Silver tip

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Atavar

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So I was going to stock up with another deer season coming and my beloved 180g Silvertips appear to be unobtainium.
It’s not a big deal as I have a bit over 100 loaded on the shelf but I would hate to run out in 2030.
Which bullet that might be obtainable would you guys recommend for .300wm and whitetail? Overkill I know but I hate tracking wounded deer. Never had to with this round.
 
So I was going to stock up with another deer season coming and my beloved 180g Silvertips appear to be unobtainium.
It’s not a big deal as I have a bit over 100 loaded on the shelf but I would hate to run out in 2030.
Which bullet that might be obtainable would you guys recommend for .300wm and whitetail? Overkill I know but I hate tracking wounded deer. Never had to with this round.
I highly recommend the Game King. Same weight class. Depends on if your barrel likes boat tails. I have Remingtons in '06, a Model 721 and a Model 30S, and they work well in both.
 
Winchester Silver tips have been discontinued. Lubalox coating can be a real
bi^%$# to remove from your barrel. My son shot them 2 years ago in .270 and they shot fantastic until he ran out. None were around and he shot some Browning SP. We couldn't hit a bull in the a#$. They went all over the place. My gunsmith said it was the Lubalox coating in his barrel that was giving us fits. Two weeks of scrubbing every other day, plus had to use a non-embedding bore polish call J-B from Brownells and finally cleaned all that coating out. When you have the time you now know what you will eventually have to do. Silver tips and copper clad bullets don't mix.
 
I've grown really fond of the 200eldx in my x-bolt and my Rem 700lr 300wm. I get sub moa groups with both. Before I switched to the Eldx, the Hornady 180 Interlock or the Nosler Accubond was my choice. GameKings have been good also, but haven't been able to find any in.30 cal for a long time.
 
Winchester Silver tips have been discontinued. Lubalox coating can be a real
bi^%$# to remove from your barrel.

Silvertips HAVE been discontinued, but the Silvertips did not have Lubalox coating. Silvertips were a cup and core spitzer with an aluminum cone cap over the exposed lead tip. They looked a lot like what we see in the new Hornady A-tips, but were only a cap pressed onto the bullet, rather than a solid aluminum tip. These were sexier than Core-lokts, but usually not as accurate, cost a bit more, and really only killed just the same - which is to say, they killed very well.

Ballistic Silvertips have not been discontinued, and DO have the Lubalox coating. The BST’s are Nosler & Winchester “Combined Technology” bullets, basically a Nosler Ballistic Tip with a grey polymer tip and a black Lubalox coating. These haven’t yet been discontinued. As a poly tipped bullet, these expand pretty violently - pretty gruesome - but also pretty effective.

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There was a time in my life when I kept a Silvertip stoked in my chamber while hunting with Ballistic Silvertips beneath it, as I had a couple of close range bullet failures with the BST’s, so if a deer came in close too fast, I’d anchor it with the ST, if they milled around farther out, I’d cycle one out and shoot the BST’s. They shot close enough to the same POI at 100yrds that I didn’t have to worry much. Eventually, I just stopped running BST’s into bone structures and my bullet failures went away.
 
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Which bullet that might be obtainable would you guys recommend for .300wm and whitetail? Overkill I know but I hate tracking wounded deer. Never had to with this round.

What bullets have not worked for you and how many do you need to get you a deer?

We are a pretty large community and lots of us have new, old stock.

Are you looking for these or the plastic tip ones?

image.jpg
 
Thanks Varminterror!
Saved me a bunch of typing!

There is a world of bullets better than the original silver tips.
I suggest a good, inexpensive cup and core for cost efficiency. Speer 180gr HotCor’s will give excellent performance. I’d recommend IMR4350. Not the fastest powder (velocity yield) but excellent accuracy.
FWIW; I bought 1,000 Remington Corlokts at $0.08 each in 2005 to use as inexpensive “burners” in my .300RUM and several’06’s. Decided to see if they’d ‘blow up’ at the extreme velocities of the RUM (26”bbl, 105.0gr of WC860, 3,325fps m/v). They didn’t! Pleasantly surprised me!
Besides, they are the most accurate bullet I’ve shot through my .300RUM, except for some 200gr Swift A-frames in Remington factory loaded ammo. $$$!

Nosler Accubonds, Partitions, Swift Scirocco, A-frames, Barnes TSX, TTSX if cost is no object.

I got my elk this year with the lowly Sierra 165gr Game King @ 3,000fps from my Colt Lt.Rifle .30/06. 150yds. Completely penetrated on broadside heart shot. Broke both front legs. 400lb cow.

Deer aren’t bulletproof. My “deer” bullets from my .30’s are either 150gr or 165gr PPU soft points.
I bought them in bulk several years ago for ~10cents each...
Don’t over think it...
 
If you continue to use 180's in your 300 WM I doubt that there is a bullet made that wouldn't kill a whitetail. I'd drop down to a 165 for deer, and again don't think the brand would matter too much.

The downside to a regular soft point is that the tips get mashed in the magazine.
 
I know you guys will rag on me but the main reason I like the ballistic silver tips in the nickel case is that they’re pretty.
Really a bad reason for choosing a hunting round but hey….
 
I know you guys will rag on me but the main reason I like the ballistic silver tips in the nickel case is that they’re pretty.
Really a bad reason for choosing a hunting round but hey….
I'm going to have to agree with General mattis on this one and say our purpose is effectiveness in the feild.
 
I'm going to have to agree with General mattis on this one and say our purpose is effectiveness in the feild.
They have been pretty darn effective in the field. Haven’t had to track a deer shot with them yet. All drt.
 
Win BST’s are effective for deer. The pretty nickel cases might not make them MORE effective, even though it does make them more aesthetically pleasing, but the CT BST bullet does a great job anchoring deer.
 
The most recent Winchester Silvertips (not the original Silvertips dating back to before the 1950s with the tin cap over the lead point) are effectively Nosler BallisticTips with Winchester’s secret coating. Terminal performance of the two should be identical.




.
 
So they're pretty AND pretty darn effective. Pretty good two-fer fer ya there.
The pretty does have it’s down side. They are pretty flashy and sparkly when stalking.
The biggest problem is the bullets are unobtanium so I can’t make more. A0A39372-141C-4C4C-82FE-9FDBA72FB6F3.jpeg
 
I don’t load for .300wm but do use Nosler BTs, not accubonds, for deer in 30-06. From what I’ve read on Nosler’s site is the BT is for thin skinned game like deer, the Accubond for thicker skinned like elk. Of course, any bullet in the right spot will work.
 
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