I’ve always used the cheapest ammo I can find and will probably continue to do so. There has always been a weird line between “cheap ammo” and “good ammo,” but no one can really give a good definition. It’s like a federal judge once said about the difference between pornography and art, I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.
That’s how most people talk about cheap ammo versus good ammo. But should you care? I really don’t. What do I need ammo to do? First and foremost, it shouldn’t be dangerous, that would be bad ammo. I’ve seen two handguns blown up and a multitude of other things that are unsafe (including squib loads, cracked brass, primers in wrong, and others) from range reloads. It’s to the point that I just won’t buy them, and won’t shoot them. I don’t care what the range says about them, I won’t shoot them, and you won’t shoot them in my guns.
How is ammo unsafe? Generally, the worst thing that can happen is an over-charged round (or a double charge is more common). Someone put too much powder (or messed up and put 2x the powder that should be in there) in the load that is now in your gun. That increases the chamber pressure and can (and has) caused catastrophic failure to a firearm. I only use reloads from trusted sources (not even my own, because I suck as a reloader). The next dangerous thing you can have is a primer in crooked. If the primer is crushed in or set in sideways, the primer could be broken and ignite the powder by chambering the round, then the round will fire out of battery. Hopefully it’s into the chamber enough that it contains most of the pressure. If not, you will get a face full of brass splinters. Hope you are wearing glasses.
An under charged round can be just as dangerous. If there isn’t enough power in the charge, the bullet might end up half way down the barrel, causing a serious problem when you fire your next round. It has also been found, especially in Magnum and large capacity cases, that an under charge can lead to an over pressure condition. It is unusual but possible. What happens: The powder all sits on the bottom of the case instead of being packed in. When the primer flashes through the hole it ignites all the powder at the same time, when the powder is designed to burn from back to front a little at a time building up pressure more slowly as the bullet runs down the barrel.
If the ammo is safe, then it isn’t bad. What else do you need your ammo to do? Most people talk about performance here, and they want good ammo to preform at the top level. That means no ammo that will cause the gun to malfunction, ammo that shoots nicely, and have great accuracy.
First, Malfunctions: Most malfunctions in new semi-autos are caused by the magazine. So, if you don’t have good magazines, don’t bother with good ammo. You won’t know the difference. Also, I’m a self defense shooter. I shoot games for fun or to improve my self defense skill. One of the skills I want to be good at for self defense is clearing malfunctions. Cheap ammo gives me that opportunity to practice more than normal and make sure my malfunction clearances are happening without thought. It’s one of the reasons I love cheap ammo, and train with it all the time.
Ammo that shoots nice is generally a function of perception, you either like it or you don’t. Most of us (including me) couldn’t tell what ammo we were shooting unless we saw the box the ammo came out of. Once it’s in the gun, most of it feels the same. About the only thing that changes that for handgun shooting are +P rounds. If it isn’t overly aggressive with recoil, don’t worry about it.
Accuracy is the last part of our ammo equation, that is a matter of debate. But don’t worry about it unless you are going to take a bunch of ammo to the range and shoot it all for groups and measure those groups and keep data. For most people, this part of ammo is a perception, too. Don’t worry about it unless you are shooting groups and keeping records. If you aren’t keeping log books or holding targets against each other, you are worrying too much about how accurate the ammo is.
For all those reasons, I shoot cheap ammo for practice. What’s my favorite ammo? The ammo I can get the cheapest. Lately for 9mm is has been Tulammo 115gr FMJ Steel Cased. And I don’t care about the steel cases (in Iraq for a while I actually used Wolf Steel ammo as my duty ammo because it was better than the other two alternatives I could get at the time). Stuck cases can be a problem with dirty chambers, clean your gun. The bigger problem seems to be the harder metal jacket used on the bullet. It wears your barrels out faster. Lucky Gunner proved it in a study they did about steel cased ammo in rifles (find the study here). This is the only actual study I’ve seen of brass vs steel ammo. Go check it out and try it for yourself. Don’t believe what you see or hear in gun shops or the internet.
For rifle, I’ve been shooting Monarch from Academy (regional out-doors store here in the south). It’s their local Russian made brand and probably comes from the same factory as Wolf or Tula. Once again, I don’t care. If you read the study above, I’ll change AR barrels when I need to. I don’t worry about it. I bench shoot my rifles from time to time and if groups start opening up substantially I’ll put in a new barrel. All the other parts don’t seem to have excessive wear on them.
Bottom line: Don’t worry about cheap vs good ammo. Get some ammo and go out and shoot. If I could afford good ammo (match grade in my rifle and pistol) I would shoot it all the time. I can’t afford that so I shoot more with cheaper ammo.
Make sure your skills improve, not your gear.
Stay Safe,
Ben