Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What about Win. Silver Tip 145 gr 357 mag ammo

Always good to hear from someone with field experience. That is the load that stays in my 3" 66. They are getting hard to find.

Ernie

I would stay away from them, without some evidence they are not what they were back in 1992... There is a famous case of a police officer (Trooper Coates) being killed in South Carolina, when four 145 grain silvertips from his service revolver stopped in the fat guy's belly fat -- the officer was killed by a lucky shot from a .22 that entered his armpit and severed his aorta.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs3.htm

In November 1992, South Carolina Highway Patrolman Mark Coates shot an attacker four times in the torso with his 4 inch Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver. His attacker, an obese adult male who weighed almost 300 pounds, absorbed the hits and shortly thereafter returned fire with one shot from a single-action North American Arms .22 caliber mini-revolver. Coates was fatally wounded when the tiny bullet perforated his left upper arm and penetrated his chest through the armhole of his vest where the bullet cut a major artery. Coates, who was standing next to the passenger-side front fender of the assailant's car when he was hit by the fatal bullet, was very quickly incapacitated.

After Coates was hit, he immediately ran several feet, scrambling around the front of the assailant's car while simultaneously radioing dispatch that he'd been shot. As he neared the driver's-side front fender he suddenly collapsed onto the pavement.

Trooper Coates fired four 145 grain Winchester Silvertip .357 Magnum bullets directly into his assailant's heavy abdomen, achieving solid hits with each. These particular bullets penetrate deeper than 125 grain JHPs, however none ruptured any vital cardiovascular structures. During the initial ground struggle, Coates was shot twice, but his vest protected him. After fighting off his attacker, Coates quickly climbed to his feet and emptied his revolver. At that particular moment the assailant was still lying on the ground. The combination of the assailant's obesity and the unusual angle at which the bullets entered his body worked to the disadvantage of Trooper Coates.

Another thing regarding the Trooper Coates incident; at the time it happened the information was that he was using issued .38 Special ammunition in his .357, NOT the load that is the subject of this thread. I was never able to recover a bullet from all of the critters I shot with the 145 gr. ST. Typically a deer shot through the chest would have a quarter sized exit hole on the far side.

Nothing that can be fired from a handgun will stop a determined assailant, unless it hits a critical spot.

The Coates video is chilling, painful and pitiful to watch. He was a brave man and a hero.