Ammo

[DDustin]

Not sure where else to post this so if it's in the wrong spot I'm sorry. I'm down to only 120 rounds of 9mm so I'm about to order about 2000. Problem is I'm on a budget and it's hard to find reloading components right now. I've been recommended Universal Ammo and Freedom Munitions by a couple people at matches as possible places to find bulk ammo. I am really liking the prices of the Freedom Munitions ammunition but I'm reading very mixed reviews online, some good, some disturbing. But the dates of the reviews are old and none of the reviewers were commenting from a competition perspective.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these companies, especially their 9mm ammo?

Also what's the primary difference between plated and jacketed? I know what they are, just not how they affect accuracy,

[JDW174]

I've shot 1000 rounds of Freedom's ammo with nary a hiccup. 500 of those were their "Blaster" rounds which they sell as "blemished". I visually inspected all 500 of those rounds before shooting, using the barrel of my G19 as a case gauge. 499 of them passed. The one that didn't had a small split at the case mouth and it looked like the bullet had been slightly off when it was seated. That one got tossed. The rest of the rounds looked as good as WWB or Fed. Champion rounds, and shot better. It's clean and pretty accurate stuff at a decent price. I have 500 rounds of their new 124gr (new Starline brass) setting in the closet waiting it's turn. My opinion?.....It's as good a reman round as you'll find anywhere. Never had a failure of any kind with it.

[DDustin]

How was the accuracy compared to say Federal American Eagle?

[BungeeeMan]

I've shot up a bunch of the freedom ammo, both 115 gr and 147 gr FMJ's in my XDm 5.25 9mm, and it's generally been very good. Their reloaded ammo has always functioned flawlessly, but I did have a bad batch of newly manufactured ammo (in their house ammoload cases) from them once. The bases were slightly convex, so I had a few ignition failures because the striker didn't put a deep enough dent into the primer to light it off. This happened with maybe 1% of the rounds, but after I told freedom about it, they replaced the whole case of ammo (even though I had shot about half of it up in a class) and the new batch of ammo (still in ammoload cases) has functioned perfectly. Their ammo is probably on par or better accuracy-wise with American Eagle (I haven't shot all that much AE, but I don't remember it being stellar), and I've used it for quite a few club matches over the last year or so.

[DDustin]

Well that’s some excellent customer service. What’s an ammoload case? Like a regular ammo can or something else that they include?

[BungeeeMan]

Ammoload is just the brand name they use to headstamp their brass cases, and I think they also make commercial loading machines under the same name. I've heard the company is manufacturing brass for other companies with their names on it, and they sell plated bullets under the x-treme bullets brand name. If you buy reloaded ammo from them you'll get about one of every head stamp known to man in a box, which doesn't seem to matter, but all the new ammo I've seen from them came with that ammoload headstamp.

[DDustin]

Got it, I would have prefered a cool ammo can to a head stamp but it's still nifty haha.

[Icecold]

I shoot the forty reman from freedom love the stuff been through about a 1000 rounds not one problem very very clean ammo looks brand new I can't tell the difference

[DDustin]

It looks like right now they only have 124gr in HP and 115 in RN. The XDm seems to really prefer 124gr, would accuracy suffer at all with HP? Also are there any rules against using them in 3gun, USPSA or IPDA?

[BungeeeMan]

The accuracy will probably be about the same with plated HPs. A lot of people shoot hollowpoints in matches, and they're legal for all 3 sports.

[Scooter567]

I know this isn't a direct answer to your question, but it might help anyway. Before I started reloading I was buying my 9mm ammo from Washougal cartridge company. Their prices on reloads were great, and superb reloads. I felt that they were better than factory new. I had a problem with one round out of several hundreds. I emailed them and let them know abou it, just because. They offered to send me a box of 25 or 50 to make up for it. I declined because I just thought that was great customer service. Instead I placed an order for a few hundred more. A few months later I ran into them at a gun show, and I mentioned that I had bought from them and loved their product etc. I mentioned that I had had a bad round, and he actually remembered me and our entire conversation. I was impressed and I would still be using their ammo if I didn't enjoy reloading so much!

[Vanniek71]

For ammoload questions:

Ammoload, Freedom Munitions, Xtreme bullets, and Howlett Machine are all the same company.... Or owned by the same company anyways.

I have vast experience with their brass, bullets and loaders....

The brass sucks for reloaders, unless you are only loading Ammoload brass. Inside towards the bottom of the case it is extra thick (when you look in it, it is like a double thick case towards the head) for lack of a better term, which I am assuming is to help out with bulges from unsupported chamber guns (Glocks) anyways when you are prepping/resizing it, it will throw your case check if you are using a commercial case processor like a Camdex. It will also throw your case check on an Ammoload loading machine if you have the case check station set for regular brass. And the third issue with it, is since that extra thickness is in there it takes up space, and will cause your powder check to trip every time. (Overcharge)

So like I said if you are reloading, separate it out, it's good brass if you are only loading that brass, if it's mixed in with others it will give you some false alarms.

Sorry for the derail there, just wish I would have known before I had to figure it out on my own lol

And for ammo, check out Atlanta Arms, they make great reloads and new ammo.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Vanniek71