Winchester SilverTips bullets??

my-handyman

I'm sitting here going though my ammo and came across a early box of .348 Winchester 250gr silvertips, the one with the Bear on the front. I'm guessing the age of the ammo is from the late 30's to mid 40's. I all so have some loose 250gr silvertips. Looking at the loose ones, I notice that some of the silvertips are very shiny and some of them are dull. Did Winchester ever use real silver in there early silvertips, then to save money they started to use a aluminum alloy? I may have to much time on my hands if I'm noticing things like this??[^] What do you guys think/know???
Thanks for your time.

nmyers

No, Winchester never used real silver, which is relatively soft, in their Silver Tip ammo.

The only time that you would want real silver in your bullet tips would be if you were concerned about vampires.

Neal

my-handyman

To funny!! How about Zombies??

charliemeyer007

IIRC way back in the day the NRA published a study on casting silver bullets for a handgun like the Lone Ranger. They made good hard hard bullets but you need to cut the spru while "green" or you would beat the snot out of your mold.

I think it was werewolves.

edit Thanks maybe I'll see if I can find that Gun World.

Ray B

Winchester did change the composition of the tip on the SilverTip. I forget what the change was, but older ones have a bronze hue to them while the new ones look like aluminum.

Ray B

The older types are the .277 on the left and the .375 on the right. The newer style, though now pretty much replaced by a variation of the Nosler Ballistic Tip, are the .277, .338 & .375 in the middle.

Bill DeShivs

Some Silvertips were regular copper jacketed bullets that were nickel plated. Others were aluminum jackets.

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by nmyers
No, Winchester never used real silver, which is relatively soft, in their Silver Tip ammo.

The only time that you would want real silver in your bullet tips would be if you were concerned about vampires.



Well, just to be clear here its WEREWOLVES that hate silver bullets.

Vampires hate sunlight, garlic, crosses, and holy water.

Get it right, because if you shoot a vampire with a silver bullet, he'll eat you. [;)]

Anyway, apart from novelty value to fascinate Lone Ranger or horror movie fans there is no good BALLISTIC reason to use actual silver in a bullet.

Yes, you *could* use it, but lead is a lot cheaper, softer (good for expansion and reducing barrel wear) and heavier (which adds ballistic advantage).

If you wanted something harder to modulate expansion, believe it or not unalloyed silver and aluminum have similar hardnesses, but unlike silver aluminum is dirt cheap.

If I wanted to create a "silver bullet", by the way, I'd just plate the outside of a conventional copper jacketed bullet with silver.

It would LOOK like a silver bullet, but it would be quite a bit cheaper, have all the ballistic advantages and trajectory of a regular lead core bullet, and presumably, since the silver coating would still come in contact with the wound channel, be equally effective in werewolf control. [:p]

richarda

It was GUN WORLD magazine, not the NRA, who dids the silver bullet experiment. It proved fairly difficult. Silver's higher melting temperature created problems using conventional casting equipment; on the other hand, its hardness eliminated the need for lube.

Ray B

I've been using Oregon Trail Lazer Cast bullets for years and they exceeded my high expectations. They contain silver as one of the eight elements in their alloy.

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by Ray B
I've been using Oregon Trail Lazer Cast bullets for years and they exceeded my high expectations. They contain silver as one of the eight elements in their alloy.


That's surprising. Apart from extra utility slaying lycanthropes, any idea why?

(I suppose its just to toughen the alloy).

Other than lead and probably tin/antimony what are the other elements?