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9mm Range ammo preference?

9K views 37 replies 27 participants last post by  pa350z 
#1 ·
Just wondering what everyone uses for their 9mm range ammo. I'm using Hornady Critical Defense 115g for CCW, but was looking for recommendations for range ammo? Any & all comments welcome. Thanks in advance.
 
#3 ·
Usually Freedommunitions reman or Wally World Perfecta. If Freedommunitions has 124gr on sale I will get it as it tends to shoot slightly closer to POI in my gun than 115gr, although it's pretty negligible. 124gr is also the grain of my carry ammo so I try and keep it consistent. If you use Hornady 115 CD, you may want to use 115gr for range ammo as well. I haven't found any ammo the Shiled doesn't like. I shy ammo from the dirty Russian stuff just because I don't like all the powder residue it leaves. Seemed to shoot fine the box or so I tried.
 
#4 ·
The Hornady is a very good choice for self defense ammo, it has been highly rated for self defense use. That is my choice for carry ammo in both my 9mm and my 40.

A lot of people will use Winchester white box ammo, their generic ammo, its usually very moderately priced and a good choice when you are just punching paper. Overall, what ever you find that is moderately priced and functions properly in your pistol, you may run into some that won't work well, just shoot those up and don't buy anymore of that variety. There are several generic ammo brands that work well, Blazer brass, American Eagle, etc, most of them its hard to go wrong, just don't waste any money on "remanufactured" ammo, a lot of that stuff is of very dubious quality and what little you save isn't worth the risk of using poor quality ammo, too many good guns have been destroyed by questionable ammo.
 
#8 · (Edited)
... don't waste any money on "remanufactured" ammo, a lot of that stuff is of very dubious quality and what little you save isn't worth the risk of using poor quality ammo, too many good guns have been destroyed by questionable ammo.

Haven't had ANY probelms with Freedommunitions Reman. I've probably put 1000+ rds of 115 and 124gr through mine. Just bought 2 boxes of Perfecta @ 10.97+tax/50. That is about identical to what I pay for 115gr reman with freight if I buy the 250 ct. I'll see how it works at this weekend shooting class.
 
#9 ·
I go with what I can find that's least expensive.
If I buy online, I get Freedom Munitions, when they're running a sale where it's still less expensive than WalMart Federal Value Pack (when they run free, or $5 shipping).

In the 3+ Years that I've been buying Reman from FM, I've had 1 or 2 FTFire, no split cases and no Bulged cases. I would actually expect to find a split case periodically, since they will fatigue and split at some point.

I don't reload, so I gotta ask... Is there a way to tell how many times a case has been reloaded?
 
#11 ·
Pistol, not really. Usually one loses the case long before case failure. 45 ACP is such a low pressure, it can be loaded many times. Same thing with .38.

Now if I was loading high or above max published loads, I would use new brass. I also use new brass for SD rounds.

Rifle is a different story. The case grows and can be trimmed, but eventually the brass is so thin it becomes dangerous. I usually see failure in the neck (cracked). I have never had a head separation.

As another poster already pointed out, costs per round is much cheaper than commercial. However, usually one shoots more. Very seldom am I ever out of a single caliber and usually have thousands of rounds to shoot. As I do not see the costs all at once for my reloads, I do not equate shooting 300 rounds of 45 ACP in range session as the person that bought the ammo in one crack on their way to the range.
 
#13 ·
Not one person I've talked to that had a gun blow up on commercially reloaded/remanufactured ammo felt they got a bargain.

New AR, first time they ever took it out shooting, hey, where's that bargain reloaded ammo we got?



Maybe there's no risk of KBs on pistols?
But, so what, they saved 5 cents a round...how much did that pistol cost again?



 
#16 ·
... and Buffalo Bore... and neither MagTech, nor Buffalo Bore are Reman/Reloads.
You can probably find a Squib story about any brand.
 
