Choosing your Ammo

[L84CABO]

Choosing target/training ammo is pretty simple:

Factory new ammo (ie no reloads...this is just my personal choice)

Brass. You'll need to decide if you're cool with shooting steel or not. It can be a bit harder on some components. YMMV

Decent quality with respect to reliability and accuracy

Once those conditions are met...then it's all about price. I don't care too much about bullet weight although I'm sure some folks will say you should train with ammo that is similar to what you carry. I can't argue the point but I'll simply say that I don't usually notice much of a difference between, say, 115 gr and 124 gr. And there's something to be said for being able to shoot more by buying cheaper ammo.

I also don't care too much about dirty ammo. I mean, all other things and price being equal, I would obviously choose cleaner ammo over dirty. But not if it means paying more. And with the ammo that I usually shoot, I don't notice much variation anyway. YMMV

I shoot a lot of...

Fed Am Eagle
Winchester White Box
Federal Champion
PMC
Remington UMC (not too much of this as it's usually more expensive but I'll shoot it when I can find a good price on it)


For HD ammo I shoot Federal HST exclusively in 230 gr for 45 acp and 124 gr for 9mm. HST is outstanding stuff, not that there aren't other good choices out there. As for grain, that's a bit of a personal choice. I just like 230 gr for a 45 round and it's consistent with the target ammo I usually buy (so there's that). In 9mm I feel like 124 is a good balance between bullet weight and velocity. But I'd feel just fine shooting 147 gr HST too.

[FourT6and2]

I shoot for accuracy/precision and just started competing. So I choose the ammo my rifle shoots the best. Period. And I chambered my rifle for a specific bullet from a specific brand. And I zeroed for that round/load. And I gathered real-world dope from 100 yards, out to 1,000 yards, for that specific round/load. If I ever use a different load or round from another brand or in another weight, I gotta re-zero and do all that work all over again.

If you're just shooting paper targets at the range for fun, then get whatever you want.

[felimen]

What is it that makes a certain ammo outstanding? Does the gun just feel better to shoot, less bang, less smoke?? I m sure the more I shoot the more understanding I will have.

Funny thing , one day we were shooting some cheep aluminum case and my wife was saying she didn't like the rounds . I didn't notice


Cannnnn youuuu diiig iiiiiit !

[AceGirlsHusband]

For my rimfire BR, I have to order samplers of several different batches each year. I find out what shoots best and under what conditions - and then I order a case or more of that lot.

With our new ammo initiative coming soon, that will pretty much be screwed.

[DesertDave100]

I like to shoot, and the less ammo costs, the more I can afford to shoot. So I always search by price per round, and rarely spend over $.25 per round, delivered. (centerfire, any caliber I shoot)

I also like to experiment, so I buy all sorts of cheaper ammo, in bulk, to test out. In 7.62X39, I have an AK, SKS, and AR. Turns out they all function 100% with any of the 5-6 types of cheap steel case ammo I have tried. So then I play around with which one seems most consistent and accurate, in which firearm.

Same sort of thing with 5.56/.223, except I have one AR that wants to be picky with Tula, but functions 100% with everything else. Since the Mini 14 functions with anything and everything, I can burn off the lighter bullet weight Tula in it, and the heavier weight bullet ammo in one of the other rifles that has a faster spin.

Waiting on back-in-stock for some of the lower-cost match ammo in .223 just to see if it really does group 2-3X smaller than the 2" groups I get with cheap stuff.

Handguns, still waiting to do the experiments with the steel and aluminum case stuff in my .45. Only get to the range once a week so there's a backlog of stuff to play with.

[dekul34]

Ok, when you say fires dirty, is this something you can tell *** your shooting, or when your done and cleaning your gun? I bought some inexpensive ammo at Big5 and he said its dirty, when it was time to clean I didn't notice it was that bad.

I just have this idea that I want a gun that will shoot **** in there face if that's all I have.


Cannnnn youuuu diiig iiiiiit !

When I say dirty I mean stuff you can tell when you're shooting it, when the billowing black cloud comes out with every shot like you're firing a muzzleloader with black powder... when you can taste that sickly-sweet nasty taste of powder in the back of your throat after 1 or 2 shots, that's dirty ammo.

[Corpral_Agarn]

On the range, I usually shoot factory reloads or for off calibers, my own.

I have found factory reloads to be plenty accurate. I shot a frying pan at 240yrds with factory reloaded ammo from my pistol. It works good.

I shoot factory reloads and PMC bronze in competition from my carbine and it works fine.

I don't worry too much about 'dirty', just clean it.