Black Talon
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Black Talon was a brand of hollow point handgun ammunition that was produced by Olin Corporation's Winchester Ammunition division for a short-period during the early 1990s. The Black Talon brand was available in many common calibers including: .380 ACP, 9 mm, 10 mm, .40 S&W, .45ACP, .357 Magnum, and .44 Magnum but was pulled from the commercial market following outcry over the bullet's perceived "lacerating" wounding effects.
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[edit] Development
The round was developed and produced in direct response to a series of studies in the field of defensive handgun ballistics in the late '80s and early '90s after the FBI attributed the loss of two agents' lives and the wounding of five others in April 1986 to the failure of a single conventional hollowpoint 9mm projectile to stop the more aggressive of two suspected felons. The studies suggested the concepts of "stopping power," and "one-round incapacitation percentage" (the percentage chance that a human being would be incapacitated by the center-mass impact of one round), then considered to be reliable standards for determining a defensive handgun round's overall effectiveness, as proposed by law enforcement gun-writers E.P. Marshall and Ed Sanow, were not a guaranteed indicator of real-world performance. The only reliable method of target incapacitation, according to Dr. Martin L. Fackler and his International Wound Ballistics Association, was either the immediate disruption of brain/nerve function by a head or spine shot, or the infliction of enough soft-tissue and organ damage to cause the target to lose consciousness due to blood loss. The demand for more effective rounds was immediate and thunderous.
[edit] The "Talon" Effect
The round was one of several similarly constructed partially-jacketed hollow point bullet cartridges (including Federal Cartridge's Hydra-Shok, the Speer Gold Dot, and the Hornady XTP) that were developed specifically to produce both large terminal bullet expansion (mushrooming) on impact as well as deep penetration (to produce the maximum amount of organ/soft-tissue damage).
The Black Talon was, however, unique in that in addition to its terminal expansion characteristics, the copper jacketing of the bullet was cut at the hollow to intentionally weaken it, so it would peel back and flare out slightly into pointed six segments or petals upon impact with the target. The thick jacket material kept the tips of the jacket from bending as easily as a normal thickness jacket. The slits that weakened the jacket left triangular shapes in the tip of the jacket, and these triangular sections of jacket would end up pointing out after expanson, leading to the "Talon" name. The "talons" produced a lacerating effect upon the walls of the permanent wound channel the bullet produced as it traveled through soft tissue, ostensibly creating more bleeding and resulting in quicker target incapacitation (in accordance with the new ballistics test data). Besides being known as "Talons", others have also referred to this new generation of hollow point cartrige as the "Starpoint".
The bullets were coated with a black colored, paint-like lubricant called "Lubalox," and loaded into nickel-plated brass cases, which made them visually stand out from other defensive ammunition.
While the talons did perform as advertised, some studies suggest that their effects were found to be only minimally more effective than their talon-less brethren. Nonetheless, the reverse taper jacket did provide reliable expansion under a wide range of conditions, and many police departments adopted the round.[1]
[edit] The Marketing
Winchester Ammunition, in an effort to distinguish the round from similar competitors in the field, played up the appearance of the round by adding a black molybdenum disulfide coating to the bullet's outer metal jacket (as a dry lubricant) and playing up the round's effectiveness as a "man-stopper." This proved to be a questionable marketing strategy, since it invited the uninformed to associate it with the KTW Teflon-coated "cop killer bullet" bullet scandal.[2]
[edit] The Scandal and Beyond
The controversy over Black Talon took place in an era when the public was largely uninformed about the reality of the new bullet technology. To complicate matters, sentiment was already being heavily influenced by the efforts of anti-gun organizations such as Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI). The issue blew into a firestorm, with HCI, the media, and even some members of law enforcement vilifying the rounds and inflaming the public quoting statements from a Houston, Texas Emergency Room surgeon referring to the rounds as "being designed to explode inside a person like a thousand razor blades," with "most people having almost no chance of survival."
Winchester's "Black Talon" product name was eventually used against them. After a high profile shooting at 101 California Street, San Francisco in 1993, media response against Winchester was brutal. "This bullet kills you better", says one report; "its six razorlike claws unfold on impact, expanding to nearly three times the bullet's diameter"[1] – a gross exaggeration of the actual performance.[2] A concern was raised by the American College of Emergency Physicians, that the sharp edges of the jacket could penetrate surgical gloves, and increase the risk of blood borne infections being transmitted to medical personnel treating the gunshot wound. While possible, there are no recorded cases of such an infection occurring in relation to the Black Talon bullets.[3]
Such statements were mostly propaganda, but the public outcry was such that in order to avoid lawsuits and potential federal government action (including the possibility of an outright ban as had happen in the wake of the Teflon-coated bullet fiasco) Olin voluntarily removed the Black Talon handgun line from the civilian market in late November 1993. They also discontinued applying the black Lubalox coating and renamed the line "Ranger SXT." The rounded edges had no function effect on the terminal performance, but addressed the ACEP's concerns about possible dangers to medical personnel.
Even though Winchester voluntarily pulled Black Talon from the civilian market, they were subsequently sued for another 1993 shooting, this one in New York, involving Black Talon ammunition. The suit claimed "negligent manufacture, advertising and marketing of a product that was unreasonably designed and ultrahazardous." However, the court found that "The very purpose of the Black Talon bullet is to kill or cause severe wounding. Here, plaintiffs concede that the Black Talons performed precisely as intended by the manufacturer".[4] Since the bullet was designed to cause rapid incapacitation, and since it performed as expected, the lawsuit was dismissed.
They continued to sell it in their police and government lines, later modifying the design slightly and renaming it "Ranger SXT," and is still widely sold to, and used by, both police and civilians, as are many comparable jacketed-hollowpoint rounds. The "Black Talon" name has been removed from Winchester Ammunition's product line.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Marshall, EP: "One-shot Stopping Power." Petersen's Handguns 2(6), November 1988; 24-29, 68-71.
- Marshal EP, Sanow EJ: "Handgun Stopping Power: The Definitive Study", Paladin Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1992.
- Fackler, ML: "Marshall - Sanow Can't Beat the Long Odds." Soldier of Fortune, January 1994; 64-65.
- MacPherson, D: "Bullet Penetration - Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma", Ballistics Publications, Box 772, El Segundo, California, 1994; 18-23.
- Marshall, EP, Sanow, EJ: "Street Stoppers: The Latest Handgun Stopping Power Street Results", Paladin Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1996.
- Fackler, ML: "Book Review: Street Stoppers: The Latest Handgun Stopping Power Street Results: Marshall EP, Sanow, EJ." Wound Ballistics Review 3(1), 1997; 26-31.
- van Maanen, M: "Discrepancies in the Marshall & Sanow 'Data Base': An Evaluation Over Time." Wound Ballistics Review 4(2), Fall 1999; 9-13.
- Fackler, ML: "Undeniable Evidence." Wound Ballistics Review 4(2), Fall 1999; 14-15.
