ADVICE ON AMMO... BRANDS, DIRTY, CASINGS, ETC.

collegefbfan8898 · Jul 17, 2014

First off, I am a rookie shooter, but any advice would be appreciated on these matters. I stopped by Walmart tonight to pick up some ammo for my SR9C. I have used Remington and Federal with no trouble. Walmart was totally out of stock on both of these brands. I saw PPU ammo and this other brand-PERFECTA-I had never heard of. What do you guys know about these brands? The first day I went to the range, there was a guy shooting PPU ammo, and his gun was jamming like crazy. I am not saying it was totally ammo related. It could have been the gun.

What brands do I need to stay away from? Are there casings that cause more trouble than others? I am not familiar with how brass or steel or whatever does to a gun such as the SR9C. Remember, this is a rookie here.

Thanks.

planetcat · Jul 18, 2014

I stay away from all the eastern block ammo - PPU, Silver/Golden Bear, Sellier & Bellot, etc. I typically shoot American Eagle (Federal), Winchester or Federal white box, PMC, CCI Brass (but the Blazers shoot fine too), any Hornady, Speer, Remington, and most recently, I've really been liking HPR. It's snappy, clean, and reliable, and best of all, made in the U.S.A.

LaneP · Jul 18, 2014

It wouldn't be my first choice if I had US made brass case alternatives but if that's all you can get and the price is right I would not hesitate either.

I've shot several thousand rounds of mild steel case 7.62x39 through my two SKS's and have never experienced a misfire or malfunction of any sort, with countries of origin being China, Russia and Yugoslavia.

websterz · Jul 18, 2014

My SR9 had many problems with Tulammo. Failures to feed and fully eject were very common. The ammo was just too under powered to reliably cycle the slide. Many of the spent rounds got caught by the slide closing on them and those that did clear just barely did. Most of them fell on the bench right next to the pistol rest.

GunnyGene · Jul 18, 2014

I'm a big fan of Underwood. http://www.underwoodammo.com/pistolammunition.aspx . Excellent ammo and customer service. Prices are competitive and often lower, even including shipping costs, than what I'd pay locally.

Underwood Ammunition is a family owned business started by Kevin Underwood in Charleston, WV. A lifelong shooting enthusiast, Kevin began reloading in his spare time. Quickly, a small reloading press turned into an entire loading operation including presses and stations set up for over 40 calibers. With a rapidly growing business Underwood Ammo relocated and built a brand new facility in Sparta, IL so that we might better serve our customers.

Our precision ammunition is manufactured with absolute care during the loading process to ensure consistent quality. Each round is individually sight inspected before being packaged. Underwood Ammunition strives to provide you with the finest precision ammo available and we take pride in delivering a product you can be confident in at a price you can afford.

Whether you use Underwood Ammunition for hunting, target practice or personal/home defense, you can be certain that Underwood Ammunition is both safe and reliable. While taking advantage of our state of the art testing equipment, this high performance ammunition is field tested using popular, real firearms that our customers are most likely to own out in the real world with all the elements you would experience. If for some reason Underwood Ammunition fails to meet performance expectations, we stand by our product 100% and will make sure the customer is satisfied with every purchase.

FergusonTO35 · Jul 18, 2014

I think Perfecta is a sub brand of Fiocchi, which is very good stuff.

Ruger Nut10 · Jul 18, 2014

Shoot anything you get your hands on. The SR9c will eat anything. I use it all and I have never had an issue. Even "Brown Bear", which has the old lacquer style coating on the case.
All of them are dirty and if you clean your gun after every trip you should not have a problem.
I shoot IDPA style matches and even at a high rate of fire I've never had an issue with either SR9 or SR9c.

I know some guns may be more picky than others and you personally won't know till you try it. If it is a couple of dollars a box cheaper and it feeds, then over time you can save enough to by an extra mag or another gun if you wear it out!!!!.

I shoot 2,500 + rounds a year and I have just started to reload for the 9mm, so when I'm buying over the counter ammo, every dollar counts for me.