#24 ·
You can probably find a Squib story about any brand.
Yep. Not doubting that there have been some blown up guns with Freedommunitions, I just don't know if they are worse than any other brand. I did a google search to see if there was any data to backup which brand had the most malfunctions, squibs etc.and I really couldn't find anything conclusive, mostly different forum posters saying this brand or that brand blew up my gun. There were squibs and malfunctions with Fiocchi, Remington, Wolf, WWB just to name a few. Although this thread has made me rethink if saving a $1 a box on reman is worth the risk since I think it would be harder to QC the condition of a used casing. I will still use Freedom munitons NEW if the price is better than what I can find locally until I have some kind of issue, ANY kind of issue, which I haven't had yet.
 
#26 ·
What brand and caliber ammo blew up the AR and what was the barrel stamped?
What brand and caliber ammo blew up the Pistol?

Shot 1000's and 1000's of Tula, Wolf, Brown Bear through my AR and M&P's with ZERO problems.

Reloads tend blow guns up over a factory round.

Coming from competitive Trap and Skeet, ALL of the guns that have blown up (That I have seen or read about) were caused by reloads OR a bb obstruction OR a defect in the gun. But when a round caused the blow, it was ALWAYS a reload and never a factory even if it was a cheapo Euro round.

Did the AR chamber a 5.56 rather than a .223 chambered for a .223? Forget what's stamped on the receiver, its the barrel stamp that matters. Jamming a 5.56 into a .223 can cause a kaboom for sure. the bullet diameter is the same but the case is different.
 
#27 ·
What brand and caliber ammo blew up the AR and what was the barrel stamped?
What brand and caliber ammo blew up the Pistol?

Shot 1000's and 1000's of Tula, Wolf, Brown Bear through my AR and M&P's with ZERO problems.

Reloads tend blow guns up over a factory round.

Coming from competitive Trap and Skeet, ALL of the guns that have blown up (That I have seen or read about) were caused by reloads OR a bb obstruction OR a defect in the gun. But when a round caused the blow, it was ALWAYS a reload and never a factory even if it was a cheapo Euro round.



Did the AR chamber a 5.56 rather than a .223 chambered for a .223? Forget what's stamped on the receiver, its the barrel stamp that matters. Jamming a 5.56 into a .223 can cause a kaboom for sure. the bullet diameter is the same but the case is different.
The only squibs I have ever experienced is from commercial (not reman) ammo. I have shot WAY more of my own reloads than commercial.

After 2 squibs, from 2 different boxes, different lots, I pulled the bullets. In a box of 50, I found a minimum of 1, as many as 3, rounds without powder. I pulled 6 boxes.

Contacted the Manufacturer, they sent me 6 boxes. All of them fired fine.

I measured the powder of the "good" pulls and rebuilt the ammo. Guess what? Not one squib even from my remanufactured ammo.

Now, yes reloads can be more apt to be overcharged, but we are kidding ourselves if we think it cannot happen with commercial ammo.
 
#35 ·
Re re-manufactured ammo...

I "re-manufacture" thousands of rounds per year myself, on my own press. I choose powders that I CANNOT double charge, and loading on a progressive press pretty much negates the possibility anyway. Squibs are also VERY rare in reloads, due to the same progressive press factor. I HAVE had LIGHT charges, where for some reason the press must have dumped a bit too little powder. But in 8 years of reloading, I've only had one true squib. During load development, I had a case make it past the powder dump. Shooting it, I got a primer pop only. No bang.

If it doesn't go bang, but it DOES go POP... STOP. If you "tap-rack-bang", you can blow up the gun.

All the photos of blown up guns CLAIMED to be due to re-man ammo are VERY suspect. ALL ammo manufactures load ammo with correct powders on progressive presses, and in huge volume. You simply CANNOT double charge any modern rifle round... and even an OVER-charge or UNDER-charge would trigger the powder-drop sensors on their equipment.

As a skeptic... I suspect 90+% of the "blown up guns" are the result of hand-loads from novice loaders doing stupid things with VERY incorrect powders. Like stuffing a .223 case full of Bullseye... or Power Pistol...

Modern pistols are WAY over-built for safety. The Kabooms in Glocks (and S&W, XDs, etc) are more likely due to flaws in the individual gun more-so than ammo issues.

But maybe I'm just too skeptical... and knowledgless reloading 100's of thousands of rounds from 9mm up to 30-06...

JW
JW
 
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