.45 ACP 185-grain Winchester Silvertip

Winchester's 185-grain Silvertip load has been a classic, defensive load for the .45 ACP for a long time. In the book, "Street Stoppers," it is listed as having a one-shot-stop-rate of 82 percent. A box of Silvertips is generally not as expensive as some other, premium personal-defense handgun loads, and every 1911 I've owned has also fed this load with 100-percent reliability. The box of ammo I used for testing was left over from when I was working undercover and carrying a custom, lightweight Colt Commander. That was 15 years ago. The ammo has weathered that time better than me.