Ammo Tests

With so many different types of rifle and pistol shooting it can be a real challenge to pick the best targets for your money to take to the range. However, after 30 years of shooting these are my top five picks for getting in some great practice, and they can be used for rifle or pistol.

Today we are concerning ourselves with self-testing, and a new product I have been trying out. If you have been watching the channel over the last 8 months, you have seen me testing bullets in Clear Ballistic Gel, from clearballistics.com.

Late last year, Remington introduced a new line of range ammunition specifically made for use with suppressed firearms, Remington Subsonic, launched in 9MM, .45 ACP and 300BLK.

Hornady has been slaying it in the ammo department. You’d think they’d take a minute to rest. But this week I tried three new Hornady offerings and each was a winner.

In spite of the desert winds gusting over 18 mph, some of us were making contact with the plate, at 1,760 yards – one full mile – with a 6.5 Creedmoor.

We got a chance this week to really wring out the new 224 Valkyrie loading from Hornady, the 88-grain special announced at the NRA show back in April. Valkyrie has been a strange animal over the last year. It has the potential to change how we think of small frame AR’s, and what they are capable of. But it has not been without controversy.

In addition to making tissue look like it went through a blender, G9 also touts an unparalleled ability to penetrate auto glass, and stay on target. This is a bigger problem than you might think if you have never spent any time blasting auto glass.

With great ammo, you can turn a $400 handgun into one that shoots as well as a gun that costs many thousands. The opposite is true as well. Sometimes cheap ammo can turn a handgun that cost many thousands of dollars into one that shoots about as well as a cheap one.

You literally cannot ask for anything more than that out of a pistol bullet. When moving at pistol velocities, a projectile’s only real wounding mechanism is penetration.