Ammo Tests

I have taken a few different heavy rifles on safari, but my light rifle has always been a .300 Winchester. I’ve taken it all over North America as well, using it for deer, bears, antelope, caribou and more. Why? What is it about the .300 Winnie that makes it such a universally applicable cartridge? Allow me to pontificate.

When a homeowner uses an AR-15 to defend himself, the question arises … should we be worried about shoot through inside of our homes, and are pistols or shotguns a better choice than rifles? Basically, is a 5.56mm AR too much for home defense, or is it the right choice?

Premium self-defense ammo can cost over a buck a round. With this in mind, we decided to run Remington’s HTP 9mm through the wringer. Going price is about $23 per box. However, that’s a box of 50 rounds, not the usual 20 for most self-defense ammo. That works out to about 45 or so cents a round, less than half the price of other self-defense ammo.

Taking the idea of “light and fast” model to new levels, the Civil Defense projectiles weigh in at well under half that same caliber traditional bullets. For example, the 9mm projectile weighs just 50 grains. Compare that to 115 or 124 grains for common 9mm defense rounds. The .45 ACP bullets weigh in at 78 grains as compared to a more traditional weight range of 185 to 230 grains. The result is blistering speed.

What do you do if you don’t feel that a 12-gauge slug doesn’t have enough stopping power? OK, so maybe if you ever feel under gunned with a shottie slug you’re fighting Godzilla, but, hey, it could happen. You could try to stuff a 40mm grenade in there, but that requires all sorts of complicated licensing. A more realistic option might be to use a fragmenting projectile design. That’s exactly what Winchester Ammunition has done with their PDX1 Defender Segmenting Slug.

We’ve all been there. We have spent a lot of money on a new, exciting gun, are still eyeing some extra magazines and a good optic, and are quickly running out of cash. So, where do you skimp? For most people, it is on ammo. Sure, we have all been there, looking for the cheapest rounds we can find so we can get out on the range for the least amount of money. And, we have also heard how this can be a mistake and not be good for our firearms. Is it true?

While most premium self-defense ammo will cost you over a buck per round, Remington’s HTP line appeals to the more budget conscious crowd. Packed in boxes of 50, it sells for about the same as most self-defense ammo packaged in boxes of 20. Doing the fancy math indicates that it’s a little less than half the cost of the most expensive stuff.

I’ve always been a big fan of .357 Sig caliber. Yeah, I know, it’s got more recoil and muzzle blast than 9mm. On the other hand, it comes darn close, and sometimes matches, the performance of the classic 125-grain .357 Magnum round. It’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of that cartridge.

One big contributor to poor group consistency is bullet concentricity in the case. Think of it this way, if you stuff a bullet into a cartridge case exactly straight, then a line from the center of the tip through the exact center of the base would continue on through the mathematical center of the case and out the center of the primer.