Ammo Tests

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.

Can a 6.5 Creedmoor shoot a mile? It can get there, but it is right at the edge. With a handloaded 135 gr Hornady A-Tip at 2,770 fps, the bullet went subsonic about 100 yards short of a mile at roughly 2,000 feet and 73 degrees, and stayed supersonic about 100 yards past a mile [...]

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.

One of the great stories of 2018 was the introduction of a new caliber by Federal, the 224 Valkyrie. Initially announced in October of 2017, by SHOT Show 2018, the world was abuzz. The 224 Valkyrie promised to turbocharge the small frame AR rifle, with ballistics that blew the doors off past challengers such as 6.5 Grendal and 22 Nosler. It helped that it was released and backed by Federal, a giant in the ammunition industry. But still, many people questioned the new caliber? Would it deliver? And would it catch on enough to remain available?