I don't think there is any such animal as Ranger Black Talon. It is either Black Talon or later after they changed the name ( and modified the bullet slightly ) it was Ranger. Ranger and Black Talon and never the twain shall meet.
With regard to names, I believe that's correct. They're similar designs that were originally intended for law enforcement. The Ranger line is based on the Black Talon, and improves upon its performance as a hollow-point. Obviously the black Lubalox coating is gone and the name was changed in order to avoid the unfair demonization of the Black Talon in the media as, rather ironically, a Teflon-coated, armor-piercing "cop-killer" bullet.
The design has been continually improved over the years, and the Ranger T-series is the most modern version, more or less equivalent (and certainly as well tested, if not more) to other contemporary advanced hollow-points (the SXT version is older).
SXT= Civilian ammo. Ranger=LE ammo.
They apply and change things like designations so randomly that I can't be 100% sure, but it's my understanding that the only ammunition from this product line that is currently available to civilians, by Winchester's request, is PDX1, which is the same as Ranger Bonded (currently a bonded version of the T-series bullet, although this wasn't always the case). Unfortunately PDX1 is about twice as expensive as Ranger Bonded.
I ran a couple of boxes of 9mm 147 gr. SXT through my 10 year old P226 and found it to be highly accurate and low recoil compared to the usual 124 gr. stuff everone uses these days. I realize the trend is to 124 gr. 9mm but my gun really likes this stuff, going by the accuracy.
Historically, the performance of 147 grain hollow-points has been underwhelming, but in the T-series it seems to perform just about as well as the lighter, hotter 124 grain +P and 127 grain +P+ loads. Its expansion is usually just a little bit less, its penetration is usually greater, and when shooting through barriers sometimes it gets both greater expansion and penetration.
For what it's worth, the FBI currently uses the 147 grain Ranger Bonded load as their 9mm duty ammo. My understanding is that the current Ranger T-series and Ranger Bonded are based on bullets that were specifically designed for the FBI. Previously, there was a slightly older T-series bullet and a bonded bullet that had a different basic design, but now everything has been consolidated to the FBI version of the bonded design and its non-bonded T-series equivalent. A majority of the loads in the Ranger line pass a majority (and often all) of the FBI's stringent tests, although this largely involves barrier penetration, which seems to be controversial on this forum.
By the way, while we're on the subject, the notorious "talons" of these bullets do vary between the different design iterations. The Black Talon has larger talons than the T-series, but the T-series has sharper ones. The talons of Ranger Bonded are filled in with lead and are usually not sharp, although occasionally they are. Again, for what it's worth.
