Sub-$5 purple box of 9mm Monarch at Academy -- quality?

[Dave88LX]

At Academy Sports, they have a purple box and a green box of Monarch 9mm. The Sub-$5 box I believe he said is steel casing. I bought a box to try out, and they fired fine. Is there any reason I shouldn't use these for target shooting? Or do I run the risk of damaging the gun in the long run?

Thanks!

 

[Lonestar.45]

It's comparable to Wolf I'd say. What kind of gun are you shooting it out of? If it's a Glock, I'd say go for it. If it's a high dollar 1911 or Hi Power I'd say I would not shoot much out of it. I think most manufacturers frown on the steel cased ammo and may not warranty your gun if something breaks, but they're all different.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about shooting it in smaller quantities, but I would not pound out 1,00rds a month of it out of any of my guns. I'd be worried about increased wear and possible parts breakage.

 

[Dave88LX]

I've got an XD9. Why does it increase wear? Are you talking about the barrel, or the firing chamber?

 

[berettaman]

Extractor mainly.

 

[Gary G23]

Purple box is Russian steel case.
Green box is Serbian brass case.
I use the green box myself.
I would normally say not to worry about shooting steel cased ammo as extractors are cheap when you consider the cost savings, BUT keep in mind that Springfield doesn't sell replacement parts. So getting an extractor replaced if it isn't the guns fault may be hard to do.

 

[tnieto2004]

I use monarch QUITE OFTEN and have had no problems .. I like it ..

 

[wooderson]

For $.65 more, I'd look at the aluminum-cased CCI Blazer. I don't know how legitimate worries about steel wear are, but aluminum certainly shouldn't wear on any parts of your gun and it seems to be quite clean IMO.

 

[tnieto2004]

I hear so many people bashing Blazers though .. it makes me wonder .. there is police store here which carries tons of guns and police equipment .. they REFUSE to even CARRY Blazer ..

 

[rich636]

We have a range here in Houston that tells horror stories about Blazer blowing up guns so they won't let anyone shoot it. Personally, I think they just don't want to have to pick it out of all the brass they sweep up and reload.

 

[strat81]

+1 to what rich636 said. I've shot hundreds of rounds of aluminum Blazer in my 24/7 9mm and have had no problems. Accuracy isn't the greatest, but no problems at all. And judging from the "brass" pail at the range, plenty of other folks use it too.

 

[wooderson]

Never heard of a problem yet - if your ammo was to routinely 'kaboom' (and possibly injure someone), you'd be swamped by lawsuits.

In my limited experience, the 9mm is as accurate as any range ammo (WWB, Remington UMC) and cleaner. The .45 seemed a little less accurate, but that may have just been an off day for me, I was having a hard time focusing on my Para-Ord's front sight for reasons unknown.

 

[hso]

We shot 6,000 rounds of Blazer Al in a weekend training course out of all sorts of 9mm autos (Glocks, XDs, BHP, Kimber) and never had a problem. That ain't bad QA.

 

[doubleg]

Never had problems with Blazer either.

 

[longhorngunman]

The Blazer is fine. Some ranges will just use anything as an excuse to keep an ample supply of free brass for them. Don't see a problem with the Monarch steel case either. It ain't quenched and hardened steel like your gun is it's MILD steel. Possibly it could wear your extractor out sooner than brass but it would still take thousands of rounds to do it. Same complaining that you hear about using Wolf in an AR-15.

 

[jaysouth]

When it was $3.86 a box, I bought 5,000 rounds of it at Academy. I am about half way through that lot, mostly in an STI Trojan. No problems, nor do I worry about it.

If 30-40,000 rounds would wear out an extractor, I can replace it for a lot less than I would have spent on brass cased ammo.

I still reload 9mm because I like to reload, however, where I shoot mostly is a field with knee high growth. I do not worry about abandoning my aluminum cases out there. I guess I could recover them, but am too lazy to do so. On a hard surface, I recover ALL my brass cases.

This really never got to be an issue until the advent of the errornet and BS being spread at the speed of light.

 

[dlcrouch]

.45 Green Box is a bit dirty

last time a shot it, the top of my strong hand was black!!!!

 

[Marshall]

It's a roll of the dice. I try not to roll the dice with firearms.

 

[tbtrout]

I shoot Blazer in all of my pistols, never a problem. The few people that I know of that did have problems also did not know what what firearms maintnence was. The dirtiest pistols I have ever seen. Shoot the Blazer and keep your guns clean. You will be fine