what ammo to use?

[5.0 beast]

im wanting to know what ammo would be best/cheapest/most beneficial to use to go to the range with for both mine and my wife's first gun.

mine- springfield xd40sc
hers- taurus pt111 pro 9mm

we're wanting to go to the range today to shoot them and i believe only place besides the range and various pawn shops that carry the ammo is wal-mart. also are there sites online to get ammo cheaper?

im new to guns and ammo so i'd need to know what brand of ammo and casings and whatever else there is to take into consideration. thanks

and also where would i get more magazines for both from? thanks again

[propellerhead]

Walmart has the cheapest ammo. Get the Winchester target practice ammo. It's in the white box. This is also known as WWB - Winchester White Box. Sometimes you'll find CCI Blazer Aluminum cheaper than WWB. That's good too.

Academy Sports is your next best bet. Their CCI Blazer Aluminum is their cheapest. Most will tell you to avoid Monarch and Wolf ammo.

[That_Is_My_El_Camino]

im wanting to know what ammo would be best/cheapest/most beneficial to use to go to the range with for both mine and my wife's first gun.Best? Handloads. Cheapest? Handloads. Most beneficial? Handloads.

Hit up MidwayUSA.com or Cabela's and pick up "Modern Reloading" and "The ABCs of Reloading," maybe $40 for the pair, read them, and decide if you really want (and can afford the time invested in building) the best, cheapest, most beneficial ammunition.

[5.0 beast]

ok i'll check those sites out el_camino.
and propellerhead, use that same brand for both the 9mm and .40cal right?
so i need to take grain, type of casing or anything like that into consideration?
should i use the same ammo for concealed carry or something else?

we're wanting to get to know the guns first and then go to the chl class asap. i believe the next one in our area isnt avail until the end of this month

[propellerhead]

They have 9mm and .40SW in both brands at Walmart. Academy has CCI Blazer Aluminum in both calibers too. For 9mm, 115 grain is your normal target practice weight. For .40SW, it's 180 grain. Anything other than that is probably some special purpose weight.

WWB and CCI Blazer brass has brass casings. You can save those if you choose to reload later. CCI Blazer Aluminum has an aluminum casing. You cannot reload those to my knowledge.

Personal defense ammo is a whole different thing in terms of the bullet and load. Speer Gold Dot, Federal Hydrashok, Winchester SXT are some of the common favorites. They cost 2-3 times more than target practice ammo. The debates on which is the best are worse than the debates on what mods are best for your Mustang.

[sanddragger28]

If Im breaking a pistol in I use winchester ammo. To do a lot of shooting cheap Ill use Blazer ammo its half the price of the other brands and works fine. A 100 rds at a gun range is nothing and it will cost you almost 40 bucks for good ammo. Blazer 40 is right at about 13 bucks for a box of 50. You will want to bring at least a 100 rds each pistol to have any fun. You can also look at the Remmington umc 250 packs.

[Fox466]

Welcome to the non victims club... :cool:


Good posts, and both Tony and Prop are right. Tonys is ultimately the cheapest, though not necessarily the one for most of us as few of us have the patience... :cool:

[J Osh10]

the xd40 is a super tight gun, did you get the extended magazine?

[5.0 beast]

yea it came with the 12 rd mag and 10 rd i believe it is.

i actually went to the range yesterday and had fun, cant aim worth a shit yet but had fun. just gonna have to go more to get used to this gun. went between liking the shorter and longer magazine. i'll be going back later this week though

[sanddragger28]

Make dure you learn how to field strip them and keep them clean. I have a buddy of mine that never cleans his guns and they will rust inside quick if you dont clean and oil them.

[propellerhead]

During the first year, I cleaned my gun maybe once every 2-3 months and I put probably 200 rounds through it every weekend. No rust.