Look what I forgot about on the back shelf CIL/Dominion classics..Why am I reloading?

kilohertz

kilohertz

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
7   0   0
Location
Planet Earth, left part of Canada, Brokenagan
I have been working up loads for 2 rifles in 30-06 and started to think....wait a minute, I have a box of these around here somewhere...why am I buying bullets, primers powders etc when I have this stuff to shoot. Save my reloading time and materials for some of my other calibers. These were top notch in their day, no reason why they wouldn't work just as well today. After all, my rifles are from the 60's, why not the ammo? :rolleyes:

What has been your experience with these various CIL/Dominion/Imperial cartridges, performance, accuracy etc. ? I think I have all 4 varieties of the times, Sabre Tips, KKSP, CPE and PSP. I also have 2 boxes of CIL bullets for reloading, 150gr Sabre Tips and 180gr PSP. Note the prices, from Woodwards, $4.59 for a box of 20. :rolleyes:

How do these compare to some of the "modern" bullet designs? Should I hunt with them or sell to a collector and keep reloading?

Cheers

DSCN5361.JPG
 
You should take pictures of each kind of round and post them. Lots of young'uns never got to see ANY kind of domestically made ammo before. To some, a Sabre-tip is something from the Ice Age cartoons. (My memory is vague also.........developing a bad case of "sometimers". ) Then, you should do up a bunch of "collector packs" with one of each type of ammo in the pack. Wanna bet you could make more than "$4.59 per 20" !!!!
 
Projectile technology has come a long way since 1960. Shooting it off, seems a waste. Using it on game, iffy, since the cheapest part of a hunting trip is the ammo. The sabre tips got a really bad reputation for on game performance, so bad in fact that it influenced hunters acceptance of tipped ammo for decades.

To me the best idea has been suggested above....collector packs. Use the money to either buy value ammo for plinking or premium for hunting.
 
Love the photo! What a nice surprise to have sitting on the shelf.

If it's about the money my opinion is that you sell them and use it to fund your reloading endeavours. Looks like you're sitting on several hundred dollars of unique ammunition. That should get you a bit of reloading supplies. On the other hand it doesn't cost you anything sitting in the boxes.
 
HI Guys,

Thanks for all the thoughts. Going to go to the range this weekend and try the one partial box to see how it shoots in my Voere and Husqvarna, then give it a try this season for our deer. I have enough that I can still sell it to a collector and use the $$$ for reloading. I have had it for years and it doesn't owe me anything, nor was it my Unlce's or Papa's so no sentimental value. I may just package it up as suggested and sell it off to collectors....or if it gets me a deer or moose, may hang onto it if it performs well. :confused:

Cheers
 
Sabre Tips worked great until you hit bone and then became little bombs. The rest worked great not matter what you did with them. I still have a bunch of it sitting around also. The brass was great for reloading also.
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that ammo for hunting if your rifle shoots it well. Sure the manufacturers are making better bullets than they used to back in those days but those bullets weren't so bad you couldn't trust them. As for Sabre Tips having a bad name, most of that came from poor shooting rather than bullet performance.

I shot a lot of deer/moose/bears with Sabre Tip Ammo as well as Copper Tips etc. The brass should be checked for cracks around the case necks first but IMHO that is good stuff and fine for most hunting out to 400 meters if you are fine out to 400 meters.

Start shooting when ready. Most of those boxes look t be pretty tattered so they aren't great collector specimens.
 
My favorite round was the 180 gr. CPE (copper point expanding) used them for 30 years and never failed me. The later years had to use the Remington 150 gr BPE's. Only chase the whitetail now so went to the 7mm-08.

Good luck with them.
 
The KKSP bullets are good reliable soft points, always expand, always penetrate. The tipped bullets, both Sabre tips and CPE were more erratic in my experience. Assuming brass has not become brittle and the powder has not deteriorated ( I have some 7x57 from the same era with those problems) any of that ammo would work OK for deer, but for bear and moose etc. I would use more modern and newer manufactured ammo.
 
I wouldn't think twice about tossing that lead at fur.
Even with these new dang tuff kritters out and about and
their reezzilliance to lead.

:wave:
 
Thanks guys, appreciate all the continued interest in this thread and all the stories of good hunts with them. I will get out to the range WX permitting and shoot some rounds, see how they handle. Not sure if pics will do any justice..my bench skills are still being honed. :rolleyes: However, if they (I) shoot well, I'll post pics, :d So brass can go brittle just with age?? I'll make sure to check each one before firing.

Thanks again!

PS, if I get a chance, I may just get a bunch of telephone books or newspaper bundles and soak em, and do a similar test to the fellow who made all the .264" bullet tests in the sticky in the reloading section, just to see how they compare.
 
Last edited:
I almost hate to admit it, but I hunted with all of that ammo when I was considerably younger, lol.

The KKSP was an awesome bullet in it's day. The CPE was, as mentioned sometimes erratic.
The SabreTip was fragile, and caused horrendous meat damage, particularly if a bone was hit.

The ammo in the "Dominion" boxes was very good quality for the time, The Imperial marked stuff had gone downhill a bit.
The Remington Corelokt was a great bullet, and was renowned for staying in one piece.

You have a shelf full of nostalgia there. :) I'm sure many on this forum have never seen most of those boxes.

Regards, Dave.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom