Favorite and ammo to stay away from?

[searcher451]

I've had decent luck with most ammo brands that I've tried through the years, including Winchester WB and Remington for simple range work (the Remington green box in .380 works particularly well in my PP/PPKs). The one ammo that I won't go back to, under any circumstances, is PMC Brass .380. It is, without question, the dirtiest, filthiest ammo I've ever tried. Never again.

 

[MikeNice]

In .22lr I think CCI is the best based on reliable operation. I've never had a dud CCI.

The only ammo I refuse to use now is Winchester Ranger 147gr FMJ. I had multiple issues with overcharged rounds.

 

[Flopsweat]

For centerfire pistol, Magtech rocks. I also like WWB for the performance and for the perfectly round holes the flatnose puts in the paper. For 5.56 and 5.45, Wolf black box is just awful. Inaccurate, dirty, inconsistent, and FTE's and gets stuck in the chamber a lot. Hornady makes a V-MAX round in 5.45 now. It's very accurate at short range and feeds great. Haven't tried it at long range yet but I will soon. It looks like they import the steel cases but use their own powder and bullets. Not sure who's primer they use. They have 7.62 X 39 SST now too.

 

[Jonah71]

Thought I'd save some money and I bought several boxes of Aquila .45acps. May be the dirtiest ammo I've ever fired. I like Rem. 9mm's and have been buying them 250 rnds at a time for a small discount. I also shoot a lot of Winchester range rounds in my handguns. CCI for the .22lr target pistol.

 

[skoro]

Don't really have a favorite. I find lots of ammo from the reliable manufacturers to be very good.

But two to avoid...

1. Remington 22LR: quite possibly the world's worst in any caliber, filthy, duds, FTE, FTF, ruptured cases, you name it

2. Monarch 357 mag: very thin brass, jams the cylinder, probably unsuitable for reloading

 

[Buford57]

The Good

Fiocchi - I bought a brick of .22 WRM ammo last year and found it clean, accurate and consistent in my Savage 93FV - at $1/box cheaper than the Winchester Dyna-whatever I'd been buying at Wally World. I intend to try their .22LR and centerfire stuff next. Had good success with their 2.5 inch 12 gauge in an old LC Smith as well.

Aguila .22 LR Golden Bullet. The way I remember US made .22LR standard ammo, before everything went in bulk boxes with the lube dumped in afterward.

CCI - Consistently good, but so many variations I can never seem to remember what exactly I bought last time that worked so well.

Anything Federal, Hornady or Speer.

Winchester White Box .45 ACP hardball.

The Bad

S&B pistol ammo. That little cup is meant to hold priming compound. It that so hard to remember?

Winchester Wildcat .22 LR. If a little lube is good a whole lot must be better - NOT!

Winchester and Remington Bulk Pack .22 LR (see previous statement re: lube).

The Ugly

Those black Russian shotgun shells. Less than a box made the barrel look like a woodstove pipe after a long winter burning phone poles.

Black Hills .45 Auto Rim

PMC .357 Mag.

Dardick Trounds - Down to my last case and when these are gone I'll never buy another one.

 

[Ole Coot]

I bought a box of 9mm Lellier & Bellot to run a new LC9. Bad mistake, still have half a box, 6 FTF and had to run a couple of hundred JHP just to make sure it wasn't the pistol before carrying it. Will try the rest of the box in another 9 and if they do ok, guess I will check the pistol again. I should have known better.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

22 LR = CCI and I've had good luck with Federal Bulk 525 packs.

22 mag = Armscor 40 gr sp's, I've had great luck with these and they are cheap.

9mm = S&B 115 gr FMJ shoots accurate and clean

40 S&W = Fiochi was great, but now I reload my 40 S&W ammo

223 = I've had good luck with PMC 55 gr FMJ, but I reload my 223 now also

308 = Winchester 150 gr powerpoints work great in my Remmy 700, but I reload my 308 ammo now.

I've just started reloading my 9mm ammo too, now that I have some brass. So my days with factory ammo are just about done.