Hi:
In a by gone era I carried W-W Silver Tip ammo in my S&W M29 service revolver and my B/U Charter Arms .44 Bull Dog revolver.
Is Silver Tips still available ?

Their website still shows it as available. It is hard to find. I prefer the Winchester Silvertip 10 mm 175 grain ammo for my Colt Delta Elites.

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U.S. Navy - U.S. Army, ret

I haven't seen a box of "Silvertip" ammo, of any type, for over 15 years. It may even be longer since I have seen them available. When I was the range master for my department I bought Silvertips for the calibers allowed. These were .38 special (125 gr), 9mm (115 gr.), and .45 ACP (185 gr.). Never had a shooting with them. I felt though that we were using the best that Winchester was producing. I believe that they were the product of the best technology then available.

But, technological advances have produced better rounds now I believe. Although I think that the Silvertip ammo is still a good defensive ammo it has been surpassed by the new Winchester Ranger line of duty ammo which has the "SXT" bullet (which looks remarkably like the old "Black Talon" of years ago which is what I replaced the Silvertip with). The now used 127 +p+ SXT is what my current department uses, as well as the 230 +p .45 ACP and the .38 special 129 gr. +p.

The old Silvertip was a good round. I feel very strongly that the round suffered from very bad publicity in Law Enforcement circles in this country after the FBI shooting in Miami in 1986. Very unfortunate but the one 9mm Silvertip did its job. Unfortunately only one round was a hit.... None-the-less, the ammunition manufacturers were spurred on to produce a better round and we are seeing these now in the CCI Gold Dot. Winchester's SXT as well as the other makers. It's hard to know if anything can surpass what is now being produced. I have a few boxes left of Silvertip duty ammo. I probably should shoot it up.

The Winchester silver tip was great ammo back in the day
for rifles and pistols.
However todays ammo is way better in performance. if
you can find it, great but remember the Florida shot out.....

and why it was rejected by the FBI.

I still buy .38 Super Silvertips for my .38 Super carry pistol. I have to work at it to find them.

Jimmy: For all intents and purposes Silvertip is still available, it is just called another name and has a slight modification to the tip. Winchester calls it, "Defender". After the undeserved blame the FBI placed on the performance of Silvertip ammo as one of many excuses they used for training failures at the Miami Shootout, Winchester marketing felt that the change was necessary. It probably worked out in Winchester's favor because of the resulting very close examination and resulting upgrades in all Winchester pistol ammo. ....

I do not know if the new Silvertips are the same as the older stuff for 35 years ago. I used the older stuff to take an antelope. I used 185 grain Silvertips in 45 ACP to drop a doe. I shot her 7 times at close range and she showed little effect. Five of the 7 failed to exit the 100# animal. Those 5 expanded very well however.

[QUOTE=Nevada Ed;139344224
If you can find it, great but remember the Florida shot out....
and why it was rejected by the FBI.[/QUOTE]

From what I have read, the fiasco was due more to poor marksmanship and tactics than ammo.

I did track down some 10mm Silvertips recently for carry ammo. It fits nicely between watered down 10mm and all-out hot loadings.

Winchester does special runs of Silvertip ammo. The last time they did a run was over 2 years ago and I bought several boxes of 145gr .357 Magnum ammo. If you want Silvertip ammo go to several sites that sell it and set a email notification for when they come back into stock. This way when they do a run the sites will email you, that's how I got them a few years ago.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Within the last 10-15 years Winchester has modified the STHP bullets with the exception of:
9mm 115 & 147 grain bullets
38 Super+P
357 Magnum
10MM
40 S&W

I have fired away most of my silver-tip ammo. It was getting very expensive and hard to find. I was using the standard pressure .38 Special in my M-38. Now days I use Hornady and buy on sale. Hornady has a good reputation here in Florida for resistance to heat, humidity and recoil.
Geoff
Who is concerned about reliable functioning.

Silver Tips were hot stuff back in the 80s. Its still available, but more expensive than some of the newer improved brands. I still have several 20 round boxes in 10mm and 50 rounds of 9mm that I bought many moons ago.

It is not my preferred self defense ammo anymore. Actually thinking about taking to the range and punching paper with it just to burn it up.

I have several boxes of 225gr .45 Colt STHP's I bought some time ago. I used to carry the .45ACP back STHP back in the 80's.

Just the other day, I found a lone box of 10mm STHP's at the LGS. I wish I could find some more of that locally.

I found this, if you want to pay insane prices!

Winchester Ammo 9mm Luger 9mm, 115gr, Super-X Silvertip Hollow Point, (Per 50) X9MMSHP $47.92

Winchester Ammo 9mm Luger 9mm, 115gr, Super-X Silvertip Hollow Point, (Per 50)

That's not bad. Cheaper Than D. has it for $58.41 + shipping. But seriously, you can find Federal HST for around $25 in the 50 round box. Or Speer Gold dot. Honestly, Silver Tips look cool tho.

In the 80s I carried Silvertips in my 57. Still do on those occasions when I break it out of the safe.

I have one box that I'm saving for the vampire apocalypse.

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Back in the early 90's my gun store owner friend advised that I carry something a little lighter than the 158 GR lead hollow points, or as you guys know the FBI load, that I had in my lightweight snubs. So I bought a box of 50, 110 GR winchester Silvertips and most are still in those guns today. Here is the kicker, retail price, $19.95 for 50 rounds!!!

I think for the standard velocity rounds that they were "in the day" they were very good. But they are surpassed today by better constructed bullets/powder etc. I have a bunch of leftover boxes that I bought through the years. I am giving them to friends/family for their personal/ home defense. I am using the new SXT "Ranger" now and am happy with it. Still, nostalgia-wise, I remember feeling pretty well heeled with the silver-tips!

