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!

Same experience here a couple rolled in their tracks.

Yeah, I just love to talk about this stuff.

I really like the idea of a 190 grain bullet. And that's just it- an idea. Any .30 bullet, cast or jacketed, heavy or light, moving at supersonic speeds is an awesome force of nature the like of which would tear any living flesh asunder. Sometimes we loonies tend to overthink this stuff.

I think the next frontier for me to conquer will be big soft 250gr. .45 bullets out of a rifle going 12-1500fps or so- think .45 Colt on steroids. Perhaps a switch-barrel 1899A TD short rifle (for the thicker barrel)? Take a .303 case and blow the neck out straight to .45. I think it would overshadow Roy's .225 Winchester for sheer "whomp" factor.

That or a .17 Savage.

I've decided I'll just reload for them. I kinda figured there wasn't any magic in a Silvertip.

What's it take to make 30-40 brass work in the 303? Turn the rim down? I've got almost 600 of those.

I would buy the correct brass, they have a long life

"What's it take to make 30-40 brass work in the 303?"

That reminds me of some discussions we had in the early days of the Forum that I would prefer to forget.

So you're selling it?

I remember those discussions. Weren't guys making them out of .30-40's, and something else I forget? And then PRVI brass became available and "poof" all the oddball approaches were gone. I remember one guy insisting that .30-30 brass was viable....

30-40 brass is way more scarce than .303 brass these days, Roy. I would scare up a .30-40 in order to use that brass . (Or sell it to me! )

Roy, just buy Privi 303 Savage brass, under 50cents each + shipping at https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/75913

My personal opinions are just that, MY opinions. But here is my logic. In the last 40-50 years, brass has come a long way. Much better today than yesterday.
Second, my hand loads are tailored to my specific 99s (1899s). If I buy old stock, I have to re sight for it, and re-sight for my tailored hand loads. Not worth it to me. If you want to buy em for potential collector value, so be it. But for hunting, which is my focal point, leave the ancient ammo to the collectors. If its 50+ years old, it will almost certainly go bang. Will it be consistent? I don't want to test that theory with a freezer fillin deer in my sights. Again, only my 2 cents worth. Having 50+ year old brass split necks on the first firing, when new brass hods up for 8+ firings is the casting vote.

I regularly use truly ancient brass. Some 1930's-vintage Frankford Arsenal .30-06 brass is some of the jewels in my arsenal, and 98% of my Lovell .22 wildcat brass is minimum 70 years old. .22HP brass from the 20's-40's, no problem. .303 brass from before WWII likewise. Anneal the neck/shoulders and go forth and bang away. Old doesn't necessarily mean frail.

Agreed.

Per one of our members, using 30-40 brass was a big no-no! Should only use .220 Swift brass.

Here is one of those postings.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/152990/1

Bought some 303 Sav that was shipped up from Oz back then. Still got it. Never used it.

Shot my first 303 this afternoon. Took the 99E out with the Lyman tang sight. Took a gander and roughly centered the peep, and guessed on height of the peep, and locked it in. Loaded me up 5 hoping I could get minute of small rock within two magazines full.

Leaned the old girl over the hood (careful, this is a family friendly forum here) and letter rip. Said rock exploded, chips and shards littering the snowy hillside. Savage Rock-B-Gone dialed with one shot. My work here is done, time to hit the rum and coke.

Why haven't any of you guys told me that 303's come pre-sighted in? Damn, think of the 30-30 ammo I coulda saved if I'd just went straight to tha tree OH tree.

I can ship you some 303 brass if you want to sell your factory stuff. I got some new privi I can spare.

You have to read the small print on the box for that. Now just be careful not to let any of the 30-30 guys know about it.

Pretty cheap, and you guys have said it was good stuff. Angus, you don't need to send me anything, you and the miss bought dinner, we're good.

I use 42 grains lever lotion powder 180 grain silver tips cci 200 primers.

I would recommend starting at the bottom of the 30/30 data with the lever evolution powder. For some reason I believe the Hornady FTX projectiles build up less pressure than the older silver tips.

