This "FBI-lite" round became the standard issue. This reduced the recoil to tolerable levels, and the FBI requested the Federal Cartridge company to duplicate this reduced load. FTU personnel purchased 180 grain Sierra JHP bullets and handloaded them at a muzzle velocity of 980 fps. Early FBI testing of the full power Norma 10mm Auto round found it was too high-pressure, was hard on the converted 1911 test pistol, and had "unmanageable" recoil levels. Smith & Wesson developed a new handgun of the so-called "Third Generation" autos, the Model 1076, for the 10mm cartridge. Norma of Sweden loaded the round in 1983, and the result was a 200 grain flat point FMJ bullet at a MV of 1200 fps, or a 170 grain JHP at 1300 fps. The good Colonel was distrustful of the 9mm Parabellum round for social work. What they wanted was a round that could penetrate a maximum 18" (!) in tissue, or 12" minimum in 10% gelatin.Įarlier, in 1972, a ballistician named Whit Collins and the late gun writer Jeff Cooper had come up with a modified Browning Hi-Power pistol chambered for a new 10mm (.40 caliber) round.
Whether one agrees with their findings or not, the FTU determined that the 8-10" of penetration in ballistic gelatin afforded by the Silvertip was insufficient, even though it worked as designed. 45ACP 185 grain JHP, and the 9mm 147 grain subsonic JHP. Due to the inadequate performance of the 9mm in this incident, in 1997 the Bureau's Firearms Training Unit initiated a study of the terminal ballistics of the most common then-issued pistol rounds, the above mentioned 9mm Silvertip, the old "FBI load". One of the FBI's 9mm rounds (a 115 grain Winchester Silvertip) fired at one of the felons was judged to be a lethal shot, post mortem, but after penetrating through the felon's arm, stopped short of ending hostilities. In the ensuing battle, two FBI agents were killed. Remember the infamous FBI shootout in Miami in 1986? Despite two heavily armed felons wielding rifles (.223 Ruger Mini-14s), FBI agents threw up a rolling roadblock with their cars and engaged them in close quarter combat armed only with pistols, not even putting on the body armor carried in the trunks of their vehicles. By David Tong Illustration courtesy of Smith & Wesson.
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