I have a quantity of old style 300 grain, .375 caliber Winchester Silvertips. I am considering using these in .375 NE 2-1/2 at +P velocities, i.e 2100+ fps out of a short 22" barrel.

Does anyone know what impact velocity these are designed to open at? I figure the impact velocity will be ~1900 fps at 100 yds and ~1675 at 200 yds. I think that should be fine. I seem to remember the greatest criticism of this bullet in the big .375 magnums was that it would open too much.

I'm hoping for an answer from someone who has experience with these on game, especially black bear.

The factory loaded them in the 375 H&H to 2550 fps in a 25 inch barrel if that is any help.

I wish I had a few of those if you have any to part with, 20-50 or even 10?

Sorry, but I only have a single old yellow box of 50.

They should open up at whatever the 300yd. velocity would have been with the old factory load.

I don't have any old catalogs but someone else here may have that information.

George

Thanks, George, I can look that up with the 2550 fps velocity airgun1 provided.

Okay, done. It works out to ~1800 fps at 300 yards.

So that means I should be fine with them in my rifle out to 150 yards or so.

My old 1967 Gun Digest says 1830 fps @ 300 yards. Pretty close figuring there!

Computers and software

My reference says BC is 0.318/0.324

Going back to that time, The Silvertips were reported to be awesome and others were extremely fragile. During that time the first ones were fragile, then WW toughened them up, and that went back and fourth up into the 1960s as I recall..and didn't apply to all calibers, its a mess and a guess how yours will work. but depends on what your going to hunt with them and you will know with the first hit which silvertip you have..Later on, not sure when, WW pretty much phased out the Silvertips with the Power Point, one of the great cup and core bullets of our time along with the Rem Corelokt.

I am, however, of he opinion that there is no such thing as "bullet failure" on deer size game with any .375 H&H bullet that I know of, if they don't open they will kill well enough with cross section and if they explode you will have an instant kill and lots of dark hamburger.

Thanks Ray, I am thinking of using these on Black Bear.

There are two basic types of SilverTips in 375. the older has a fairly round nose and has a slightly bronze coloring. these are the ones that had the reputation of opening too quickly. The newer design had a more pointed nose and was quite silver/aluminum/tin in color. these were a much sturdier bullet.

Good information there. I guess 20 or so Silvertips are the weak sisters relegated to paper and practice.

Here's a picture of the pointed variant of the 300 gr. 375 Winchester Silvertip bullet.

That is a "newer" one. They are well suited to H&H velocities.

If I was hunting black bear I would opt for the Nosler partition because of penetration..I want two holes on a black bear as they have so much hair that sucks up blood like a sponge and not much gets on the ground and they can run a good ways with any caliber and any hit sometimes..IMO getting that blood on the ground works best with two holes as opposed to one. Takes a lot of blood to show up on black timber swamp land in Idaho or damp draws in Southern Colorado for instance, those wet leaves and muck dilute the blood and make it hard to see, not to mention its dark in Idaho swamp bottoms. Same with winter haired elk until it snows. Never lost an animal that was hit properly but wasted a lot of time looking and tracking.