How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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In the past I've always just shot the cheapest ammo that I could get and I didn't worry about it. But right now I'm trying to improve my shooting skills and I've started to worry that I might not be using the best ammo available, but really I have no idea how to judge the quality of ammunition. For instance, I see on the boxes notes about muzzle velocity and velocity at different ranges, but I have no idea how to interpret those numbers. So now I have a couple of questions:

What's a good 380 ammo for target practice? I'm not a very good shot yet, so I don't know that I need match grade ammo, but I want to make sure I'm not hobbling myself by using something bad without realizing it.

Where can I learn more about ammunition and how to evaluate it? I'd really like to learn more about the performance characteristics of ammo because I'm kind of a technical geek. Recommended books? Websites? Good youtubers to follow?
106+ recreational uses of firearms
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Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

3
spara wrote:At what distances are you shooting? If you're shooting groups at 25 yards it might be a concern, but if you're shooting 3-15 yards most commercial ammo should be fine. If you're really concerned, buy several different brands and different bullet weights and shoot from a rest to see which is most accurate in your pistol.
Yeah, right now I'm shooting at short ranges while I work on improving my grip and trigger control. I don't have a rest, but I did buy several brands of ammo today to take with me on my next trip to the gun range. I'm probably worrying about things that don't really make a difference at my skill level, but I just recently bought a new pistol and it's gotten me interested in shooting again after a break of several months, so I'm trying to absorb as much information as I can right now.
106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

4
Hello,

First, what gun are you shooting? Very few .380acp pistols are capable of stellar precision.

Second, what is the primary role of this pistol? The .380acp is most generally a defensive round. If you carry it for protection, your practice ammo should closely mirror the ballistics of your carry ammo. Recoil should be the same.

Third, if you're going to be shooting a lot or own multiple center fire calibers, reloading may be the way to go.

Regards,

Josh
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Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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Wabatuckian wrote:Hello,

First, what gun are you shooting? Very few .380acp pistols are capable of stellar precision.

Second, what is the primary role of this pistol? The .380acp is most generally a defensive round. If you carry it for protection, your practice ammo should closely mirror the ballistics of your carry ammo. Recoil should be the same.

Third, if you're going to be shooting a lot or own multiple center fire calibers, reloading may be the way to go.
Right now I'm mostly shooting a Walther PK380. I just got it a couple of weeks ago so I'm still getting used to it, and yes I bought it to carry for protection. You make a good point about practicing with something similar to my carry ammo (which at the moment is Hornady Critical Defense 380 FTX).

But I also have a Ruger American Pistol 9mm and a Mini-14 (.223) that I use purely for target shooting, so I'd like to learn how to pick good ammo for those too.

As for reloading, I'm not ready for that. Where I live I don't have room for the equipment.
106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

6
Get some professional training.. armed self defense is just another martial art like Tae Kwando or Judo

Until you can sign up for training read this http://www.saveourguns.com/Ar_Marks_Un_ ... _Guide.pdf

and watch this https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontSightMovies https://www.google.com/search?q=Youtube ... PQFzdmAO0A

but you need a knowledgeable person watching you shoot and correcting any bad habits before they become bad habits.. giving you tips on how to do it better

LGC here has instructors .. ask if any are near you watch any safety video's like the ones I linked to..set up you phone and record yourself shooting .. compare what you are doing and what the experts are doing in the videos

What you want as far as ammo and accuracy is not necessarily "bullseyes" you want consistency.. you get consistent groups then you try different ammo to see if they give you smaller but still consistent groups

You watch enough video's, some expert or another, will be mentioning what ammo you should buy because that is what they use and that company is who sponsors them .. find a gun forum that has a discussion group of folks that use the same pistol you use and ask what ammo makes them happy .. might even ask on here.. but first.. get consistent understand and accept firearms are just another martial art and is a whole mind body weapon thing and an athletic discipline

I know it sounds like lot.. maybe more than you want to get into.. but to the degree you do make a commitment and put effort into it.. you get better at it

and whenever you get a chance try different pistols in your chosen caliber just one caliber at a time for now.. find a range that rents different makes and models of .380's or a group that will share weapons or let you try their 380's .. everybody is sized and shaped different , different sized hands and every make and model is slightly different in shape and angle and spacing and that can make a difference... finding a pistol that fits you, that naturally "points" in your hand is something only you can do.. every pistol is a compromise .. small 380's designed for everyday carry or concealed carry make more compromises than most because they have to be both small and light with small grips and short distance between the grip and the trigger .. that's not necessarily a bad thing.. every handgun is a collection of compromises and even what is fashionable at the time it was designed.. even a 1911 45 acp has only 8 shots.. but at the time that was 2 more than a 6 shooter way enough even for military combat .. until the "wonder 9's" came along with double stack 15-16 rounds .. 32 acp and 380 was more than enough gun power for gangsters in the 20's, heck some used 25 auto's and 22's and somehow got the job done.. now anything less than a 45 is somehow a wimpy gun according to some

Think of it this way a 380 has about the same energy when it hits the target as Billy the Kid's Colt 45 blackpowder cap and ball give take little on his exact powder load and if he was using round ball or conical bullets ..


