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Ammo to avoid

G

Grumps

Operator
New to hand guns, but not to long guns. Growing up, I only knew of two ammo brands, Remington and Federal. Since that was all we had in the local stores, I never knew what other options there were. I grew up not far from the Remington ammo plant in Lonoke AR.

Now that I am a hand gun owner, and ammo is scare, I am finding all kinds of company’s make ammo, and that you can even get ammo from other countries.

Since I am so knew to this, I have no idea what companies to avoid. If you have a list of company’s you will not use, would you mind sharing?

I’m looking for 9mm if that matters.
 
With the lack of ammo in stores or online I would buy whatever is available that meets SAAMI spec. I would also avoid the companies who specialize in selling reloaded ammo because I've heard of people getting mixed results with reliability. Most ammo now a days will reliably go bang when you pull the trigger with the major differences being the cheaper range ammo will most likely be a little bit less powered and a dirtier burn.
 
Some guns can love the cheapest, dirtiest Russki steel cased Cold War leftovers, and hate premium ammo. Others will be the other way around.

Everyone needs to find out what their gun likes or dislikes.

Any first-run commercial ammo, or even commercial reloads from a reputable source (Black Hills, Freedom Munitions, even Ultramax) is worth a try. I’d avoid the gun show reloads in a ziplock baggie, though.

Buy ammo. Shoot it. Keep notes.
 
It’s hard to find a brand that is universally bad... especially with ammo being so scarce. I generally avoid reloads from individuals (whether I know them personally or not) and steel cased ammo. I try to stick with the big names in factory ammo unless I’ve personally tested the lesser known ones in my guns. There’s no way, other than buying it and testing it, to tell if ammo that Joes gun hates will be loved by your gun or not. I just don’t trust reloads. Seen too many catastrophic errors.
 
The only ammo I found disappointing was Federal white box range ammo. The casings were so soft that my loader was indenting them with just normal hand pressure applied during loading. A few creased badly enough that I wasn't comfortable with firing those and discarded them. I'd buy it again only if it is all that I could get.
 
pullmyfinger said:
The only ammo I found disappointing was Federal white box range ammo. The casings were so soft that my loader was indenting them with just normal hand pressure applied during loading. A few creased badly enough that I wasn't comfortable with firing those and discarded them. I'd buy it again only if it is all that I could get.
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I like the white box, but I don't reload handgun ammo other than .357 mag and .44 mag.
 
I had an old Marine sniper give me the advice "Federal, Remington, Winchester...they all make good ammo, just find a brand and stick with it because they all machine them a little different and your pistol will wear more consistently if you stick with the same brand name" Makes sense in my tiny brain. And no malfunctions for my TRP Operator yet!
 
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