Beancounter data: Ammo counts by caliber and manufacturer

C

Cousin Pat

New member
I got interested in ammunition varieties by major calibers and manufacturer. Here is the summary data (gathered from the Midway Catalog #32 except PMC):

Among 14 manufacturers, there are --

115 choices in 9mm x 19 (including +P and +P+, excluding bulk buys)
155 choices in .38 Special (86) and .357 Mag (69) (including +P)
88 choices in .40 SW
91 choices in .45 ACP (including +P and +P+)

Among manufacturers --

MagTech (75), Winchester (60) and Remington (57) = 36% of total
Federal (46), Fiocchi (45), Black Hills (36) & Speer (36) = next 30%
The rest comes from 7 more suppliers: CCI Blazer (30), Buffalo Bore (30), Corbon (29), Extreme Shock (28), Hornady (23), Double Tap (22) and PMC (18).
 
I did an online survey of commercial ammunition in several calibers in 2006. I listed every loading I could find for which the manufacturer included velocity and bullet weight figures online.

10mm--35 commercial loads available
.40 S&W--82 commercial loads available
.41 Magnum--22 commercial loads available
.357Magnum--68 commercial loads available
.357SIG--27 commercial loads available

Here's an excerpt from September/October 2007 American Handgunner
COPTALK column by Massad Ayoob Winchester’s LE Seminar

“While 9mm is still far and away the best selling centerfire handgun caliber among retail customers, the .40S&W is the clear-cut bestseller in the police sector, followed by the 9mm and .45ACP.”​
 
10mm--35 commercial loads available
Click to expand...
This is a shocker to me. Last I saw, Remington made 1, CCI offered 2, Federal offered 1, Hornady offered 1, Winchester offered 1 (it's future is in doubt) and I've never seen one from Fiocchi or S&B or Magtech, Black Hills quit some time ago... leaving the rest to only three companies: Cor-Bon that makes a couple, Buffalo Bore that makes a couple, and Double Tap that makes a slew of them.

Perhaps there were more in 2006?
 
Here's the list of makers, but yes, things have changed some in the last few years. For example, Fiocchi & PMC no longer catalog a 10mm loading.

Winchester
Remington
PMC
Hornady
Georgia Arms
Fiocchi
Federal
Double Tap
CorBon
CCI
Buffalobore
 
Relevant comments to anyone who is considering a 10mm or has one and is new to the caliber:

There's two different worlds in 10mm factory ammo. Much of it is FBI spec load, which is basically .40S&W performance in a larger, much more expensive 10mm case. This ammo is a waste of your time and a tremendous waste of your money. I don't know for sure how everyone's ammo fits, but I know a couple of them for sure.

Winchester's 175 grain Silvertip 10mm load is the hottest (best) factory 10mm pill available from the big four U.S. companies. It's better than anything from Federal, Remington or CCI. A couple problems with this load is that the bullet technology is very old (1980s) so it's likely not up to the standards of today's Gold Dot, Ranger SXT and the myriad of other "new" defense bullets. Another problem is that there have been rumors that Winchester is going to discontinue this ammo as there isn't much demand for the Silvertip bullet... and if they quit making the Silvertip bullet, the 10mm Silvertip loaded ammo is history.

IMO, seems like a short stretch to take a .40S&W SXT bullet and develop it for a full power 10mm load, but the big ammo companies don't do a lot of "niche" ammo building, so I'm not holding my breath. I'd sure love to see a Ranger SXT 10mm loading, though.

On the other side of the fence is my least favorite 10mm factory load-- Federal's Hydra Shock 10mm. Horribly expensive and not much more powerful (if any) than their 40 S&W Hydra-shock. I'd rather they quit making 10mm ammo then duping folks in to paying big money for weak ammo.

I also don't like CCI Blazer 10mm simply because of the cheap, non-reloadable aluminum case. 10mm is a caliber that almost demands that you handload, so this stuff just bothers me.

Buffalo Bore, Cor-Bon and Double Tap are all smaller factory ammo makers, but all of them make full power 10mm ammo. Buffalo Bore is the most expensive. Double Tap is the best bet because they offer a whole bunch of bullet weights and sell all their ammo in 50 rounds boxes rather than 20 or 25 round boxes like everyone else.
 
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