Vintage Imperial 30-30 w/ 170gr Sabre-Tips

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stickhunter

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Hi all,

I just received an old box of Imperial 30-30 ammunition that is loaded with 170gr Sabre-Tips. I thought it was a pretty interesting old box of ammunition, so figured someone else might be interested in the design/packaging --- I'm finding myself more-and-more interested in vintage/antique sporting goods. I was surprised by how small the box was compared to my modern 30-30 factory ammunition; this was a result of the "head-to-toe" packaging of the rounds.

I'm curious, has anyone had hunting experience with this ammunition, whether back in the day or in recent times? The plastic tips appear to be sound, so hopefully they'll still perform as intended. There's a bit of corrosion on the cases, so I'm going to polish them up and give them a try at the range.

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Cool old vintage ammo, I'm sure that blunt nosed construction will drop anything at least as well as a partition. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for big game in the woods.
 
I gave my neighbor a box and half of those exact shells 10 or so years ago. They were some old ammo dad had kicking around from years ago and I know he shot a pile of deer with them. The neighbor has shot 2 or 3 using them and said he really liked them.
 
I have 2 boxes of them, One is a dominion box, I remember back in the day they were the only thing Dad would use.
Some of the more experienced hunters on the sight will be able to verify their ability.

David
 
I have about 70 of those bullets as components. They are accurate and deadly at 30-30 velocities.
The expansion is classic, and I have not seen one fail to expand either.
The "Imperial" moniker came on board right around the time IVI took over production.
The Ammo in the Dominion boxes, and so headstamped, was the most consistent. D.
 
contaucreek said:
If I owned them I would not shoot them. I remember my Dad had a hunting vest with these ctgs in the bullet loops.
Click to expand...

Is that for "historic" reasons or functional/safety reasons? I'm all for keeping them for a display, but unfortunately I don't have the space for hunting/fishing room at the moment, so maybe an offer to trade on the EE might be worth attempting.
 
Stickhunter, I have about eighty or so of those 170 gr Sabre Tips left. Load them to 2600 fps for a friend of mine in his 308 Win.

He uses them for moose and caribou, lung shots only, and drops both like lightning! They pass all the way through on caribou, and get into both lungs on moose.

Ted
 
Eagleye said:
I have about 70 of those bullets as components. They are accurate and deadly at 30-30 velocities.
The expansion is classic, and I have not seen one fail to expand either.
The "Imperial" moniker came on board right around the time IVI took over production.
The Ammo in the Dominion boxes, and so headstamped, was the most consistent. D.
Click to expand...



Imperial came long before IVI
I still have some old CIL Canuck , Maxum & Imperial paper 12 ga shells
 
When I was young, Imperial ammo was the go-to brand. I shot a pile of "special long range"shotgun shells and several boxes of sabre-tipped bullets. I shot my first moose and deer with those rounds. Too bad the company went under.
 
I knew I had some similar CIL bullets in my reloading collection, so I dug these out of my 30-30 reloading supplies... 150gr Pneumatics (love that name!) and 150gr Sabre-Tips. Much like the Noslers, it looks like colour coding was used on the plastic tips to designate weight.

So next question - has anyone hunting with the pneumatics? How did they perform?

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Grand old cartridge. I have a half-a$$ed collection of old Dominion and Imperial, Canuck, Maxim, etc., ammo and boxes. Brings back a lot of good memories. CIL was all most people used around here in SE SK back in the day. The odd box of Winchester would show up, but not much of anything else.

I used that type of ammo in a Churchill .303, a Canadian Centennial rifle and carbine and a bubba'd 8x57. Smoked a fair number of whitetail.
 
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Performance of the 150 gr Pneumatic and the Sabretip were similar on game with the 30-30, both were fast opening bullets that delivered lots of shock on deer. In larger faster calibers such as .270, .303 and .30-06 the Sabretip was too fragile and quick opening to deliver good penetration on larger animals such as moose and elk. They quickly gained a reputation as a meat wrecker as they would leave huge areas of bloodshot meat. Most Canadian hunters tried them and then moved on to sturdier bullets for the more powerful calibres and bigger game. However the Sabretip had some following among .303 Brit. shooters because they fed so smoothly from the magazine and it was almost the only ammo you could buy that didn't deform sharp pointed bullets from recoil in the magazine.
 
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