When choosing which guns to buy, budget is factored in. That's why I chose the 9mm and 22lr as my first choices.
Just a note : I expect you guys to correct me or disagree with any ideas I may have, but I may give my reasons for my decisions. Remember I'm new to guns so I'm studying and your experiences are very valuable in molding my opinions.
Your logic on choosing to start with the 22lr and 9mm is sound. As to best ammo choices in those flavors it depends on your guns. They are precise little machines and all exhibit preferences for different ammo. Usually it is no surprise quality ammo performance is better.. but sometimes for reasons that are not obvious a gun may perform best with a lower end ammo...???
That said for 22lr it's hard to go wrong with any CCI offerings. Usually it performs very well, burning clean and delivering good accuracy.
9mm there are a lot of good options. For decent practice ammo I use Winchester white box stuff but you may find others that work better in your gun. These days most ammo is good. Personally I steer clear of aluminum and steel cased ammo. It's cheaper but not worth using IMHE.
If I were to counsel a new shooter, I'd suggest starting with a 38 Special and 22 LR handgun. While steel cased, imported 9mm is cheap, quality is cheap also. .38 Special ammo isn't really expensive and 38 is an excellent cartridge to learn reloading. With the current prices of 22 ammo it's a crap-shoot, so I would buy 1 box of each I could find (except no Remington ammo) and see which my gun likes best. I have 2, 22s that really like Blazer and most of my 22s like Federal bulk...
To me, there are about three grades of .22LR. The cheapest are rather terrible. In that group I include Win. superX, Rem. Thunderbolt, and anything made in Mexico. The mid-range is where you want to be; Federal, Remington, etc. The high-grade stuff is what competition shooters use; Eley which comes in different grades, TenX or Match Grade will cost more.
Pretty much the same for 9mm. The cheaper stuff is o.k. for making noise, the mid range is for target practice, and the more costly stuff is for self-defense carry.
If you want some cheap 9mm ammo, the 115gr 9mm perfecta brand at walmart runs great in my glock (no idea about other guns). Just under $10 a box and it's reloadable brass.
22lr is a crap shoot, try what you find and hope for the best.
I agree, Perfecta is my go to 9mm, the old stuff use to have some rough or off flash holes but the past few years its been damn good. As for 22, yeah it depends of your gun. Normally round nose and the hotter the better! Some winchester super x high velocity is some good stuff and its worked in everything. Normally federal is poopoo in my guns.
I don't recall ever buying any Perfecta ammo but I found a lot of the brass I loaded in the last couple of days had the Perfecta head stamp.
There were two times when I went down to visit my family in Florida when I did not take any extra 9mm ammo for my P938. I went over to the local wally world and bought some of the brass cased Tulammo 9mm ammo. It came in round canisters of 100 rounds and was about $18 or $19 each.
I can't add to what has been said other than to say don't be afraid to experiment. Just because you found one that workswell doesn't mean you won't come across another that won't work better.
Good deal. My local walmart keeps a pretty good supply of the Perfecta, but never, ever, EVER has 22lr. It doesn't even get scarfed up by others, it doesn't even get here.
That is a good price on the .22, the last I bought at wally world was 5 cents a piece. I never even look at any other caliber so I don't keep track of their prices.
I found good selection of ammo and price at my local Academy. My 9mm has shot everything I have put through it. My 22s have been good at shooting everything I uses in them. Sadly I cant find any 22mags in my area. You been talking ammo. Have you pick what guns you want to use? Now that question will start a good debate.
I recently picked up a few 325 boxes of Federal Auto-Match. Seems to shoot pretty from all of my 22s, and out of about 700 rounds only two FTF. One was possibly from a light strike.
I stopped buying Remington bulk years ago after I had 10-20 FTF out of two different boxes of the 525 each
Your .22 will tell you which brand is more accurate/dependable. Some .22 firearms happily consume everything you feed them, but some are picky eaters.
Any 9mms (I assume you're talking about the Parabellum, rights?) should launch Winchester White Box, Remington UMC, Federal American Eagle and equivalents from Magtech, PMC, Privi Partizan, Fiocchi, S&B etc...just fine, but even then you'll find some are brands and bullet weights are more accurate in one fire arm than another. Some also leave nasty soot deposits that are a bear to clean.
So experiment! Don't make a power buy without first sampling a variety of what ammo is available in your area. Getting stuck with 300 rounds of inaccurate, undependable ammo is a terrible waste.
Don't ask me how I know.
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