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Anyone seen this yet? Bass Pro Shops have teamed up with Winchester and rolled out a new line of ammunition:
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... erralID=NA

The stuff looks and performs a lot like the "White Box" loads. However, there are some nice touches like the lubalox coating and matched ballistics between practice (FMJ) and defense (JHP) versions. Pricing doesn't look too bad either.

Here's some informal testing of the 9mm 115 JHP done on another forum. It expanded OK, but didn't do very well compared to a 147 Ranger-T (Winchester Premium LE) round:
http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/ ... 034611/p/2

I might try a box or two for practice or around the house. For carry though, I'll stick with 124 +P Gold Dots.

with the cost of copper continuing to escalate, I would bet we will be seeing a lot more poly or lubalox type coatings on lead bullets to cut costs. My concern is the amount of cleaning that may be required after firing a large number of rounds, and/or the possibility of excessive lead fouling, or heat related build-up of the coating?

Not enough to worry about

The lubalox is supposed to reduce bore fouling, but it's actually a pretty soft material. So your barrel might not need scrubbed out as often, but I bet the action will get just as dirty.

Lets make something cheaper, give it a hi-tech name and put it in fancy packaging and raise the price. Yeah, that's the ticket.

$22 for 50 rounds of "practice" ammo?

I think the FMJ "practice" 9mm is $15 a box, the JHP "defense" is $20. Still nowhere near the cheapest stuff around though... It's like gas prices - For awhile I absolutely refused to pay any more than $3 a gallon and would go out of my way to find the cheap stuff. Now it just can't be found for less than $3.09 around here, so I grit my teeth and put up with it. Ammo is the same way. I have really cut back on range time and # of rounds I shoot per visit, but it's still outrageously expensive compared to yesterday's prices. I will be reloading, soon!

I wonder if they will turn your fingers green like the white box Winchester ammo does after 200 rounds?

HighVelocity wrote:

Lets make something cheaper, give it a hi-tech name and put it in fancy packaging and raise the price. Yeah, that's the ticket.

That's the American way!

While it is certainly better to have your practice and carry ammo as similar as possible, I don't worry about it too much.

My usual modus operandi when I first purchase a gun is to fire a box of carry and practice ammo through it, both so that I can get a feel for what the carry ammo feels like, and so that I can make note of how the carry ammo impacts relative to point of aim compared to how the practice ammo impacts the target.

After that, I quit worrying about it and shoot all the practice ammo I want. Probably not very disciplined, but there it is...

In any case, since I don't shoot up a lot of carry ammo at the range, I'm not bothered by spending a lot of money on a couple of boxes of it to keep around the house. The truth is, it could be $100/box of 20, and I would still figure that my life is worth more than $100. It's kind of like buying a motorcycle helmet. How much is your head worth? I don't buy cheap helmets. My head is worth more than that - even if I never crash. Same with carry ammo. My life is worth more than the cost of the cartridges - no matter what they cost, and even if I never have to fire them.

While I'm not sold on 145 grain 9mm loads I have to wonder if 115 is ideal for a defensive load. I do like the idea of evil looking black bullets making a comeback.

The Annoyed Man wrote:The truth is, it could be $100/box of 20, and I would still figure that my life is worth more than $100. It's kind of like buying a motorcycle helmet. How much is your head worth? I don't buy cheap helmets. My head is worth more than that - even if I never crash. Same with carry ammo. My life is worth more than the cost of the cartridges - no matter what they cost, and even if I never have to fire them.

Careful what you wish for... With yet ANOTHER price increase looming on the horizon (April 1), and since ammo has gone up a good 75% over the last two years, numbers like that ain't too far away I am buying all I can with every paycheck after the bills are paid...