Newb question - Who makes better QUALITY ammo?

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I'm new to carrying a firearm and can;t find any definitive answers on what companies make better quality ammo vs. worse quality. Notice I said "quality", that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive, nor the cheapest. More like, who's ammo isn't the dirtiest, is the most accurate, has the most consistency, etc. This is for mostly range ammo and practicing, but daily carry ammo suggestions are also welcome.

This is for a 9mm Shield by the way.

Thanks.
 
Are you talking range ammo or personal protection. You will get many different opinions as everyone has their favorite. For me if i am buying ammo I like federal products. I make most of my ammo
 
For personal defense Federal HST is widely recognized as the standard, can't go wrong

I make all my own 9mm FMJ
 
most manufactures have levels of quality among their lines of products.
Some might see a higher degree of function, accuracy or quality of the material used.

My only suggestion is find the ammo you and your platform like and by as much of the same lot # as you can.... what runs well now might change during the next production run.
 
Given your location, you won't beat qmmo.net for accuracy at a decent price . . . this is for "shooting" ammo. CCW, HST and Gold Dots are the gold standards used by LE and are very consistent.
 
I like Speer Gold Dot for self defense.
For plinking and target shooting bulk ammo and reloads work just fine. If you are shooting for score you will need better ammo, but most pistol shoots shot for time, not shot for score.
Honestly most ammo will shoot out of a handgun better than most people can.
 
For Protection: Hornady Critical Duty

For Range: "What Ever Is The Cheapest Available" Cheaper ammo, means I can buy more and practice more.

Plus cheaper ammo teaches you to deal with occasional malfunctions.

Too many people at the range seem to not how to properly deal with malfunctions.


PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
 
For Protection: Hornady Critical Duty

For Range: "What Ever Is The Cheapest Available" Cheaper ammo, means I can buy more and practice more.

Plus cheaper ammo teaches you to deal with occasional malfunctions.

Too many people at the range seem to not how to properly deal with malfunctions.


PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

Good point. Just picked up some Hornady Critical Defense last night.

This thread wasintended to be mostly about practice or range ammo.
 
For Self Defense I am using Ruger ARX in my Shield 9.

I don't everyday shoot with the Shield so when I do shoot it, about once a month, I use the ammo I carry.

For everyday range shooting I reload. Before I reloaded I shot a bunch of different ammo.

Magtech - A little on the dirty side for me but when it is on sale you can't beat the price. Recently Four Seasons was blowing the 45 out for only $15.99 a box.
Blazer Brass in 200 pack was a good deal. Hard to find the 200 pack but they are out there. $79.99 for 45 at Riley's
American Eagle (Federal) - A little more expensive than the cheaper stuff but good quality and I have never had a problem running this in anything (9mm, 45, 30 Carbine, 22) They sell this in the 50 bulk packs little cheaper than the regular. For instance at Riley's 45 for regular is $21.99 and the 50 bulk pack is $18.99.

Dick's Sporting Good used to sell this 9mm bulk ammo loose in a box. It was 300 or 350 rounds, I forget who made the stuff. It would go on sale for around $80 to $90 and then if you had a Dick's Card you would get points and also be able to apply sale discounts. I used to wait for it to go sale and then use a 10% to 20% discount code. The price was hard to beat and I never had any problems with it.
 
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I carry speer gold dot in my shield, it's cheap and good performance. I own a few boxes of just about every carry ammo, because why not try it all, right? And you can never buy just one box, or at least I can't.

For range ammo, not that I do much range shooting with the shield but it actually isn't bad to range shoot as well, just not as comfy as a full size, and the whole reloading thing after 8-9 rounds downside! I take the cheap beer approach, as in it's all about getting drunk for low-low prices. It's all about making it go bang for low-low prices. Blazer is usually cheap, white box, whatever they have at wally world or my local NH gun store that is reasonable. Sometimes the really cheap shit doesn't seem to be as dirty as the moderately cheap shit, but even if it's dirty, I'm not picky.

