What would be a good standard ammo in these selections?

[epijunkie67]

We have discussed the subject of standardizing your ammo selction here before. The argument for it of course is that if you always feed the exact same round (weight, charge, bullet type) to a particular weapon then you will be more accurate than if you switch around between 125 grain, 150 grain, and 170 grain rounds (as an example).

The downside of course is that you'll have to pick the one round that seems to be the best general purpose round for that weapon or caliber. Given that, I got to wondering about what I would use as standardized ammo for my stuff. Like many people I've currently got a wide variety of weapons with an even wider variety of ammo for them. Heck, I've got 5 different kinds of ammo in .45 ACP alone!

So I've considered standardizing my ammo selection. For example, currently I have a decent stock of S&B 147 SP in .357 that I use in my Marlin carbine. Good price and it shoots well for me. But what about all these other calibers?

Let's assume you can use military or civilian ammo, FMJ, SP, HP, power point, you name it. For you reloaders you can use whatever bullets you can order currently. Given that, what ONE round would you standardize to if you were only going to use one type of round in the following calibers? What if money wasn't a factor, just round effectiveness?

Pistol Calibers
.380
.38 Spc
9X18 Mak
9mm
.40
.45ACP
.45LC (pistol AND rifle)
.357 (pistol AND rifle)
.44 (pistol AND rifle)

Rifle Calibers
.223
7.62X39
.308
30-30
35 remington
.22LR
.22 Mag
45-70
30-06
.243
.270

Any other really common rounds you think I've missed?

 

[Vitamin G]

I'd go with 10mm

I can use it in a pistol, subgun, and they make AR uppers for it, don't they?

Edit : doh! I DID misread the question. I just couldn't wrap my mind around limiting myself to one BULLET. I guess if i absolutely had to, i'd go with Ranger-T's if they would sell just the bullet. Otherwise, golden sabres in the heavyweight of whatever caliber i was loading.

 

[orionengnr]

wow, I never got to be the first

to respond to a post before. Hope I don't spend too much time thinking and get passed up

Edited to add: Looks like I got passed up by someone who did not read the question.


Hey, I will make it easy. If I understand your question, you want bullet (projectile), not loaded ammo.

For many (handgun) calibers, the Speer Gold Dot is a good bullet. Whatever bullet (Nosler?) Remington uses in Golden Sabres is good too. The bullet used in Winchester Ranger ammo is good but I do not believe they sell the bullet itself, just the loaded ammo.

If one of the above is not available, i'm not intereseted in shooting it as an SD round.

As far as rifle calibers go, I will let someone else get a word in edgewise here.

 

[RyanM]

Assuming you mean effectiveness on humans...

.380 - any FMJ
.38 Spc - Speer Short Barrel Gold Dots
9X18 Mak - any FMJ
9mm - 147 gr Remington Golden Sabers
.40 - 180 gr Remington Golden Sabers
.45ACP - 230 gr Winchester Ranger Talons
.45LC (pistol AND rifle) - 250 gr Silvertips
.357 (pistol AND rifle) - 158 gr Remington SJHP
.44 (pistol AND rifle) - 240 gr Remington JHP

.223 - Speer 62 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (Federal loads 'em)
7.62X39 - Winchester 123 gr softpoints or Saspan 124 gr JHP
.308 - Depends on if overpenetration is a concern to you. Hornady 168 gr AMAX are pretty good. 180 gr Nosler Accubond are better, and very accurate, but will always exit a human-sized target, except with very unusual angles.
30-30 - Once again, depends on overpenetration. Federal 125 gr JHP are pretty good. Winchester 170 gr Power Points are better, but will also always exit.
35 remington - Beats me.
.22LR - the fastest 40 gr LRN available
.22 Mag - fastest 40 gr plated or jacketed RN available
45-70 - Buffalo Bore 405 gr JSP. Penetration greater than 20", expanded diameter 0.98". Incredible stuff.
30-06 - Same as .308.
.243 - Beats me. Maybe a Nosler Partition.
.270 - Trophy Bonded Bear Claws should be good.

Wait, did you mean one single bullet type for all those calibers, and not one per caliber? That's not really practical, since not everything is good in every caliber. I guess I'd go with Remington Golden Sabers in the pistol calibers they're available for, and Remington JHPs for the ones they aren't. For rifles, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws for all the calibers they're available for, and whatever heavyweight bonded softpoint for the ones they aren't.

 

[epijunkie67]

Wait, did you mean one single bullet type for all those calibers, and not one per caliber?

Not at all. When you consider all the different kinds of work each of those different rounds are supposed to do I don't think you could use just one type of bullet for all of them.

In my example of using S&B 147 grain soft points for my .357, it's cheap, it works well in my firearm, it's soft point and would make an effective hunting round as well as an antipersonell round, and I think it's a little hotter than some of the American made stuff. I COULD have used a hollow point round instead but I wondered about the penetration on larger game. I know the SP will work on people but a lot of the HPs won't work on deer. That's also why I didn't go with the 125 grain rounds. So, for a single round for the .357 I settled on the 147 gn SP.

But what about .308 or 30-30? Or .22 mag. Maybe a ballistic tip in .22mag but a power point on the 30-30. And WHOs' ballistic tip? And what 30-30 ammo? Remington? Winchester? I picked these calibers because there are so many choices for them. Look at how many different kinds of ammo you can get for the 30-06 or the .270. But if someone said "I'm going to give you an unlimited supply of ammo in .270, but only one cartridge and it's the only one you can ever shoot in that caliber" then which one would you pick?