Keep it around for use or is it just plinking fodder?

Amongst the stuff my gf's dad gave her with her Model 60-14 is an old box of CCI Speer aluminum cased .357 158gr SJHP's. It's missing a few rounds but is mostly full. I'd bet the box is from the 80's at the earliest. No hint of anything to do with the internet and just looks old. Not to mention the price tag is something like $10.4something for 50 rounds.

We will test fire some of the ammo to see if it even works but after that...worth keeping around or blast at the next range session?

__________________
Caretaker of a small herd.

Shoot it up!

Just bought a case of this ammo: it's my favorite for .357 practice, runs about 990 fps according to another poster. No ignition problem, good pie-plate accuracy. Great stuff, shoot it and buy more.

AJM,

That stuff was a bargain when you could get it, I don't remember it being that old, possibly late '90s at the oldest.

I used the .38 special and 9mm, good practice ammo, and if you don't reload, who cares about the aluminum cases? For a while there it was cheaper than anything else on the market, I remember stocking up on 9mm for $4.99 per 50. Of course, those days are gone.

Great ammo, the aluminum cases sometimes take a sharp rap on the ejector rod to dislodge as they seal very well. Shoot em up and enjoy them, in my experience they have been quite accurate in most of my revolvers? billy magg

Probably just take it with us the next time we hit the range.

I'm trying to stockpile some .357 and hot .38 for "social purposes" now. I found myself a bit low on those and since we have two .357's, one that she carries, I don't want to do that again.

__________________
Caretaker of a small herd.

Enjoy it, but please, fired cases in the trash, not on the bench or the ground.

Larry

AJMBLAZER, are you asking if this ammunition is good for defensive purposes? If so, perhaps folks familiar with this type of ammunition could offer their advice?

Yes, that's what I'm wondering.

Is it good as a .38 +P load or basically just a fast lead round nose?

__________________
Caretaker of a small herd.

CCI's Blazer ammo came out around 1985. It steadily began to replace reloads with most police departments who used indoor ranges and was highly touted as being "lead free," because the primers don't use lead styphinate and the bullets were totally cooper covered on their case end and in many cases a TMJ bullet was used. The original ammo from that period was running about 5% ftf's in training when my agency was using it for training. That was largely because CCI hadn't completely gotten the primers right yet. It has improved since then.

I would consider it as training/shooting ammo due strictly to the age factor as the lead free primers don't have an unlimited shelf life like original lead styphinate primers do. Currently Blazer is much more reliable and I wouldn't feel there was a problem carrying it as long as it was in a revolver. In a revolver if you have a FTF you just pull the trigger and get another round. In a semi, a FTF stops the ball game and puts you in an immediate action drill.

I have shot a few boxes of the Blazer aluminum 357mag JHP. All recent vintage.
It shoots very well in my Ruger 3" GP100. I would consider using it for SD, as it hits a sweet spot for recoil and velocity..like a very hot 38spl. I would not expect much expansion at the velocity it runs, though. One review I read claimed 1100fps, I think.
The Blazer brass load uses the same bullet at higher velocity.