Winchester Silver Tips for my LH 24-3...Opinions?

walkin jack

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I have recently acquired a beautiful Lew Horton .44 Special. The seller is a serious devotee of the S&W N-frames and strongly recommended the Winchester Silver Tip as an ideal PD ammo.

Do y'all go along with this or is there something that might be better. I'm not considering cost as a factor in this decision. What I'm looking at is what is the most affective round for the .44 special.

I appreciate any and all info and comments. Thanks.
 
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I have the exact same gun, and it is a joy of an N frame to carry. For general carry, I like the Winchester Silvertip, I have always had good accuracy. I also like the Speer Gold Dot. Either is a fine load for self defense, and comfortable rounds as far as recoil go. Enjoy
 
Winchester Silvertip is good!

I carried an S&W Model 696 for years and depended on the Silvertip as my defensive carry round. If I was hunting, it was carried as a back up to my rifle and it was loaded with a hand load consisting of a very hard cast (pure wheel weights) 250 grain semi-wadcutter pushed by 10 grains of Unique powder and a large pistol primer. This sent the big bullet out the barrel at about 1050-1100 FPS. Under 50 yards, this load would penetrate a medium sized deer from end to end and usually drop it in it's tracks. I wouldn't be afraid to use this load for self defense!
 
I use / used Silver Tips, Federal 200 grn swc hp and Gold Dot. Silver tips were soft shooting, no chrony but they had to be slow movers. I like the hollow points in the Gold Dot but the cost forced me to reload the G D a bit hotter than factory. (7 grns Unique max. ) Federal seemed the most accurate and good performance. If I buy factory, it will be the Fedral 200 grn, hp load.
 
I have recently acquired a beautiful Lew Horton .44 Special. The seller is a serious devotee of the S&W N-frames and strongly recommended the Winchester Silver Tip as an ideal PD ammo.

Do y'all go along with this or is there something that might be better. I'm not considering cost as a factor in this decision. What I'm looking at is what is the most affective round for the .44 special.

I appreciate any and all info and comments. Thanks.

200 grain Gold Dots do 910 fps in a 4.62" barrel. I imagine Silver Tips do about the same. Since you said MOST EFFECTIVE, I'd have to answer that the most effective round would be way beyond the 15,500 PSI SAAMI 44 Special max pressure limit. It's pretty easy to get 1100+ out of a 200 grain JHP without too much strain (however, it's certainly over SAAMI spec) and that load would be more effective. MidWay USA generally has Silver Tips (the bullet only-not a loaded cartridge) for sale. Someone who understands the 44 Special and pressures could whip you up a great load.

Also, since cost is not an issue, one of the boutique loaders like Buffalo Bore will sell you a "Heavy" 44 Special round with a JHP or a lead HP, but you wouldn't get to specify the details as you could in a reload.
 
Silvertips, Gold Dots and W-W PDX-1 are my top three picks for defensive ammo. Avoid the Hornady 180 grain XTP, the jackets and cores are WAY too stout and expansion is pretty much nil. I fired them into wetpack and water jugs from barrels of 3, 6.5 and 20 inches, and expansion just didn't happen. Gold Dots and Silvertips did well, even from the short barrel. Enjoy that LH, they are great guns!
 
Tested

many years ago. July 2, 2004. Gun was my 296.

Results can be found at Stoppingpower.net. In the test bed forum. Do a search for 44 Special.

Basics were this. 10 Percent Vyse Jello. Four layers denim. 10 feet. penetration 14", Recovered Weight 187.0 gr. Expansion .711.

This was the new (current) ST. Also tested the old from same gun. You could have reloaded the round, no expansion.
 
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