Ammo Inc. 9mm 124 gr JHP. Yay or Nay?

[1911Fanatic]

I was in Bi Mart last week and noticed that they had Ammo Inc. 124 gr JHP for $9.99 a box of 20. I figured I'd buy a few. They were cheap enough that I figured if the didn't perform well in gel, I would just shoot them off at the range. I found some different tests on YouTube that had various results.

Tools and Targets had some good results but they were done with bare, clear gel. I found a few more tests that had over penetration with one layer of denim, one layer of fleece and two layers of cotton T Shirt material. Other testers had varied results as well. Well, it turns out there may be a reason for this.

I emailed Ammo zinc's customer service and the next day had a response from Rick Zarling. I had told him about the gel tests that Inhad seen, and their ammo's growing reputation as hot garbage on forums. What I learned from Rick from the lab at the factory was quite interesting.

According to Rick, "we used Hornaday XTP in some, Speer Gold Dots and Dead Nuts bullets in others, depending on what is available to us at any given moment."

The older projectiles were the Dead Nuts, were cheaper, and the older loading recipe "would not expand well through barriers" but apparently the new projectiles do much better with the new recipe. "As for the XTP's and Gold Dots we've loaded, those are very well proven projectiles and do expand just as well as loaded by us as they do by other's"

According to Rick, "Our loadings of Gold Dots and XTP's have been very consistently penetrating to roughly 16.5 inches with T layers of Denim in front" of the gel from 4minch barrels. "We try to keep these moving as fast as we safely can while remaining under +P pressures".

"We are working on getting those testing results and gel shots up on our website."

He asked me to send him the number off of the box flap and the bar code to determine what projectiles were loaded in my ammo.

I sent him the following info:

Box flap number….127792660-
Bar code number….8. 18878 02096 6

There is another number sideways on the sticker….9124JHP-A20

According to Rick these are loaded with the XTPs within the last year.

I wound up with six boxes total. They are on sale today at Bi Mart for approx $8.50 cents.

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[Knobgoblin]

Nope.

 

[WAYNO]

...

 

[1911Fanatic]

I do not and will not buy ammo from bi mart, but,

Sounds pretty spendy if we're talking 9mm.

Well, it's pretty cheap for defensive rounds, if it works as the factory says. Part of the problem is that the testers on YT usually use clear, synthetic gel. If it expands well in clear, it's going to expand even better in FBI gel. But these rounds are designed and tested using FBI Knox gel. So sometimes they don't perform well in clear.

I am going to test it myself this Spring with a block of clear and more realistic clothing. Nobody here is wearing 5 layers of 10 ounce denim most of the year. 1 denim, 1 fleece and 2 layers of cotton is more real world around here.

The tests I've seen in bare gel, without knowing what bullets are in the load, have been 14.5 inches or so in clear.

The tests I've seen of this brand over the past few years, during the Crud, across various calibers all over penetrated and didn't expand. Could have been the Dead Nuts projectiles.

It seems like this company is struggling. They just got in trouble with their stock valuation due to misrepresenting their financials, according to some articles and videos I've seen. They could be a good value brand if their website and marketing department got straightened out. I really don't want to see an American manufacturer go under. I use their FMJ rounds for breaking in new guns and as range ammo. This is the first time I've given any consideration to using their ammo for serious purposes.

 

[BMGMAN]

I was in Bi Mart last week and noticed that they had Ammo Inc. 124 gr JHP for $9.99 a box of 20. I figured I'd buy a few. They were cheap enough that I figured if the didn't perform well in gel, I would just shoot them off at the range. I found some different tests on YouTube that had various results.

Tools and Targets had some good results but they were done with bare, clear gel. I found a few more tests that had over penetration with one layer of denim, one layer of fleece and two layers of cotton T Shirt material. Other testers had varied results as well. Well, it turns out there may be a reason for this.

I emailed Ammo zinc's customer service and the next day had a response from Rick Zarling. I had told him about the gel tests that Inhad seen, and their ammo's growing reputation as hot garbage on forums. What I learned from Rick from the lab at the factory was quite interesting.

According to Rick, "we used Hornaday XTP in some, Speer Gold Dots and Dead Nuts bullets in others, depending on what is available to us at any given moment."

The older projectiles were the Dead Nuts, were cheaper, and the older loading recipe "would not expand well through barriers" but apparently the new projectiles do much better with the new recipe. "As for the XTP's and Gold Dots we've loaded, those are very well proven projectiles and do expand just as well as loaded by us as they do by other's"

According to Rick, "Our loadings of Gold Dots and XTP's have been very consistently penetrating to roughly 16.5 inches with T layers of Denim in front" of the gel from 4minch barrels. "We try to keep these moving as fast as we safely can while remaining under +P pressures".

"We are working on getting those testing results and gel shots up on our website."

He asked me to send him the number off of the box flap and the bar code to determine what projectiles were loaded in my ammo.

I sent him the following info:

Box flap number….127792660-
Bar code number….8. 18878 02096 6

There is another number sideways on the sticker….9124JHP-A20

According to Rick these are loaded with the XTPs within the last year.

I wound up with six boxes total. They are on sale today at Bi Mart for approx $8.50 cents.

View attachment 1999647 View attachment 1999648 View attachment 1999649

It's a nay from me. When I buy a box of ammo I expect primers not to be installed upside down(yes a box of 44 mag had one). And expect bullets to be seated more or less the same depth for the love of god! I mostly reload but have bought from bimart when decent sales are on. I've posted before about my problems with ammo inc and their seemingly poor QC.

