So whenever I am shaking down a new gun I like to run a mix of ball weights and of course some defensive ammunition.
I have pretty much settled on Gold Dots and HST as my go to defensive ammo so that is generally what I run in my testing phase. Today however I was cleaning out some old stocks of ammo and I had with me some Gold Dot, HST, Hornady TAP, Hydra Shock, a little Golden Sabre and some fairly old Remington Green and White Box hollow points.
So we all know to function test our defensive ammo. I am also of the mind that any decent, reliable defensive ammo is about as good as their peers. One thing however most folks don't take into consideration if they just grab a cheap box of HP defensive ammo is the flash of the powder. The cheap stuff usually doesn't use low flash powder...................
....
So about that old Remington Green and White Box HP stuff. Holy Pink Floyd Batman, what a light show. Fairly inconsistent as well. This stuff would definitely distract you in ANY kind of low light as it was distracting under direct light.
Now I am not saying a box of cheaper grade defensive hollow points are ineffective crap just pointing out, mostly for folks new to the game, that low flash powder makes a big difference. I had a mag loaded up with a mix of Gold Dot, Hydrashok, TAP and the stuff above. When you hit that cheap stuff it was like a camera flash.
So anyhoo, might be something else to keep in mind for the new shooters to consider as most of the time we tend to hammer reliability of a given load and forget to mention other factors like consistency and flash.
As always, take care, shoot safe,
Chris
I have pretty much settled on Gold Dots and HST as my go to defensive ammo so that is generally what I run in my testing phase. Today however I was cleaning out some old stocks of ammo and I had with me some Gold Dot, HST, Hornady TAP, Hydra Shock, a little Golden Sabre and some fairly old Remington Green and White Box hollow points.
So we all know to function test our defensive ammo. I am also of the mind that any decent, reliable defensive ammo is about as good as their peers. One thing however most folks don't take into consideration if they just grab a cheap box of HP defensive ammo is the flash of the powder. The cheap stuff usually doesn't use low flash powder...................
....
So about that old Remington Green and White Box HP stuff. Holy Pink Floyd Batman, what a light show. Fairly inconsistent as well. This stuff would definitely distract you in ANY kind of low light as it was distracting under direct light.
Now I am not saying a box of cheaper grade defensive hollow points are ineffective crap just pointing out, mostly for folks new to the game, that low flash powder makes a big difference. I had a mag loaded up with a mix of Gold Dot, Hydrashok, TAP and the stuff above. When you hit that cheap stuff it was like a camera flash.
So anyhoo, might be something else to keep in mind for the new shooters to consider as most of the time we tend to hammer reliability of a given load and forget to mention other factors like consistency and flash.
As always, take care, shoot safe,
Chris