Planning on buying my 1st gun, an M&P 40 compact. I think I remember someone telling me once that you should buy 2 different kinds of ammo. Cheaper ammo for the range and good stuff for the real deal. True/false? Also, any recommendations on what ammo I should get.

Thanks.

 

Always choose the cheap ball ammo for the range if you are just working on shooting drills or doing a shooting course. Makes no sense to burn through the high dollar +P+ hollow point rounds for target practice

 

Yes, I agree.

However, some people (me included) believe in buying a few different brands, types, grain, etc personal protection rounds and seeing which works best for you. Compare recoil, grouping, etc and pick the one that performs best.

 

Yep, try out a bunch and see what you like best. Even two guns of the same make and model can have different results with the same ammo.

 

The other thing that I have always suggested for a personal protection weapon is to make sure and try out the hollow points that you decide to shoot. I like to fire 100 rounds of it through my firearm before I will carry it. It can get expensive since most HP's come in 25 round boxes, but my life is definitely worth the price.

And maybe its just me, but there is absolutely no way I am ever firing reloads that I did not do myself. I know too many people that drink beer or just get distracted while reloading.

 

Buy the cheapest ammo (with exception of wolf) for plinking. But home defense buy quality ammo. Make sure you run your at least some of your home defense ammo through your gun to check functionality.

 

I have a Red Ryder BB Gun for home defense that I use the same round in all the time. I crank a few rounds out of it every night...i hate cats...sometimes I load a round in then put three to four back down the barrel to make a shotgun round. Works really well when you are dealing with pack of wild cats.

 

I like Winchester white box (USA label) for practice ammo. That or Blazer Brass. Both FMJ and JHP are available in the WWB, but the Blazer is only ball. They are fairly clean burning (easier cleaning when you finish shooting), and are pretty accurate for such cheap ammo. I have also had good results with ammo from Georgia Arms. Their "Canned Heat" is a good deal if you want to buy in bulk. It is remanufactured ammo, but good stuff. Another cheap ammo option is Monarch brass cased from Academy (actually rebranded Prvi Partizan). It's dirtier, loaded a little weak, and is a little more inconsistent in POI, but it is cheap.

For self defense, ammo will vary by brand, caliber, barrel length, and bullet design. I don't shoot the .40 SW, so I can't offer up any real wisdom on terminal ballistics of any particular SD round in that caliber, but I can tell you that the best resource out there that I've found so far is Brassfetcher. Google it.

The M&P and the M&P Compact are good weapons, but the trigger is a little weird if you're not used to it. It kind of has a squishy feeling until you come around to it, due to the second hinge from the passive safety, but they are accurate, reliable, and probably my favorite of the striker fired pistols out there right now.


Jason

 

x2 on the Winchester White Box and Blazer. UMC isn't bad either They're great plinking rounds. Stay away from the dirt cheap stuff, it fouls the gun and can be unreliable. I like Hornaday, Winchester Supreme, and Corbon for daily carry.

 

As for plinking ammo to follow up on my previous post, PMC is good stuff to jsut blow off, as other have said so is WWB. As previously mentioned, STAY AWAY FROM WOLF. It's CRAP ammo, it wont cycle, and it fouls up your gun exponentially faster than most any other brand.

As for HD ammo, federal makes some EXCELLENT rounds, as does SPEER. But like I said earlier, MAKE SURE you buy different types of HD ammo and run it through your gun to ensure proper cycling. Considering it's a new weapon system it will likely handle hollow-points, but you never know... certain guns like the taste of certain ammo other other ammo types.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. I work with firearms for a living and prefer to carry the M&P .40c daily.