wanderinwalker
Member
It was in Gun Tests. Take it with a grain of salt, then throw it out and move on with your day.
As for "weak", "watered down" and all of the other phrases commonly associated with modern ammo, or "budget" ammo (WWB), also take those with a grain of salt. As already mentioned, modern pressure testing equipment is more sensitive, and capable of showing more information, than copper crusher units did. If you look, you can find stories of those old, hotter than the hinges of Hades, .357 Magnum loadings causing sticky extraction and other pressure-related problems in some guns.
For some reason Winchester White Box gets a bad rep for being "underpowered". I'm not sure it's entirely deserved. I remember chronographing the 240gr .44 Magnum load at 1300-fps from a 6" S&W 629-1. They were a solid 100-fps faster than my reloads with 240gr Hornady XTPs. I've chronographed the standard WWB 115gr 9mm FMJ load that frequently gets called out for being "weak" at 1200-fps from a 4.5" Glock 17. That is NOT weakly loaded 9mm ammo, not when a 115gr Speer Gold Dot at 1300-fps has a +P+ rating. (Incidentally, I also learned the 127gr +P+ Winchester Ranger SXT law enforcement load really did run 1270-fps from the same Glock. Speaking of hot ammo...)
I did chronograph some Independence 158gr .357 Magnum JSP loads at over 1200-fps from my 4" S&W Model 19. And the green-and-white box Remington-UMC 125gr JSP .357 Magnum hit an honest 1450-fps from my 4" S&W 586. Both of those seemed plenty "hot" to me too.
As for "weak", "watered down" and all of the other phrases commonly associated with modern ammo, or "budget" ammo (WWB), also take those with a grain of salt. As already mentioned, modern pressure testing equipment is more sensitive, and capable of showing more information, than copper crusher units did. If you look, you can find stories of those old, hotter than the hinges of Hades, .357 Magnum loadings causing sticky extraction and other pressure-related problems in some guns.
For some reason Winchester White Box gets a bad rep for being "underpowered". I'm not sure it's entirely deserved. I remember chronographing the 240gr .44 Magnum load at 1300-fps from a 6" S&W 629-1. They were a solid 100-fps faster than my reloads with 240gr Hornady XTPs. I've chronographed the standard WWB 115gr 9mm FMJ load that frequently gets called out for being "weak" at 1200-fps from a 4.5" Glock 17. That is NOT weakly loaded 9mm ammo, not when a 115gr Speer Gold Dot at 1300-fps has a +P+ rating. (Incidentally, I also learned the 127gr +P+ Winchester Ranger SXT law enforcement load really did run 1270-fps from the same Glock. Speaking of hot ammo...)
I did chronograph some Independence 158gr .357 Magnum JSP loads at over 1200-fps from my 4" S&W Model 19. And the green-and-white box Remington-UMC 125gr JSP .357 Magnum hit an honest 1450-fps from my 4" S&W 586. Both of those seemed plenty "hot" to me too.