No no no... You'll be sorry...

Its wood bullets for Vampires, and Silver Tips for Werewolves...

Larry

Alas, Werewolves are not effected by aluminum.

I forgot to mention that I dipped them in garlic first.

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

As a note, those high 1225-1250fps data on the boxes and internet...............
come from a 6" barrel.

The new improved 9mm 127 +P+ Ranger ammo out of a
G19, 4" barrel chrony's at 1198fps, in one of the you tube gel test.

Winchester is good ammo but do your home work.

Wonder if Warren Zevon ever tried those.
Think I'll get some for next time I'm out looking for a big dish of beef chow mein....

Watch out or you might run into Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner!

Got a couple boxes in 41 mag, thought they had a good reputation?


Charlie

You right. I better send for more lawyers, guns and money...

Ahh yes,,,the Miami shoot-out where several of our Female Federal Officers were killed in the line of duty, caused by the lowly caliber 9mm Luger cartridge we were mandated to carry on duty.
Several perps were hit but could continue to shoot at our female officers.
This really was the cause for the immediate design of the 10mm pistol cartridge which the male Officers like me really liked, but our female officers did not like due to the 10mm cartridge's very very stout recoil.
Soooo, the cartridge casing was shortened, and now it was called the 40 SW was born. Yes 10mm is .40 caliber. Many female Officers still hate the 40SW due to it's recoil.
Sooo, the hi-power loading and hollow point bullets became the caliber for all Feds.
I actually now in retirement, love to carry the 9mm caliber in my Kel-Tec P-11 with the waistband clip.
I also have a Kel-Tec P-40 pistol with the waistband clip on it, and sometimes carry it when I feel frisky. Yes,,,a hand cannon no longer made.
My issued Smith&Wesson Sigma sw40c stays in the car when I go outside my abode to go to Walmart for Rx's and groceries.
I keep the 40sw pistols in the house these days.
However,,my favorite caliber will always be the 357 Magnum though.
My retirement present given to me was a Taurus 715 titanium 2"bbl 7 shot revolver.

Respectfully I differ. I decided that changing caliber or power of handguns wouldn't have done much good. What the agents really needed was rifles.

That means that the idea of dropping back from the 10mm to the .40 didn't play any role in the Miami shootout.

To stay on topic, I read a few years ago that Silvertips weree tested along with other modern ammo and compared well in performance.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I've got them in my 30-30 but that thing hasn't seen sunlight in years so it's been a while since I've looked for ammo. Another one I need to get out and burn some old ammo and blow the cobwebs out. I got my first dear with it at age 14--Some 52 years ago. (Just thinking, the ammo could be 20+ years old.)

Winchester's rifle caliber Silvertips are a whole different thing than the Silvertip handgun JHPs. The rifle Silvertips have been around since just after WWII, I believe.

I carried the 145 grain .357 Silvertip in my 6 inch M-66 a good part of the time we carried revolvers. It was a good round. It had a very effective flash-reducing powder compared to most other Magnum loadings at the time (1980's). I never shot anybody with it but killed a lot of road-injured mule deer (a couple of big ones) and a fair sized Shiras moose with it. Very good killer. Injured animals like deer are harder to kill than healthy ones because they are already filled up with adrenalin.

The 175 grain 10mm Auto, 225 grain .45 Colt and 200 grain .44 Special were also great rounds, likely the most effective commercial loadings in their calibers available in the 1980-1995 era. Very few reported shootings with them but the few I had read about, the Silvertips in those chamberings did as well as anything and better than most.

I have 4 or 5 boxes each of the 125 grain 9 X 23 Winchester and .38 Super Silvertips loads saved up. They look like the same bullet in both. When I bought my Colt Government 9 X 23 upon introduction, the first batch of Silvertips fired their 125 grain bullets through the Colt's 5 inch barrel within 50 fps of the same velocity I got from Federal's .357 loading in my 4 inch Model 66.

I'm also pretty sure that my Seecamp .32 is loaded with midget Silvertips.

We are lucky to the point of overabundance of choices of great handgun ammo now, there are so many that should work very well, and I think Winchester's Silvertips really helped lead the way.

Cassette tapes and VHS were all the rage back then too. They served a great purpose but technology built on it and there are much better options today. Same with Silvertips.

I think it was back around the middle 2000's when I was discussing the SilverTip line with a Winchester LE rep at a gel shoot event. I asked why he didn't have any of it for testing/demo, and he said that they didn't give it to him for that purpose because it's wasn't being marketed as a LE round. He said that it didn't meet the ballistic testing requirements as well as their current LE lines, and was pretty much considered a commercial/personal defense product line.

He also said that the STHP line had been undergoing some revision, but he didn't have the details (because it wasn't among his promoted LE lines).

I used to keep the 210gr .44 Magnum, 200gr .44 Spl and 145gr .357 Magnum loads on hand back in the days when I carried a service revolver on-duty and mostly revolvers off-duty.

I still have a good amount of the older 145gr .357 STHP, as well as some of the 210gr .44 STHP, put back and I picked up a new box of the 145gr STHP within the last couple of years.

In recent years I've seen some .38 Spl 125gr +P and .380 ACP STHP appear among some LE inventory, and I've usually used it as range ammo.

The standard pressure 110gr STHP is one of my preferred rounds for my 37-2DAO (Federal 110gr & Hornady 125gr standard pressure loads are a couple others, since I only use standard pressure loads in that Airweight). I picked up some new 110gr .38 Spl STHP a little while ago, and I noticed that the nose cavity and mouth notching appeared different. Maybe a larger cavity and more notching? Quite a difference from the old days of the aluminum jacketed STHP.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer