Test of Bargain 9mm Ammo

[max]

Guns & Ammo has a test this month (October) of budget 115 gr 9mm plinking ammo. They tested Federal Champion, Fiocchi Range Dynamics, Magtech, Remington Range, Sig Sauer Elite, and Winchester White Box. The author felt the Federal ammo was plated and not FMJ. The test pistols were 3 polymer framed with 4.5, 4.43, and 4.4 inch barrels. The pistols each had a red dot sight and the tests were fired at 25 yards. WW had the most consistent velocity, lowest extreme spreads, smallest average group size and second highest average velocity. Magtech had the highest average velocity and second smallest average group size. Sig had the most weight (.3 grains) and OAL (.002 inch) consistency. Fiocchi had the lowest average velocity. Remington had the largest average group size. The difference in smallest and largest group average was .07. The difference in average velocity was 87 fps. I wish the author had tested a CCI or Blazer branded product.

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[bedwards]

Also the Monarch. I've been running a lot of it lately.

 

[fiasconva]

I read a thread about this on another forum. WW seemed to perform pretty well. Maybe it isn't as bad after all? I've never had a problem with it.

 

[stansdds]

I'm sure that Federal has gone to plated bullets for most, if not all, of their FMJ semi-auto pistol budget loads. Federal and CCI/Speer are under the control of one company, so it's natural that Federal would be switched to the less expensive Speer plated bullets.

 

[rug357]

This is interesting because back in 2020 I I chronographed two Walmart factory fmj loads and my fmj reload to see how they compared. I shot WW 100 round pack 115gr fmj, UMC 115gr fmj and my reload of 124gr Winchester fmj bullet (2,000 bulk pack from Midway) with Win231 in once shot Speer nickel plated bras. WW ammo was purchased about 10 years prior while UMC ammo was only few weeks old. My reloads were 20 years old. All ammo were stored in air-conditioned closet.
I don't have my notes with me but the WW had the worst performance with over 100 fps difference between high and low velocity. UMC was better with about 50 fps difference. My reloads were better than UMC and more accurate than others.
Again, this was ammo that wee manufactured years ago.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

The SIG Elite 115gr FMJ appears to be significantly hotter (at a claimed 1185fps) than the others...? Jus' sayin'...

Cheers!

 

[max]

Sig didn't have any tests over 1200 FPS. Magtech and WW each had 3.