Winchester Power Point vs Silver Tip vs Soft Point Ammo

[hometheaterman]

I've been shooting 165 grain Winchester Soft Point ammo in my gun and have liked it a fair amount but never gotten it to group exactly like I wanted. Close usually but not exactly like I wanted.

Anyway I tried some Winchester 150 grain Silver Tips as I accidentally bought the wrong thing. The biggest downside to these is they are $23 a box instead of $15 a box. Anyway I kept hearing my buddies saying how they were crap and they didn't like them. Well I tried them and I hit 6 times cutting one hole in another in about a 1" hole with 6 shots in it. That impressed me and was way better than what I've done before. I've done that before with maybe 1 hole then another hitting right there with it but not 6. I really liked this but they all had me convinced that they are too soft.

Then there are the power points which I'm not sure what the difference is between those and the soft points they are in 150 grain also.

Which should I choose? I'm hunting white tail dear and maybe black bear. I want something with plenty of knockdown power. Will the Silver Tips be fine for that? I don't want to miss a dear from using ammo that wont take him down. What about for the bear? Should I just stick with those or should I start trying the Power points in 150 grain?

[vabyrd]

Your buddies are full of it. I wouldn't worry a bit. I'd say the extra 8 bucks saved you from buying 3 or 4 other brands that might not shoot as well. Sell them the leftover 165's and be done with it.

[Hurricanespg]

You should be perfectly fine with the silvertips.

[RugerM77.270]

Your buddies don't know jack. The silver tips are great for deer. Your friends probably think that deer wear bulletproof vest too. Deer are very easy to kill. Put the bullet were it should go and watch your deer crumble. People spend hundreds of dollars and hours of time to find what you found by mistake.

[thndrchiken]

Winchester Silvertips were marketed as a controlled expansion bullet therefore making them somewhat tougher than the regular pp or sp's. In all honesty though, any standard construction bullet from an 06 or 308 will most definitely take any deer as long as the shot is placed properly. That being said my 06 likes the 180's.

[thommon]

I use Silvertips. They work just fine.

T

[Gangly]

I use the silvertips and they are DEVASTATING on deer. Every gun likes different ammo and your friend's rifles prolly don't like silvertips.

First, when it comes to "knowing things", friends can hurt you more than help you. If you do your own research, you will be surprised how much other information you learn along the waythat you didn'texpect to learn.

Secondly, accuracy is determined by so much more than a name on a bullet. It involves velocity, rotational rates, trajectory paths, weight ratios and distribution, cartridge design, etc. Bullet making/marketing is a very competitive field and engineers put a lot of effort into designing good quality bullets and cartridges, so its kind of silly to listen to a friend make such a broad statement about a bullet type when im sure the only experience he has with that bullet type is probably limited toone rifle. Im not saying that the bullet didnt perform poorly in his rifle, but you have to consider the probable fact that he has only used that type of round in only one of his rifles before deciding to tell people it wasnt a good round. Afterall, the silvertips are an extremely popular round and its for a reason, it's because they work.

If your rifle shoots them that well, then like mentioned above, you lucked out and saved a lot of money that most people spend looking for hte type of round that suits their rifle best. You should be happy and thrilled with your find so go out and shoot. Ask your buddy to come out and shoot with you, and after your grouping leaves his in the smoke, let him know what "crappy bullet" you are using.

[Pro-Line]

Ruger's right, deer are easy to kill...ANY hunting bullet will kill deer from any weapon 22 caliber and larger, given that you can hit where you aim.

$8 is a small price to pay when you consider that you knowto the inch where your bullet will impact.

[ButchA]

I tried Winchester silvertips and Remington Core-Lokt in my .308 and it didn't seem to group well, with the Core-Lokt's being the worst. Don't know why...

Then I tried Federal Premium Vital-Shok 165gr and haven't looked back. My Savage .308 absolutely loves Federal ammo. [8D]

[hometheaterman]

Now I can't get any of them to group together at all. I tried 165 grain soft points, 150 grain power points, and some more 150 grain soft tips. I've shot a ton of bullets as in 3-4 boxes trying to sight this thing in. I'm wondering if the scopes is bad. I had this Leupold scope and it makes it even worse when I think how much it cost me vs the $30 Tasco on my $150 muzzle loader that was grouping in the bulls eye about 1/2" groups. This rifle would hit the bullseye once or twice then would hit 3" high then 3" low then even with the bulls eye and to the left. I can't figure out what's going on. I'm using a sight vise to hold the gun but it still shakes some but I'm not sure that it does that much. I was shooting at 50 yards when I got it grouped like that and trying to do 100 yards now but I'm not understanding what's going on here.