I will study this more next time I get home.

I had good results on paper targets with Winchester 190 grain Silvertips. However on deer, I had one blow up on a nice 8 point Michigan White tail buck on a left front shoulder shot. Left a fair amount of blood that I tracked for 200 yards, until no blood. Lucky another hunter in camp shot the deer later that day and I identified by the severe shoulder wound. Looked really bad, but no penetration pass the front shoulder. I have killed deer with broadside lung shots with Silvertips. I had heard they blew up, could not believe what happened to me with 303 Savage velocities. But I stand by what I saw. I have had much better results with Hornady 150 grain Interlock Round Nose bullets. Killed several deer with them, full penetration with nice exit wound. No blow ups with Hornady Interlocks. I still think the Silvertips look cool.

300 Savage

WTH, did that deer have a titanium shoulder replaced by a veterinarian orthopedist?? That or you were lucky to get some bum bullets. Very strange bullet behavior. Sh*t happens sometimes I guess.

I don't doubt what you saw for even one minute.

It's possible that it hit something hard before it or a piece of it hit the deer.

That is certainly not a normal outcome for any 190 grain bullet travelling less than 2000 ft/s

Not making excuses for the bullet, but I seen some crazy sheet.

Funny, I've never heard anyone complain about any Silvertip of any persuasion being frangible. I remember my old man and his friends bitch*ing about Silvertips not expanding enough. Personally, I've never shot a Silvertip at any living thing so I'm not one to talk.

Do they count as anti-vampire medicine?

Heard the same Gary from my kin.

I shot a couple of deer with 170 grain silvertips in 32 Win special when I was a teenager. Can't say exactly what they did when they got to the deer other than killed it.

Crazy sheet happens when bullets hit flesh and bone though. I've seen it on many occasions.

And I believe vampires would be running scared of anybody with a loaded magazine of 303 silvertips...

I never have hunted with silver tips but I read they could cause a harvest event to end in tears.

Some joy, some not.


Gonna have to try em out on a few 2 decide.

I got around to doing some looking at the PPU 303 Sav brass vs Win 30-30 Win brass last evening. Here is what I found.

WT of new ppu--166.5 gr------wt of new win--133.4 gr. water capacity to top of neck of a fired, resized, and trimmed ppu case from a box of Graf's Hornady ammo plus a random fired primer from the catch pan of my press---42.7 gr. this case was 2.010 in long and weighed 169.7 gr with that fired primer. after scouring the loading room for a fired 30-30, I found one in the top of my range box of unknown provenance--may have been a range pickup but it was a Win manu. I sized it and replaced that exact fired primer. it weighed 144.3 gr and was 2.035 in long. water capacity filled to the top of the neck was 44.1 gr.

seems like Ken Waters found varying weights of win cases in his 2 nd review of the 30-30. These wts closely parallel his.
Hondo said-everyman should do what he wants to do
Davy said-make sure you're right and then go ahead
The newest of these girls are pushing 80. Reduced case capacities, Increased bullet weights. Fairly fast burning powder.--Kinda sounds like 14 karet gold, 90 proof bourbon, and 100 proof women! HANDLE WITH CARE

I would like to buy a box to try them for comparison to my handloads if you are willing

I'll put them in auction and see what the market says.

I haven't seen a box of .303's on the ammo shelf in years in the Midwest. I have seen the deeply discounted 99's in .303 just because ammo is so hard to come by. To my way of thinking, lots of old timers with a .303 in a 99 are the once a year deer hunters who don't reload anything and your factory ammo would go for premium prices. Those same guys don't trust reloads either, so I wouldn't be shooting them up if I were you.The Silver Tips won't oxidize like the lead will, so they won't be showing their age like a soft point. I think that you would get more enjoyment out of the lap dances.

I meant 33 grains leverlotion powder 180 grain silver tip.

My favorite lap dancer is probably retired now. She was making bank when she was working. Way better than I was!