Ammo brands you avoid

[Lance Boyle]

Ammo Inc, easily the crappiest defensive ammo experience I ever had. For whatever reason, I was low on 357 magnum hollows and Ammo Inc was all they had at the time. In a box of 20, I had 3 failures to fire, including one that had a weak charge to the point the bullet never left the casing. Sketchiest squib from the chamber I ever had to perform. I have never seen that before or since, with a round that had a weak bang with the bullet still stuck in the casing. Not only that, they casings stuck to the cylinder walls and were hard to eject. Stuff ran dirtier than a coal mine, it was absolutely atrocious in every way possible. To the point I remember vividly stopping, and safely disposing of the the second half of the box. I have never discarded un-fired ammo before or since this terrible experience.

Agreed, that's like pouring a beer out because it's that bad.

 

[rockquarry]

Today had a high primer in a box of Magtech 130 gr FMJ
In the J-frame it prevented the cylinder from rotating. But it cleared the recoil shield on the inboard side enough that the cylinder closed. In the Model 15 the cylinder would not shut.

I seldom buy factory ammo. If I did, I'd stick with American-made only and not the lesser brands or anything "remanufactured". As for rimfire ammo, stay away from the cheap bulk ammo (that people like to complain about because it doesn't fire or feed). Spend a little more and get good stuff.

 

[Lance Boyle]

Yep, reading through more…,

no remanufactured ammo—— trust in thine self
no steel cases ammo


Rimfire; European stuff like Wolf, SK, Lapua and GECO which iirc was made for them by RWS and of course isn't currently imported. US production mainly CCI, ironically I swore by Remington Golden Bullet hollow points in the boxed in bricks not milk carton ammo. I do not buy milk carton ammo as it is prone to loose bullets from shipping handling.

Handgun: Federal or CCI preferred, I like the Lawman better than American Eagle. The training UMC and USA ammo got sketchier and sketchier with each panic or covid buy ups. At work we'd get training ammo with mangled necks, missing primers, inverted primers, varying sounds during shooting likely from inconsistent charges. That is what they were shipping LE agencies on contracts. That was UMC, USA and Remington ball ammo in.40 and Remington and USA in .223 that had mangled or bent necks, missing primers etc.

My own rifle ammo is 99% home rolled. I bought S&B 6.8 Rem ammo for the brass and it's been great. Their 9mm and .38 Spl brass iirc had tight pockets as did Geco .38 spec.

 

[BE Mike]

I do not buy Any Rem. or Win. ammo due to FTFs. Their 22s are junk IMHO. Until a few months ago Fed. 22s were fine but then all of a sudden started have FTF with their 22s in any pistol or rifle used. CCI is all I'll buy now and even had a FTF with them last range trip? Really don't want to dip into my 60s-80s 22 stash. Also the Aguila has way to many FTFs.

I used to agree with you about Remington .22 LR ammo. Recently, I bought a bucket of their Remington SV ammo. It is very reliable and accurate. Looks like Remington is turning things around.

 

[Terry G]

I used to agree with you about Remington .22 LR ammo. Recently, I bought a bucket of their Remington SV ammo. It is very reliable and accurate. Looks like Remington is turning things around.

I have had no problems with Remington 100 Round boxes of Golden Bullets. I did have a number of misfires and malfunctions with Bucket of Bullets. Like someone posted they get banged around in shipping.

 

[shawn mccarver]

Are there any brands of ammo you avoid after trying them?

There are quite a few threads asking if some particular brand of centerfire ammo is any good. And the answer is almost always yes. Which mirrors my experience with factory ammo. There are some brands which might be a little cleaner or more accurate in my guns but it all seems to work.

About 10 years ago I bought some Winchester white box 9mm that was loaded on the weak side and sometimes would barely dribble out of the Glock 19 I was shooting at the time. It never actually failed but I still avoid WWB.

With 22s its different. I have seen Remington Thunderbolt lead a barrel quicker than I thought possible and also has a lot of misfires. Federal, Aguila and high end stuff like Ely all work well but unless it is not available I always buy CCI 22 LR. Even their bulk Blazer ammo has very few misfires by rimfire standards and shoots well out of all my 22s including a very ammo sensitive S&W 41. Their standard velocity stuff isn't reliable in my 41 but is accurate enough in my CZ 452 rifle I see no need to buy more expensive match ammo.

Blazer and most of the current or former com-bloc ammo. There is nothing much wrong with Winchester, Remington, Federal, Hornady, Speer, etc.

 

[Terry G]

Blazer and most of the current or former com-bloc ammo. There is nothing much wrong with Winchester, Remington, Federal, Hornady, Speer, etc.

Blazer Aluminum in 9 MM malfunctioned in my CZ P-01, a pistol that never malfunctions with anything. I tried it in a S&W, same thing, failure to extract, The brass 9MM I've never had a problem with. Winchester 230 Grain target does not work reliably in a Taurus TH 45 or a S&W M&P 2.0. The rounds appear underpowered.

 

[rockquarry]

Yep, reading through more…,

no remanufactured ammo—— trust in thine self
no steel cases ammo


Rimfire; European stuff like Wolf, SK, Lapua and GECO which iirc was made for them by RWS and of course isn't currently imported. US production mainly CCI, ironically I swore by Remington Golden Bullet hollow points in the boxed in bricks not milk carton ammo. I do not buy milk carton ammo as it is prone to loose bullets from shipping handling.

Handgun: Federal or CCI preferred, I like the Lawman better than American Eagle. The training UMC and USA ammo got sketchier and sketchier with each panic or covid buy ups. At work we'd get training ammo with mangled necks, missing primers, inverted primers, varying sounds during shooting likely from inconsistent charges. That is what they were shipping LE agencies on contracts. That was UMC, USA and Remington ball ammo in.40 and Remington and USA in .223 that had mangled or bent necks, missing primers etc.

My own rifle ammo is 99% home rolled. I bought S&B 6.8 Rem ammo for the brass and it's been great. Their 9mm and .38 Spl brass iirc had tight pockets as did Geco .38 spec.

Blazer Aluminum in 9 MM malfunctioned in my CZ P-01, a pistol that never malfunctions with anything. I tried it in a S&W, same thing, failure to extract, The brass 9MM I've never had a problem with. Winchester 230 Grain target does not work reliably in a Taurus TH 45 or a S&W M&P 2.0. The rounds appear underpowered.

I handload virtually everything but years ago, I fired at least 500 rounds of 9mm Blazer aluminum non-reloadable through a Beretta 92F in a few days; worked perfectly. Always exceptions, I suppose.