Now an ammo question...

[Mike R.]

Hello all, A question about ammo is on my mind. Most of the "low price" 9 mm ammo seems about the same to me. Same 1100 feet per second and about the same 325 ft. lbs. energy. Most makers selling the minimum specs for function and reliability. I am talking about Magtech, Armscor, Win white box, Blazer Brass ect. Then I look at the Sellier & Bellot 9mm that shows almost 1300 FPS and over 400 Ft. lbs. energy. So for the same price why would I NOT want to shoot the faster ammo? Would this not be closer than the other brands to a good type of home defense ammo? Would it not make better practice ammo than the slower stuff? I have looked for SAAMI specs and can't find if the S&B ammo would be considered +P ammo. I don't know if this is considered NATO spec 9mm ammo. Only thing I found was a statement that the European ammo is generally a "little hotter" than other ammo. For home defense I use a top brand of hollow points. Any info, thoughts or Ideas are welcome.
Thanks

[leftyo]

imo for practice ammo, dont need the hot stuff. fed am eagle, blazer brass, win white box all good. for defense ammo just run enough of whatever you choose through the gun to make sure its 100% reliable, and hits where the sights look.

[p246]

I shoot softer cheaper stuff a lot. It hits most of the basics, trigger control, sight alignment etc. If you want to work on recoil management and follow through then you would want to shoot your defense load or something ballistically similiar. If we were all rich the answer would be to practice 100 percent of the time with your expensive defense load. Europes specs are different than SAAMMI. How much I do not remember. I shot some S and B and could tell some difference in recoil in 9mm. I use Norma Hunting ammo and it is defiantly hot compared to SAAMI spec stuff.

[Major Tom]

Some cheap ammo is loaded in steel cases which can be bad for your gun. I reload all my ammo using Starline brass.

[S.A. Boggs]

IMHO a 9mm is a plinking round and not much more. With Sigmund my carry round and practice round is the same velocity of 915 fps @ 200 grains. The 230 is a mite stiff and I lose some velocity of about 50 fps. I buy once fired for practice and factory for carry. I also like the standard G.I. and carry WCC 71.
Sam