Cheesewhiz · Jul 19, 2014

S&B 9mm ammunition at one time was a very good, stoutly loaded and fairly inexpensive target/practice Czech ammo. They were bought out by Magtech, a Brazilian ammo maker. I understand the quality may have diminished some since that takeover but I really have just hearsay to go off of. I guess I'll need to pick some up just to be sure. S&B's older and original brass is what I use for my premium self defense clone practice ammo, the walls of those cases are very thick compared to other 9mm brass and they shine up real pretty.

I reload all my range 9mm and 45 ACP ammo but I purchase my self defense ammo from quality makers, mostly Hornady. I am still interested with factory target/practice stuff just to try and stay on top of these things. I don't think any maker of range quality ammo is immune to making some really crappy rounds. I have seen some really bad looking stuff being used at the ranges I shoot at.

Here is a pic of some fine quality Winchester 9mm 115gr from a 100 round value pack (whitebox)

Can anyone tell why I think this is junk, it's real easy?

Added note: there are certain countries I care not to do business with, PPU is out because it's made by Serbian Jacka**es.

FergusonTO35 · Jul 19, 2014

Those rounds seem to have different OAL's.

Mike J · Jul 19, 2014

My experience with Sellier & Bellot, PPU, WWB, Remington UMC, Federal, etc. is that they are all fine for plinking. I just buy what is available. It is a good idea to look at rounds when you load them though & see if there are any obvious flaws.

Cheese I had some Federal rounds that were set back badly when I took them out of the box. I regard it as my own fault though as I wanted to shoot & that was the only box of .40 they had. The box was beat up. I put the set back rounds off to the side. I don't reload but I will pull the bullets & dump the cases & discard everything.

Cheesewhiz · Jul 19, 2014

Actually it didn't appear that the lengths were off all that much from one another. The crimp was what shocked me, 9mm should have a taper crimp and not a roll crimp like these have. A roll crimp doesn't allow for the round to headspace on the case mouth like it should with most semi-auto pistols. Some would argue that it's not a problem, those 'some' would lose said argument by being just dumb as a box of rocks.

9mm is a very high pressure round when it comes to handguns, there are few typical handgun rounds that reach it's levels. A roll crimp alone will raise this pressure and if not properly headspacing in the chamber will raise it fuller. With some of the little pistols being created lately that are chambered for 9mm, the possible built in engineering over rating is going to be pushed to it's limits. Firing crappy ammo isn't good for your gun or you or those surrounding you, guns blowing up hurt people more often than not.

pjvrefugee · Jul 20, 2014

roll your own and make them the way you like. I shoot 95% my own reloads and have for thirty years. great hobby when the we spend the rest of the day shoveling global warming out of our driveways, and if you have an issue you don't have far to go to discuss it with the manufacturer.
I have shot some of those el cheapos from various eastern block countries and have had zero issues with any of them. my carry rounds are always good American factory HP, but the low ball rounds go down range just fine.

aWoods · Jul 23, 2014

For self defense, go get some premium stuff with a good reputation like gold dots, or golden sabre.

For range use, the cheaper the better. A decent pistol will probably run it with no problem.

http://www.slickguns.com/category/ammo?caliber=1&sort=price&dir=asc

Now, I'm not saying you won't get the occasional bad round. The only brand I've shot thousands of rounds with no malfunctions was my own reloads. I would also expect quality self defense ammo to perform the same (and hopefully better).

When the manufacturers are under a big strain, their quality drops. When ammo is plentiful, quality is also plentiful.

KDF · Aug 6, 2014

websterz said:
My SR9 had many problems with Tulammo.

Tulammo is not very good. I would not give it to my next to worst friend. Even if Tulammo is the
last box of ammo, I would leave it alone. <><

timboy · Aug 6, 2014

I'll also say the tula pistol ammo sucks,it does not work in my sr9c or my diamondback .380 worth a damn,it gives failures to feed and eject properly in both guns.

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