Rate pistol ammunition manufacturers

Z

zincwarrior

New member
After thinking about this thread how would you qualify who are good pistol ammunition manufacturers from best vs. poor, by personal experience?
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=465605

I can think of Winchester, Remington, Black Hills, Federal, Hornady, PMC, Magtech, Wolf, the bears (gold, silver etc).
My personal list, more to just get the ball rolling. In interests of fairness I have not shot Honrady, nor Black hills but heard very good things. Others consist of .22lr, 9mm, .45ACP, and .380ACP calibers. This is based on standard FMJ rounds - not high end (or higher end) self defense or target rounds (unless that is all they make).

Hornady, Black Hills (heard, not shot myself)
Federal
Remington
Winchester
Magtech/PMC
Sellior (S&B)
Wolf
da Bears.

Others and rating?
 
Here's a list of hangun ammo manufacturers carried by Cabelas.com (alphabetical order)

Black Hills (2)
Buffalo Bore (1)
CCI (1)
Cor Bon (2)
Extreme Shock (1)
Federal (10)
Fiocchi (1)
Herter's (22)
Hornady (9)
Hunting Shack (11)
Magtech (10)
MFS 2000 (2)
PMC (6)
PRVI Partizan (1)
Remington (7)
Sellier & Bellot (3)
Speer (1)
Ten-X (1)
Ultramax (12)
Winchester (17)
 
Of those I've tried (and I'm a handloader, so mostly rimfire ammo):

CCI
Federal
Hornady
Aguila
Winchester
Remington

I've shot others, but not enough to have an educated opinion on them.

I placed Remington at the bottom, simply because their brass is the hardest, and most brittle. For handloading, that makes their brass last the least, and makes rimfire ammo harder to ignite.

IMO, the difference between Hornady, Aquila, and Winchester is slight, but exists. CCI has always been #1 for me, with Federal not far behind. They make good ammo.

All this said, there are particular types of ammo made by each of these that would likely cause me to place them at different levels than I have. All make some ammo that excels, and most make some that doesn't.

Daryl
 
I'm a Federal and CCI fan. I've had good luck and find them consistant. American Eagle for plinking and Hydra Shok for defense. CCI for rimfire.
 
Factory center-fire ammo

I ceased purchasing any factory center-fire rifle / pistol ammo in 1977. Since then, 100% of the ammo i consume is carefully crafted by me !!!!!

The only factory ammo i purchase is .22lr rimfire & the occasional box of shotgun shells.

Guru1911
 
I mostly shoot my loads. When I do buy factory I buy Winchester, have for 30 years. However, I have found Silvertips sadly lacking for shooting people.
 
For FMJ, I seek out CCI/Speer. Awesome, consistent quality at a usually reasonable price. They shoot on the hotter side. Clean shooting too! I even like the bullet weights they offer. For defense, currently I seek out Federal HST and Speer Gold Dot.
 
It's not so much what I like as what my gun likes. It'll shoot anything, but, like my wife, it likes high carat weight jewels the best. It just coos and sighs especially over 158gr PRVI round nose (9mm) and, also prefers mostly 147gr Fed HST and Rem Golden Sabres. Aquilla and Fiocchi 124 gr round nose are ok, too. But it doesn't like those aluminum cartridge 115gr things (and I don't either), but it will shoot em. It also seems to think Federal round nose, especially 124gr and larger, and Win 147gr flat nose are A1, too.

PRVI seems to be very excellent ammo. I would use it more often but it isn't always available. Wish it was a USA company, though. I'ts a little more expensive than than Aguilla and Fiocchi, but so is Federal (although american eagle is pretty inexpense and AOK with my gun, too). I would try PRVI's hollow points but I can't discover whether it's expansion and bonding technilogies match up to modern defensive ammos like HST, GS bonded, and the newer Win bonded.

If it were just up to me, I'd use the cheapest ammo I could find (other than that nasty blazer stuff), for most range shooting but I want to keep my gun happy and content, so I try to pamper it a little.
 
Best ammo I have ever shot is ASYM Precision from Stan Chen customs. The stuff is clean, consistent, very accurate. Available for defense, target loads, bullseye.

I have shot virtually every brand of 45ACP there is and this is THE BEST. Second would be Federal Gold Medal.

In 22lr, I like Wolf MT, Eley Sport for practice, and for plinking Federal Automatch.
 
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