Winchester 10mm Silver Tip (Old School Hero or Zero?)
Just as sharks have swam in the ocean for eons, Winchester’s Silver Tip bullet has endured longer than any other hollow point on the market. Save for the Hydra-Shok, it has no contemporaries in current production to my knowledge. The Hydra-Shok has evolved. Yet, the Silver Tip remains little changed: primordial, near timeless.
Trouble is, handgun ammunition has moved on. Newer, more sophisticated rounds now adorn store shelves: HST, FTX, V-Crown, Gold Dot, the list gets longer day after day.
A Bad Rep
By all rights, the Silver Tip should have disappeared long ago. Released in the late 1970’s, the Silver Tip promised a new era in handgun bullets. Designed to expand fast when it hit flesh in order to transfer as much energy as possible to the target, Winchester also claimed it would minimize over penetration. It took the law enforcement community by storm. Agency administrators were anxious to reduce potential liability and scooped up the new round with enthusiasm. This included the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They issued 115 grain 9mm Silver Tips to all agents who carried the also new Smith and Wesson 459 pistol.
Then disaster struck in 1986. Several FBI agents made a felony traffic stop on two suspected bank robbers in Miami, Florida. The robbers, determined to not go to jail, opened fire on the G-Men. Fifteen minutes later, two agents lay dead, several other bore severe wounds, and the suspects died as well.
Post incident investigation focused on the one robber who had killed the two agents. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the fusillade put up by the agents. All the rounds, save one, hit him in the feet and lower legs. The one solid hit had passed through the suspect’s bicep, shredded one lung and came to rest mere millimeters from the heart. This proved crucial. In the time it took for him to succumb to the lung wound, he killed two agents and wounded more.
The fateful bullet? A 9mm Silver Tip. Overnight it seemed, the Silver Tip became a pariah. Many declared both it–and the 9mm in general–guaranteed to get you killed if you carried them.
Enter the 10mm Auto
This whole Miami business spooked the FBI. They cast about for a weapon which could prevail in such circumstances and adopted the then still new 10mm Auto. Winchester, eager to redeem itself, developed a 10mm load to compete for the FBI’s affection. To make sure this would not suffer the 9mm’s fate, they loaded it hot — a 175 grain bullet launched at 1200 feet per second.
By 1996, the Feds had moved on to the .40 Smith and Wesson. Overnight the 10mm fell off a cliff in the market place. Yet, Winchester kept the Silver Tip load on the shelf.
Fast-forward to the 2010’s. The 10mm rose from the ashes, a Phoenix lifted by Alaskan game guides who rediscovered its ability to short-circuit angry bears. (Never mind the Danish Special Forces had issued it since the 1990’s for this purpose.) Now, the 10mm Auto is the new fan boy heart throb and most ammunition makers offer at least one load intended for self-defense against human predators.
Those, such as myself, who never abandoned the “Ten” asked, “What took you so long?” The Winchester Silver Tip is still with us. We wanted to find out if this Old School tough guy could still hack it. Watch our great video to see how it did in our exclusive “Frost Giant” test.
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