I'm looking for information. I seem to recall bronze point bullets are coveted by some, for an unknown to me reason.

I'm digging through a bunch of reloading stuff left to me by my father in law, and there's a couple of boxes of 30 cal bronze point remington bullets.

What is the reason these are desirable, if I'm remembering right?

They were marketed to be slower expanding and deeper penetrating than Coreloks. I can't say I noticed any different performance on deer.

Not really sure of the reason.

I have some, from different manufacturers.

Holland & Holland used them too.

I suppose they are no different to the present plastic tipped bullets.

They expand, but have a protected point, unlike lead soft point.

I used the Remington Bronze point for a yearor two back in the day, you could buy the bullets or loaded factory ammo..Cutting through the yakaty yack and high praise by those that shot a deer or two with them and had wonderful quick kills, they were in fact soft..I had some great kills with them on deer then about every 4th or 10th deer, whatever, that I shot the bullet blew all to hell on the skin surface, and long tracking jobs insued, several were lost..they were not consistant and thats always been a problem with bullet that react like a varmint bullet on big game...The best bullet of that era was the WW open point expanding bullet, I have about 10 boxes of those bullets, not real accurate but their killing is impressive for sure, although I don't use them today. we also had the corelokt and WW power point of course and they were a great bullet then and still are today..today we have all manoror great bullets.

Yep, the bronze point enhanced expansion it seemed. Might have been caused by hitting a bone instead of soft tissue don’t know but when they came apart they came apart fast.

I personally never used the bronze points, but hunted with some people who did and were pretty handy with a rifle. The only thing I saw out of them is that they were pretty fragile and tended to make nasty holes in Bambi. I did not see any deer shot with them where they provided deep penetration and what I considered good performance and at close range they were particularly messy. I would use them for varmints or paper, but not something I intended to eat.

I ended up with a few hundred 150gr .308 in a deal I shot everything with them.

I was poor back them I found they killed just fine. But my experience with them was that they were a fast expanding bullet.

A friend used them to shoot pigs. Tough on a meat grinder. Even harder on teeth if they made it through the grinder plate!

No doubt I pushed them too their velocity limit, had poor results with the 30-06 and especially the 270...The lesser velocity of the .308 might be the answer..

Thanks. What I hear is "good gimmick to increase expansion, there's much better bullets available today".

Pretty much what I thought!

Bullshit,
Nothing wrong with bronze points, have shot deer, and elk with them.
Still have few thousand Dad bought in bulk years ago, 270, and 308

Always amazes me to hear about all the young, (and old too) guys have to have the latest solid brass bullet, when back in the dark ages of the 50s and 60s we killed everything with Core locks, power points and silver tips. Didn't know any better I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Always amazes me to hear about all the young, (and old too) guys have to have the latest solid brass bullet, when back in the dark ages of the 50s and 60s we killed everything with Core locks, power points and silver tips. Didn't know any better I guess.

Indeed.

And who would guess that earlier there were folks who got their game with calibers like the .25-35 and .32-40 using even more primative bullets. Go figure . . .

I shot my first deer with a 130gr Bronze Point in a 270. Worked well, and the best part was I found the tip, pretty much unmolested, under the off side hide! I'd shoot them again if I could get my hands on them, but the weirdos who collect them want an absurd amount for a box of 50.

Elmer Keith had nothing good to say of the Remington 180gr bronze point in the 30-06, saw too many animals hit with this bullet resulting in long tracking or lost altogether.

Elmer Kieth had nothing good to say about any caliber under 33 and considered 300 magnums "pest guns". He also said the 270 made an adequate coyote rifle. Which I agree. Jack Conner said Bronze Points either penciled though or blew up. I used to read both of them in the 60s and have all their books.
EK liked big calibers because they "Let a lot of air in and a lot of blood out".
Just making for good reading.

The Bronze Points were the ancestors of the Ballistic Tip, SST and hand fulls of other current hollow point bullets with a solid plug. Just as the Hoxie was a predecessor to the BP. Used appropriately they will kill well. Just like the original Ballistic Tips they seemed on the soft side, but they worked.

If shooters didn’t take advantage of modern bullet technology, we’d all still be shooting lead round balls. “Back in 1820 they killed everything just fine, didn’t know any better...”

Elmer could be a fool. He condemned the .30-06 as a terrible deer cartridge. The .375 H&H with the Speer 235 was a woodchuck round. It goes on and on. He was an expert for his time, a time now long gone...


.

If you look close in the pictures of Elmer and his critters.... many were hit, around the edges, so to speak. A big hole in an animal hit to far back, or low, may let guts out quicker. A shot in the vitals is better yet.

I wasn't promoting Elmer or his views, just contributed to the post that he was an experienced hunter who himself used and observe use by others of the Remington bronze point bullet, in particular the 30 cal, exactly what the OP was asking about.

If my memory serves me, I think Pondoro Taylor was another hunter of note who didn't like bronze tips.

My post wasn't aimed at you eagle, simple pointing something out. Elmer did a lot of long range shooting with iron sights at game, early on. Many hits were not that well placed, so something that tore a big chunk out might have helped game recovery.

All I can tell you is that the bronze point was a too soft bullet, those that say otherwise just didn't shoot enough deer or elk to know that, you will get blow ups on game sooner or later, be it a coyote or elk, they would blow up at times. and early balistic tips had the same habit..I have been told todays balistics are excellent game bullets, but I'll pass on them..

Ive always seen bronze points and silver tips as gimmickry. Too inconsistent for my liking.

I keep coming back to plain Jane cup and cores. They still work just fine for my needs and always perform just as anyone with a little common sense might expect.

Wstrnhuntr---Hadn't seen you around for awhile was wondering about you.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
Wstrnhuntr---Hadn't seen you around for awhile was wondering about you.

Hey Carpetman. Life happens, you know how it goes. Always come back around to the roots though.

You still using them old B&L binocs?

quote:

What is the reason these are desirable, if I'm remembering right?

I have two boxes, one box of .30 cal. and one box of .270 cal.. I never used them because of the way they were stacked in the box; If I loaded 10 rounds 40 of the bullets would fall and then look like a box of Sierra bullets.

F. Guffey

In which case you got cheated,A bronze point is just that, a sierra is HP or lead exposed spitzer.