But I digress .. every pistol is a compromise lots of room for trade off, one to the other on grip size and how far your finger has to reach to be properly on the trigger among other things .. try as many as you can.. not just hold them .. I mean actually shoot them

But read the book I linked to.. get some professional training or coaching so you get off to good start.. watch the videos to see how the pro's do it do the exercises that you do with an unloaded pistol in the video's work for consistency and proper form not speed and accuracy, that will come in time .. then worry about the ammo.

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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I second Spara's guess that any commercial ammo is good enough for you right now. Practice makes perfect. I find most 380s surprisingly accurate because because of their fixed barrels.

Lots of ways to approach learning to shoot well. I'm almost entirely self-taught. Some people love instructors. Some people don't. Even though I wasn't shooting bullseye competition, I found that reading the usamu guide to bullseye quite useful as a self-diagnostic tool and a model for analyzing my own errors.

The two biggest factors in becoming a good shot are caring to be a good shot and practice.
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Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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To echo others, find the cheapest ammo that will reliably run through your guns and shoot it a lot.

I'm self-taught with a lot of book/internet/range-time knowledge. I generally don't take a lot of credence from self-professed "experts" or military types as most of what is taught is just a shit-ton of accelerated practice/application of skills most people would naturally get through a lot of range time and dry-firing.
LGC Texas - Vice President

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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I think it is good to practice with cartridge that is comparable to EDC ammo. That means using the same grain bullet. Th weight of the bullet affect velocity and that affect accuracy. Similarity helps reduce the difference from target to EDC ammo.

I shoot only to keep in practice. I did the learning thing with much ammo expended many years ago. So I shoot the same ammo I carry in my Remington 380. I use Ruger ARX. I bou a box of 25 for $18 and use it a range trip each month. I selected that round because its composite bullet is very light so its velocity is height for a 380. It is the new hydraulic force type of ammo that does not expand but creates a larger TWC than hollow points which generally either won’t expand out of a 380 or do expand but with poor penetration.

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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spara wrote:At what distances are you shooting? If you're shooting groups at 25 yards it might be a concern, but if you're shooting 3-15 yards most commercial ammo should be fine. If you're really concerned, buy several different brands and different bullet weights and shoot from a rest to see which is most accurate in your pistol.
+1

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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you say you're not ready to reload, but when you are you'll find the best ammo is ammo you make yourself. you will put far more care into the ammo you make than any assembly-line will. meanwhile, at self-defense range, just about any store-bought ammo is fine, you won't notice much difference..
that being said,
i'd been shooting for 2-3 years when i encountered a woman who shot her m1a at 1,000 yards (eek!) and she was talking about "internals" and "externals". i'd never heard of the concept before. externals are things outside of you, gun, ammo, weather. sloppy guns are actually kind of rare. internals are things inside of you, things you can control, things you need to control: grip, stance, trigger control, breathing, that sort of thing. work on the internals first.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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Eris wrote:Well that's pretty overwhelming consensus there: don't worry about the ammo and concentrate on the fundamentals of shooting well. OK then!

I still want to learn more about ammo, but I guess i can put it off a bit.
it's fine, i'm doing the same with .22lr. i've a pile of cheap bulk, and then i have 6 or 8 of these little 50 rd boxes of the fancy expensive stuff. long ago i noticed that the bulk ammo does just fine out to about 50 yds, then begins to wander, by 75 most of them just seem to get lost. the plan is to take 2 or 3 varieties to the range and see if one of them shoots better than the others. but ammo won't make me a better shooter. it would be nice if i could buy skill, but it doesn't work that way.

eta: that's such a cute little avatar you have there. so cuddly.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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Eris wrote:Well that's pretty overwhelming consensus there: don't worry about the ammo and concentrate on the fundamentals of shooting well. OK then!

I still want to learn more about ammo, but I guess i can put it off a bit.
Buy the cheapest practice ammo that mirrors your SD ammo. Also, make sure you SD ammo cycles well in your gun.

The Mini 14 is the only gun you own that will likely be affected by your choice of ammo, and you'll probably only see that if you push yourself past 40 yards or so.
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"Person, woman, man, camera, TV."

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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Eris wrote:Well that's pretty overwhelming consensus there: don't worry about the ammo and concentrate on the fundamentals of shooting well. OK then!

I still want to learn more about ammo, but I guess i can put it off a bit.

Friar Frog is a bit of an old time conservative, long time disciple of Jeff Cooper, a man's man 1950 style.. but his shooting pages are a wealth of BS free explanation and clearly explained technical information about shooting, and especially ammo and ballistics http://www.frfrogspad.com/

I usually don't recommend conservative web sites.. but I have had some trouble locating technical type shooting sites with a liberal bent. I am open to suggestion.

just scroll down to the shooting pages and pig out on weapon wisdom, skip the life advice and how the world should be pages

Re: How do I pick a good ammo for practice?

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I use inexpensive range ammo for bulk practice on fundamentals, just find one that's reliable in your firearm. No one can afford adequate trigger time all with quality defensive ammo. But it is also important to practice with your defensive ammo enough to know that it's reliable and that your practice is applicable to the higher-energy defensive rounds, and that your POI is similar enough for your purposes.

For example your fmj practice ammo may feed great, but then put in some +p hollow points and your reliability could be totally different over a couple hundred rounds.
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