3D Ammo--whatcha think?

D

Don Gwinn

Staff Emeritus
I've never used 3D ammo in any caliber, but I'm thinking about some .45 acp for a Sig 220. The price seems very low even for reloads, and I suppose that makes me wary. Who's tried it and what did you think?
 
I use it alot for plinking. good stuff but remeber its all Lead. the lead in it is preaty good not alot of following but some times in my revolver shooting 38 in my 357 i get some. Not to hard to get out. but for the price its a good source for inexpencive shooting ammo.
 
I tried some of their “remanufactured” ammo in .380 a few years ago.
The lead they used was extremely soft and it leaded my PPK up worse than anything I had ever used.
Their jacketed stuff might be OK, but I’d stay away from their lead cartridges.
 
I tried one box of 3D, 9mm 115gr LRN, and found this to be the only ammo that has made my CZ 75B choke. Lead may be cheaper to shoot but this stuff made it a b***h to clean too. This happened the one and only time I tried 3D and I decided never to use it again. My CZ has not had a problem since, with several different brands of ammo tried.
 
One of the ranges I shoot at frequently uses 3D FMJ ammo as their range ammo. I also order and use the FMJ in my personal guns. So far I have shot over 8,000 rounds (most of that being 124gr 9mm FMJ - but some .45 and .40 also) of the stuff and the only problems I have ever had were 5 really hard primers that took a nice firing pin indentation and still failed to go off until I put them through again. All the hard primers happened in the two different calibers (9mm and .45) from ammo bought at about the same time (around 2 months ago).

Other than that, no problems that could be traced back to the ammo.
 
I've used 3D Reloaded Ammo in two of my Sigs a P220 and a P229 .40. I shot steel plates with my P220, 100 rounds with no problems. The next week without any cleaning, I went to shoot paper and I couldn't drop the slide on a fully-loaded 7 round mag. The top round in the mag nosedived and the soft lead of the bullet hanged up on the front lip of the mag.

It worked with 6 rounds in the mag and was unbelievably inaccurate. I only had about 10 misses when I shot steel and I don't know how I managed that because this stuff would not group at all on paper. It's extremely dirty as well. I had no problems at all shooting it in my P229 but it too was very inaccurate. Both .45 and .40 I shot were underpowered and noticeably so.

I never ever had a jam in my P220 before except for a POS Promag 10 round mag. All other ammo and factory mags it is flawless. I now almost always use Blazer aluminum cased stuff as it's so much cleaner; makes cleaning easier. I'll go many many rounds without cleaning and the gun is still pretty clean and functions fine with the Blazer stuff.

If the 3D stuff is cheap enough, it can't hurt to try some. Just remember, it's dirty as hell and cleaning your gun will be a chore. Plus, it spews a lot of "smoke" that I'm sure isn't too good to breathe, especially in an indoor range.
 
I have used some of their "cowboy" loads in my .44 spec and no problems whatsoever. Did seem a little wimpy out of a snub but pleasant to shoot and pretty accurate.

Sam....follow me, I know the road is right over there.
 
Ordered 500 rounds in LRN for shooting steel targets. Shoots OK but too dirty and leaves too much lead behind for me. Who else makes inexpensive 9mm LRN for IDPA?

Ledbetter
 
I tried a little of 3D's "blue" ammo. This was their new ammo, not remanufactured. It was 185 Grain Hollowpoints in 45 ACP. I had 1 round not seat fully in 8, but the 45 was designed to feed ball ammo rather than HP's. If anything I would recommend a nice round FMJ.
 
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