Today ammo is ammo. Trying to get ammo is like pulling teeth. I’ve never cared what other people said about whether ammo was good or bad. I only care that it works. Working is a relative term. I’ve seen a lot of classes, schools, and ranges that specify U.S. made, newly manufactured, brass cased ammo only. Sometimes it’s appropriate because of the systems used at the range, and other times, it’s personal experience.
When I lived in California, I was part of an indoor range. The range required that you buy their ammo when renting their guns. The range employees always said it was because they wanted to make sure only “good” ammo went through their guns. Sounded reasonable to me at the time. The only problem was that they used a small local company that reloaded the ammo. I don’t remember what the company name was or the name of the range, but they blew up more handguns than I’d ever heard of. During the couple years I was a member there, I saw a Berretta M92SF, a Sig P226, an HK, a .357 revolver, and a couple others that I don’t remember. They sold their reloads at a good price, but I never bought any (I was afraid my gun would be next). Obviously, I would consider that bad ammo.
Anything beyond blowing up a gun, I would consider good ammo. Lots of people will tell you this ammo or that ammo isn’t any good for x. But the truth is, as long as the ammo doesn’t blow up the gun, the ammo is good for something. I use any ammo. I started buying Wolf Ammo when it first came to America. I bought a case of .223 for super cheap. I couldn’t get it to run in my rifle after about 400 rounds. I got lots of practice clearing malfunctions and got really good at it. I sold it to someone with an AK in .223. He couldn’t get it to run in his rifle either. He ended up weighing each round and found that every fourth or fifth round only had about half a powder charge in it.
Wolf got better at their quality control and I’ve shot thousands of rounds from them over the years. I’ve also shot ammo from Korea and South Africa without any issues. I used to know a local reloading company in California and bought thousands of rounds from them over the years and shot it all. I miss those guys. They did a great job and were really cheap. They’d even give me a better deal because I’d bring them brass back after I shot the ammo.
Most people say steel cased ammo is bad, but I shoot lots of it in almost everything I have. My Glock doesn’t care if the ammo is steel cased. Some people tell me that the malfunction rate in Russian ammo is higher than others, but I don’t care. I use the cheapest ammo I can find for practice and personally prefer Federal Ammunition for my self defense ammo. I only use a large tested manufacturer for my self defense stuff. I want my self defense ammo to fire every time but my practice I don’t care because if it fails to work I get malfunction practice.
Besides second-rate small-time reloads from someone I don’t know, the only other ammo I have any concerns with shooting is military surplus. In the civilian world I have not seen an AR blown apart because of bad ammo, I have seen multiple rifles blown apart in the military by bad ammo. Take care shooting that military surplus 5.56 you got for a good price.
Today, I buy whatever I can find. The only exception to that rule is the ammo going into my precision .308. That rifle I only feed match brass ammo because I don’t want any extra wear on the chamber or throat to keep up the accuracy. With a precision rifle, brass vs. steel cased ammo may be a concern, but anything else, it doesn’t matter.
Unless you are trying to get sub MOA groups at 500 yards and beyond, don’t even worry about the ammo you are putting into your rifles and pistols for practice.
Stay Safe,
Ben