guys have been arguing about light and fast vs slow but heavy for years, and so far no one has come away with a clear winner.
In truth, most go with medium fast and medium heavy.
Now, onto your Black Talons.
The medai hype caused Winchester to rename it Ranger XTS. This means you paid a premium for a name printed on a box of cardboard.
ANY ammo that is going to be used for self defense should prove it works flawlessly in your firearm before it is trusted. This means at minimum 100 rounds fired without a hiccupp. I suspect your black talons have not proven themselves in this manner yet.
Second, while ammo can definately last a long time, it's enemy is moisture. If the black talons were sealed in surplus army ammo can, yes they are probably still good. If they were sitting on the basement shelf somewhere, they may not be. Or maybe only 1 out of the 50 has gone bad.
Carried next to the sweaty human body? Most guys cycle out their carry ammo every 6 months.
Now, onto Black Talon ammo itself. It is all media hype. Truth be told, this ammo was originally designed for deep penetration like you'd want vs a bear or wild pig. Most people aren't as deep as bear, so depending on what loading you have, it may or may not be good defensive ammo. Anyways, Wincheter chose to play up the black talon's "Talon" and talked about some BS buzzsaw like nonsenes, and jagged edge nonsense. Of course the gun ignorant media caught on and went wild. They started attributing all sorts of other BS legends like 'these can saw their way through bullet proof vests!' (in reality hollowpoints including the black talon penetrate less well than Full Metal Jacket rounds)
So, as mentioned before, Winchester eventually side-stepped this issue by renaming them Winchester Ranger XTS. Same bullet, different coating color so it was no longer black.
Well, it turns out that XTS worked best for deeper penetration than most self defense ammo needed, so Winchester tweaked the design to get Winchester Ranger T...but now almost 30 years later pretty much any and every decent ammo maker has come up with hollowpoint designs that are superior to the old Black Talon, no matter what color or name it is.
in short
the seller took advantage of your ignorance
Don't compound the mistake. Sell the ammo as a curio, or store it as a reminder to do a bit more research.
Then go out and by any namebrand premium hollowpoint. But a lot. Practice with some, store the rest in a solidly sealing ammo can. Every 6 months go to the range, fire off the carry ammo, and replace it with fresh stuff. Go to the range ever month and practice shooting with the cheapest ammo you can find. Double points if oyu bring your 22LR handgun along and practice mostly with that.
So what ammo to get? I don't know. I price shopped, picked up a load of premiums that were on sale. But here are some names to look for Supreme T, Silvertip, Hydrashock, Golden Saber, Gold Dot, Ranger, Hornaday XTP,.
If you had to pin me down to 1 recomnedation, I'd say 200 grain +P gold dot