Again, when I do range shooting I like to go through lots of rounds, which the shield isn't all that conducive to with the small mags (I have three 8 rnd mags, lost the 7 that came with it and don't care to find it) with all that reloading. If you want to put a lot of lead down range, get a larger capacity range gun. by all means, practice and put lead down range with the shield, but reloading is no fun!
 
Range ammo if you get to Walmart the perfecta brand is a great deal. Brass case fmj for the same price as aluminum case crap. I'm getting 45acp for $15 a box. Shot about 800 rounds of it through my full size m and p not one single malfunction.
 
Winchester White Box for Range
Federal American Eagle for Range

For carry there are plenty of good quality rounds. Speer, Federal Hydrashock; Hornady Critical Duty +P; to name a few. Try different brands to be sure they all cycle through your pistol. You can research ballistics, penetration, and expansion for hours...on the higher end they all pretty much do the same thing. Buy good quality ammo that is reliable in YOUR gun.
 
I'm new to carrying a firearm and can;t find any definitive answers on what companies make better quality ammo vs. worse quality. Notice I said "quality", that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive, nor the cheapest. More like, who's ammo isn't the dirtiest, is the most accurate, has the most consistency, etc. This is for mostly range ammo and practicing, but daily carry ammo suggestions are also welcome.

This is for a 9mm Shield by the way.

Thanks.


For the range I use Blazer Brass 115gr. Have shot thousands of rounds and only 1 Primer fail. Right now this is very cheap to buy especially in bulk. I get mine at targetsports USA. If you buy the 1000 round case you get free shipping which equates to 200 bucks delivered. This price has been pretty consistant.

When I clean my guns after the range there is no unusual buildup.. yea they are dirty but not like some of the horror stories I have seen folks post in the forums about other ammo. For accuracy I have noticed it is very accurate (at 21 feet anyway) so no issues there.

There are 3 companies I would buy SD ammo from and seem to be the 3 leading brands (IMO).. Federal, Speer and Hornady.

After alot of research I settled on the Federal Premium LE HST 147 (SP) (P9HST2). Been using them for years now.. Very accurate and very reliable and the ballistics tests prove any variant of this ammo performs very well. Unless you really have a need to use the +P variant, I would not as again all the variants perform almost exactly the same so no need to put the extra wear on your gun.

You can get these in the 50 round boxes (Best way to go) or 20 round boxes. There is no difference in the bullet. both exactly the same. The only difference is the way they are advertised. The 20 round boxes (Personal Defense ) are marketed toward the consumer where the 50 round boxes are marketed toward Law Enforcement.

Right now (in most cases) the 20 round boxes are actually more expensive than the 50 round boxes you get online.

Anyway hope this helps.. Enjoy and Welcome from Southern NH!
 
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In addition to the standard answers of Gold Dots and HST's, I'll toss in Winchester Ranger-T's. Previously known at the Ranger SXT's, and before that as Black Talons.

+1 for Winchester Ranger. I've fired a lot of it in .40 S&W, 45 ACP and 357 Sig and it's always worked well.
 
For range ammo whatever brass case ammo is cheapest. I have some steel case packed up for the next ammo shortage but I don't shoot it unless ammo is scarce.
 
For the range it doesn't matter. Get the cheapest stuff you can and if it malfunctions you'll get to practice your malfunction drills. For pistols, steel cased ammo is fine (I've used it quite a bit in a Shield) but I think the best value is Federal Aluminum 115gr 9mm. Above the border it's about $0.18-0.19 per round.

For carry it should be a reputable JHP or copper HP. Do your research. Critical Defense if pretty meh. Expansion is pretty mild and despite the Hornady hype, it's poor through practical barriers that you could need to shoot through.

Get Speer Gold Dot 124gr, Federal HST (NOT Hydra Shok, which isn't good at all), or (my personal favorite after considerable gel/barrier testing) Corbon DPX. The Critical Defense or Duty are much better than carrying range rounds, but you should be carrying the best.
 
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