.357 Magnum Winchester 145 Grain Silver Tip (Any Good?)
The 1980s. Ronald Reagan occupied the White House and owned the Soviets. Bruce Springsteen ruled the rock charts. Miami Vice ruled the TV ratings. Winchester’s Silver Tip sought to revolutionize defensive handgun ammunition.
Offered in every standard caliber from .32 auto through the mighty .44 Magnum, the Silver Tip promised devastating expansion with reduced law suit bait over-penetration. Plus, it carried an attractive price. “What’s not to like?” thought law enforcement agencies around the county. When the FBI issued the round in 9mm, it sealed the deal.
Then came a hot day in Miami in 1986. Two bank robbery suspects decided they didn’t like the FBI’s offer to go to jail. Fifteen minutes later two agents lay dead, several more suffered severe wounds. The robbers did get their wish, though. Rather than a jail cell, they stretched out on stainless steel tables in the morgue.
The extensive post-incident inquiry knew one thing for sure. A 9mm Silver Tip fired by Special Agent Jerry Dove had gone through one suspect’s bicep, ripped a lung apart, and then stopped mere millimeters from the heart. This suspect stayed combat effective long enough to wound some agents and then kill Dove and his partner before he too assumed pavement temperature.
The main-stream gun press got wind about this one bullet and declared both the 9mm and the Silver Tip abysmal failures. Despite the fact the Silver Tip had performed exactly as Winchester’s engineers designed it. Not the first time media types refused to let facts get in the way of a good story line.
The FBI revised their bullet test standards to emphasize penetration over expansion. Then, in typical bureaucratic fashion, made a shambolic dash to the 10mm and a designed just for them Hydra-Shok load. The “Ten” proved too much of a good thing, and a few years later the Bureau knee-jerked into another bespoke cartridge, the .40 Smith and Wesson.
Since then, the very agency which nailed the 9mm’s coffin shut, resurrected it in 2017. The .40 fell off a cliff, and the 10mm Auto is now a cult unto itself. Through all this, Winchester kept the Silver Tip on the market, and it still has reasonable sales numbers.
We’ve already tested other Silver Tips with our exclusive “Frost Giant” gel test rig, and thought it high time the .357 Magnum load get some attention. This test simulates a cross-torso shot against a large-statured assailant who wears heavy, realistic winter clothing. It is a much more strenuous and realistic test than the FBI’s “heavy clothing” protocol.
Did we get a surprise! If you carry this load, you must watch this jaw-dropping video.
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At time of publication, LocaCarnivore had no commercial interests in any products or brands mentioned in this video.
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