Cheap Ammo Brands - Any of it good enough?

I shot 200 rds. of Win WB out of my G19 this past Saturday, this was a Wally's $37.86 price rollback for the 200rd box. I hit the targets fine, but I never remember WWB being this dirty! My hands were black by the time I got done, I know there has been a lot of web banter about new vs. old recipe WWB, but they must have changed the powder in the new stuff, I've never seen such dirty ammo!
 
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You bought some of the cheapest ammo that WW sells in a bargain price for a 200 round box. This is the stuff they sweep up off the floor after a long run of their regular stuff. It all worked. It went where you aimed. Wash your hands, clean the gun and you're good.

Reminds me of the guy who's flying coast to coast for less than $300. and tosses a You Tube worthy fit because his bottle of water isn't cold enough.

tipoc
 
I only shot Tul when the ammo crisis was the worst. Wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole now.

Have not had major problems with WWB, PPU, Fiocchi or Magtech in most pistol calibers. Not that crazy about Magtech.

Reloads can be a bit spotty - had some really really bad .38 reloads, very dirty and questionable performance (keyholing).

My .22 is different. Very finicky, shoots CCI and Aguila well, lousy with Federal and WWB turns it into a single-shot.
 
I've shot all of those brands in 9mm except PMC, but I've shot a lot of their .223/5.56 without issue. All of those brands are good to go in my experience, but be advised that depending on where it is made, GECO may have bi-metal jackets, which some ranges frown upon. Maybe made in Hungary? Still good ammo, though.

There have been some S&B references as well. Also good, usually cheap, but has hard primers that some guns don't like.
 
Fiocchi
PPU
GECO
CCI
Magtech
PMC
Federal
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I have shot all of them, and had no problems or compaints. Most of them are, in fact, "major," mainstream manufacturers, albeit not all based in the United States. Magtech sells remanufactured ammunition (meaning used components), but I've never had any problems with it. Federal is one of the largest ammunition manufacturers in the world. Their American Eagle is basically at the same level of price and quality as Winchester USA and Remington UMC.

The ones I steer clear of are the steel-cased stuff from Russia, and some of the new brands that have recently materialized on the shelves at Wal-Mart in place of the known brands.
 
tipoc: said:
You bought some of the cheapest ammo that WW sells in a bargain price for a 200 round box. This is the stuff they sweep up off the floor after a long run of their regular stuff. It all worked. It went where you aimed. Wash your hands, clean the gun and you're good.
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So noted, you left off "carry a small bottle of D-Lead hand soap to get the black grime off my hands"
 
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PPU 308 Match 165 gr. BTHP is very accurate out of M1As. I used a lot of PPU in European Mil Surps with no problems, plus its reloadable.
Perfecta, sold at Walmart, is alright. Silver Bear 9mm works very well. I had some Silver Bear 308 that was $10 a box, good but you can't find it anymore. GECO is also eastern bloc ammo and is pretty good.
I have actually been recently disappointed with generic Federal center fire rifle ammo. Not very accurate, wouldn't group. Their green tip is crap. PMC green tip is a lot better.
 
Ha. It's pretty much like gasoline where you are buying octane. Ammo if it goes boom it is just fine. If you are target shooting with money on the line then maybe get finiky.

.02

David. :)
 
JDBerg: said:
So noted, you left off "carry a small bottle of D-Lead hand soap to get the black grime off my hands"
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Yesterday I shot another 200 rounds of WWB through my G19, and this time I did carry a small bottle of D-Lead hand soap to get the black grime off my hands! I think Winchester should include a free bottle of this stuff in each box!
 
Brancasterr said:
Now that I'm going to the range much more frequently those cheapo ammo brands are starting to catch my eye. I typically stick with the big name brands I know and trust, but when I'm surfing these ammo sites I can't help but notice the savings I could be passing up by not branching out to cheaper range ammo.

So I ask, are any of the cheap brands on the market worth my time? Do I need to worry about potential damage to my guns?

I have a few older handguns that I really only want to use the best for, but if I can consciously get away with shooting cheaper stuff through them then I'll go for it!

Brands in curious about are below (some may be on the more cheaper side of the cheap spectrum).



Fiocchi
PPU
GECO
CCI
Magtech
PMC
Federal
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All of the listed are considered "namebrand" ammo and good to go; what do you consider a "big brand name"? What caliber are you looking at?

Most of the time, the European brands are loaded a little hotter than US brands, and often the older guns run better with them.
 
Try going to ammoseek. There are European 9mm ammo from CCI that's dirt cheap with brass or if your range allows look at the Russian ammo on line. Their ammo is steel cased, which none of my ranges allow me to use. My ammo
that I get online costs $8.99 or $9.99 per box of 50 for target practice.
 
I shoot federal, wwb, and Remington green box 9mm all for less than $10/50 rounds picked up locally at big box stores. How much does shipping offset the savings when ordering online? Honest question since I've never ordered ammo online.
 
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