

A custom Saeco I had made up over 30 years ago.

how does it compare to lymans 311644? i have had good results with that one. i have a 03 springfield that the only bullet down its throat has been this one. at least since i have had it. 50+ years

More like a 311281, only heavier. I'll take a pic when I get home.

If you're using 190-grain bullets in the .30-30, may I ask what powder and charge weight you employ? I have a Lee 200-grainer that I'd like to try in my H&R .30-30.

28.0 gr. 3031. The same load in .303 Savage.



Sorry for the poor image. The Nikon isn't in the mood for closeups tonight.

When it comes to shooting cast bullets in .30 cal's used for hunting, the heavier the better. There is a threshold velocity with any alloy that once exceeded velocity will fall off dramatically and leading will occur in the bore. With alloys suitable for expansion in game animals, that threshold is right around 2000fps, give or take. (There are many exceptions to that rule, I know, but is a decent rule of thumb.) It doesn't matter what the bullet weighs, it's the alloy that controls it- you get the same threshold whether it's a 100 grain or 200 grain bullet of the same alloy. Ergo, to achieve decent "killing power", one has to go heavy. (You still need flat noses, or hollowpoints, or at least round nosed bullets though. Cast lead spitzers don't expand as well.)

That's why the .30-30/.303 Savage can be loaded to factory ammo performance levels with cast bullets (at a small fraction of the cost of jacketed bullet ammo)- but one must do it with heavy(ish) bullets. You couldn't quite get there with 150 grain bullets cast soft enough to mushroom on impact. (The factories claimed 2000+ fps with 190 gr. .303 loads. I never realized better than 1900fps in my 1899H, and often less, back when I was hot to trot for chronoing everything I could get my hands on. My aforementioned hunting cast load squeezes that velocity.)

Obviously this can't be done with hotter cartridges- equaling factory ballistics with soft cast bullets that is. (Now don't start yammering about paper patching, powder coating, 2-part bullets, etc. We're talking basic no-frills stuff here.) That's not say you can't use these protocols in .300's, .308's, '06's, etc.- I have and will do so again. The thing is the performance level will be down in the .303/.30-30 class as a result.

What sent me down this path was something an old mentor preached to me. His name was Frank Marshall (who would be around 100 years old if he were alive), and he was an avid bear hunter in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. His favorite bear medicine: a ratty old Savage 340 .30-30, shooting a soft cast 210 grain RN bullet, the old Lyman/Ideal 311284. Powder charge: all the old gov't surplus 4831 he could squeeze into the case. (You can't get enough of that super slow burning powder into a .30-30 case to get yourself in trouble.) Velocity probably didn't exceed 1800fps, give or take. More than a few bears, and a metric ton of deer, fell to that rig. That gun ought to be in a bear/deer hunting hall of fame. (He was an avid shooter/collector and owned many fine rifles, but that one was his "meat gun".)

Stop and think about it. These loads nip at the heels of the old .30-40 Krag government load of 220 grains/2000fps- and that load was considered to be King of the Hill for hunting for a long time (and in some quarters still is).