Economical UMC or Winchester JHP Ammo For SD??

[45shooter]

One of the guys at work got himself a Taurus 92 in 9mm and a 3" barrel model 85 in 38 Special for his wife. Both are used weapons. These weapons were purchased for CCW and home/self defense purpose.

I have told him in past that he should shoot minimum of 200 rounds of ammo he will keep for "real" in the weapon to make sure it will work without problem.

The problem is that he is not very wealthy and can't afford to shoot 200 rounds of designer ammo at @ $1 a pop to make sure the weapon will work with a particular ammo. Today he told me he is going to buy 300 rounds of 9mm UMC 115gr JHP ammo and 100 rounds of 38 Special +P UMC 125gr JHP from local Walmart to test and to keep in the weapon. At about 25 cents a round he can afford to shoot that many.

Here is the question...
Anybody know if thes UMC JHP ammo really work? I mean do they really expand? Would you use it in your self defense gun? I tried to findout but there is very limited information on these "cheap" ammo on the internet.

I'm sure there are others out there that has thought about using these ammo... I mean not everybody here is rich.

Any information would be appreciated.

 

[jbauch357]

The ammo I get from doubletap isn't painfully over-priced compared to regular plinker ammo. I just got 200rds of 115 grain 9mm delivered delivered to my door for under $60, .38 specials are the same price.

Expansion and velocity on these rounds is phenominal, but I've taken FMJ slugs out of trees that were in almost the same condition they were before they were fired.

EDIT: I'm an idiot and completely missed the JHP, and was thinking FMJ the whole time... you can go back to ignoring me now

 

[bestseller92]

I carry Winchester white box 125 grain JHP in my Taurus 85.

 

[Quoheleth]

I would rather him test the cheap stuff and have confidence in his weapon and ammo than have to buy only "samples" and not be able to check it out.

Cheap and certain confidence in performance beats expensive and questionable performance anyday.

Q

 

[DiN_BLiX]

Elcheapo WWB or rem/UMC JHPs WILL expand just fine. They are most likely not bonded so their will be separation of the core and jacket. The powder used in these rounds tend to be dirtier also, but thats why we clean them eeh? All in all I would have no problem trusting ammo from rem/umc or winchester or CCI/blazer ammo, as long as i knew the gun was 100% with it.

 

[cslinger]

I seem to remember somebody here or on TFL doing some tests with the WWB and Remington Green Box stuff and it did more then adequately.

Chris

 

[browningguy]

I'm with everyone else, I shoot 9mm and .40 WWB and Remington UMC a lot for practice, and in IDPA shooting, and have had no problems with it. I'd guess the JHP will expand fine, I had read an artical on Winchester white box JHP tests somewhere but can't find it right now, might check findartical.com to see if it's still available. As I recall the tester was very impressed with the expansion and penetration considering the low cost.

My stash of 9mm also includes about 500 rounds of the WWB 147 gr. JHP, my XD Tactical really shoots it well and I'd have no worry about expansion.

 

[thebaldguy]

I've used both Winchester White Box JHP and UMC JHP; both work well in pistols and revolvers. The nice thing about the UMC and Winchester is the price; you can practice with you self defense ammo and not break the bank.

I should have bought more of that stuff when I saw it on sale earlier this year.

 

[jaholder1971]

The Remington 125 JHP's will expand and would be a good HD round.

In my S&W 36 i practice with WWB 130's and keep Speer 135 Gold Dot +P's for SD/HD.

 

[CajunBass]

I'm carrying Rem-UMC in my Model 39 right now. My wife has them in her Glock.

Just use something. I doubt the bad guy would be able to tell you the difference when it's over.

 

[scubie02]

yep, it's fine. For the most part these "cheap" rounds are just the older version before the latest wunderbullet was developed. I have heard that that winchester versions anyway were basically the same exact bullet as the more expensive silvertip version without the silver coating, and performed pretty much identically in tests. Look at it this way, a hell of alot of badguys went down on these bullets or even less "high tech" ones over the years.

 

[Joshua M. Smith]

Here is my test I posted here a few days ago:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=294840

Interestingly, in water, the UMC stuff seems to perform at the same or slightly better level 124gr +P Gold Dot loaded by Black Hills (see most recent test).

I have it set back as second string carry ammo should something happen to my Bonded Golden Saber.

Anymore, a hollowpoint is a hollowpoint is a hollowpoint. He's good to go with that stuff.

Josh <><

 

[David N]

The WWB PP is better

If you search for these brand names at www.ktog.org you will find that Two Pistol Packer hasas "wetpack" tested the UMC and the Win white box. The WWB expands much better. I wrote a letter to the manager of my local Wal Mart and he ordered CASES of the 115 grn WWB JHPs for me.