Should I, or Shouldn't I...? Black Talon

[Keith]

Ok this explains it

http://www.gunslot.com/articles/black-talon-ammo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rm9792]

My friends father is a Texas Ranger he mentioned it. I have no penal codes to back this up.

He is wrong. You can buy them at gun shows from dealers and individuals. I didnt know they were worth collecting. I have over a hundred of them I got in a trade years ago. I like the way they feed but know better rounds are out there now.

[Rebel]

Isnt the Black Talon body armor piercing? I see you can still buy why are they so exspensive?

The amount of bad information in this thread is insane.

No they are not armor piercing!!!! The reason they are expensive is they are no longer made and there is a lot of hype surrounding them.


Here is the deal, Black Talons were a hollow point that was brought to market in the early 90's. At the time it received lots of press because of the sharp petal design or "talons" and the fact that the bullets were black and supposedly teflon(which they were not) coated. The press ran with this and started airing reports of how these "body armor cop killing" bullets were the choice of criminals and how if someone was shot with one the "talons" would make it impossible to fix the wound, so even a shot in the foot would lead to death(I added the shot in foot part as an example of how bad the exaggeration was). It basically was a PR mess for Winchester and of course the feel good politicians wanted to start banning them to save the children.

So Winchester just pulled them, took out all references to "talons" stopped using the coating that made them black and reintroduced it as the SXT or Ranger T line.

There is no law that Black Talons cannot be sold or owned or used(except maybe in New Jersey, but that's all HP I belive). The Law Enforcement only wording you see on boxes is company policy, and is not legally mandated. That is why you see LE marked ammo online for sale all the time.

By the way the Ranger T/Black Talon ammo design is over 20 years old now and has been surpassed by many more modern hollow point designs, such as Golddots and the Federal HST lines. Both of which are far better choices of carry for home and CCW than the Talons are.

[rm9792]

Have to keep the hype up or they wont be worth collecting! You screwed that all up now.

[gigag04]

I heard that Al Queda was using the black talons to shoot down helicopters in A-Stan

[speedsix]

...I wear one around my neck on a black leather string to keep away purple dinosaurs...works well except at bedtime...

...there is no magic bullet...shot placement trumps it every time...

[The Annoyed Man]

I remember that part of the stink, at least in California, was that ER doctors were afraid that fishing around for a BT bullet with a finger in an HIV positive gunshot patient's wound channel would expose them to the risk of HIV because the petals on the expanded bullets were sharp enough to cut through a pair of rubber surgical gloves.

Of course, I never heard of this actually happening to any ER docs.

[Rebel]

I remember that part of the stink, at least in California, was that ER doctors were afraid that fishing around for a BT bullet with a finger in an HIV positive gunshot patient's wound channel would expose them to the risk of HIV because the petals on the expanded bullets were sharp enough to cut through a pair of rubber surgical gloves.

Of course, I never heard of this actually happening to any ER docs.

This was also one of the "evil but no proof of" features of the Black Talon, what I forgot to add was that the bullet became most well known from 2 shootings. The one I remember more vividly was the man on the train or subway that opened fire and killed several people.

[Limey Hooligan]

This was also one of the "evil but no proof of" features of the Black Talon, what I forgot to add was that the bullet became most well known from 2 shootings. The one I remember more vividly was the man on the train or subway that opened fire and killed several people.

Yes, that would be this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ferg ... _murderer)
Go down to the "Aftermath" section. Looks like he had some Black Talon to go along with his "Black Rage".

The Talon were definitely over-hyped, they are nothing but early, effective but now out-of-date hollowpoint bullets.

[Jumping Frog]

Winchester Ranger SXT is/was the replacement for the evil Talon.. Now called Ranger Talon I believe

Last time I was looking they are just known as the Ranger T-series. No mention of talon at all.

Simply going off the website to purchase said ammo..

http://www.tds-us.com/catalog.php/tds/d ... n_T_SERIES" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can have some random website call them "super-duper energy pills", but that does not mean that is the correct name.

Here is Winchester's description: http://www.winchester.com/Products/le/h ... fault.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are now called the Winchester Ranger T-series.