 

[1911Fanatic]

It's a nay from me. When I buy a box of ammo I expect primers not to be installed upside down(yes a box of 44 mag had one). And expect bullets to be seated more or less the same depth for the love of god! I mostly reload but have bought from bimart when decent sales are on. I've posted before about my problems with ammo inc and their seemingly poor QC.

Thanks for mentioning that. I will check the primers and OAL with my calipers before I test any. I bought these to basically try. It seems that the bad rep that they have has been earned over the last few years. Will they change and earn a better rep? Well, that remains to be seen.

The brand that I'v had problems with has been Winchester. I've had various rim thicknesses in their revolver cartridges out of the same box before.

I e-mailed withnRickmover the course of a week. He is well aware of the bad rep they have among consumers. I hope they can turn it around. I hate to see American products go the way of the dodo due to mismanagement, poor corporate decisions, and generally not giving a bubblegum with QC, etc.

 

[BMGMAN]

Thanks for mentioning that. I will check the primers and OAL with my calipers before I test any. I bought these to basically try. It seems that the bad rep that they have has been earned over the last few years. Will they change and earn a better rep? Well, that remains to be seen.

The brand that I'v had problems with has been Winchester. I've had various rim thicknesses in their revolver cartridges out of the same box before.

I e-mailed withnRickmover the course of a week. He is well aware of the bad rep they have among consumers. I hope they can turn it around. I hate to see American products go the way of the dodo due to mismanagement, poor corporate decisions, and generally not giving a bubblegum with QC, etc.

Thanks for mentioning that. I will check the primers and OAL with my calipers before I test any. I bought these to basically try. It seems that the bad rep that they have has been earned over the last few years. Will they change and earn a better rep? Well, that remains to be seen.

The brand that I'v had problems with has been Winchester. I've had various rim thicknesses in their revolver cartridges out of the same box before.

I e-mailed withnRickmover the course of a week. He is well aware of the bad rep they have among consumers. I hope they can turn it around. I hate to see American products go the way of the dodo due to mismanagement, poor corporate decisions, and generally not giving a bubblegum with QC, etc.

Don't even get me started with adrenaline buffalo cartridge in 7.62x51. That crap is like stretch Armstrong. Trying to resize it and just decided to donate to trash can but it does cycle well in my belt fed at least.

 

[TTSX]

It's cheap for a reason. If cheap is what you're after, ammo Inc is your bag, baby.

I'm willing to be proven wrong, however my experiences with that brand over several chamberings leaves me less than confident in their hollow points being there for me when I need em. I'll add a caveat that I've never used revolver ammo from them and my issues were largely feeding/extraction related if I recall which would be a mostly moot point in a wheel gun.

 

[DizzyJ]

For self defense?

Nay

 

[1911Fanatic]

For self defense?

Nay

I am going to compare it to Hornaday's American Gunner 9mm which has the same bullets. The Hornaday is over twice the price. It;s interesting. I've bought some Underwood's that have the same bullets that are 22 to 29 bucks reg price that have good test results available to find, and I've got those for as little as 12 bucks a box on sale.

 

[TTSX]

I am going to compare it to Hornaday's American Gunner 9mm which has the same bullets. The Hornaday is over twice the price. It;s interesting. I've bought some Underwood's that have the same bullets that are 22 to 29 bucks reg price that have good test results available to find, and I've got those for as little as 12 bucks a box on sale.

Right, however Hornady has superior QC which is part of what you're paying for. There is no telling if ammo Inc uses "seconds" or if QC is 1/10th the quantity of the big boys. Costs have to be cut somewhere to make a product cost less than the competition

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Big time nay.
Terrible feeding in 80% of my 9mm pistols.
The particular projectile they use is not great.

I've also had a box of 45acp shoot shockingly to the left, even with a pistol in a rest. This test was done with 3 separate 45acp pistols.
One of which I'm quite accurate with, free hand and especially so in a rest. Truly some bizarre stuff going on with their ammo.

The price is tempting.. but their cartridges for semi auto pistols IMO is not favorable.
Their 45lc has been decent for me though.

 

[Koda]

According to Rick, "we used Hornaday XTP in some, Speer Gold Dots and Dead Nuts bullets in others, depending on what is available to us at any given moment."

Because consistency is so overrated...
Doesn't sound like a brand to use.

 

[1911Fanatic]

Because consistency is so overrated...
Doesn't sound like a brand to use.

I am going to test this stuff from a rest. I will also take OAL measurements before I do. But it will be interesting to see what the velocities are from round to round. I've got 120 rounds of this stuff. It should be interesting.

 

[Koda]

I am going to test this stuff from a rest. I will also take OAL measurements before I do. But it will be interesting to see what the velocities are from round to round. I've got 120 rounds of this stuff. It should be interesting.

Do you have a youtube channel, or will you just post here?

 

[1911Fanatic]

Do you have a youtube channel, or will you just post here?

I don't have a YouTube channel. I will post it here. Won't be able to do anything but test targets from a rest until Spring.

 

[orygun]

I've shot a fair amount of 38 Special and 357 Magnum Ammo Inc ammo. It's been consistent and decently accurate.
I recently bought a 380 and using Ammo Inc FMJ ammo, the gun was fairly reliable. With the JHP it wasn't, but in all fairness, it was a new gun that hadn't been lubed. There did not seem to be any inconsistency in the sound/recoil of either loading.
I bought more of both kinds of ammo for the 380 and am waiting for a chance to shoot it again.

FYI, The Hornady XTP is a great bullet. If that's what I'm getting and it functions reliably, I'm all in!

 

[TTSX]

I've shot a fair amount of 38 Special and 357 Magnum Ammo Inc ammo. It's been consistent and decently accurate.
I recently bought a 380 and using Ammo Inc FMJ ammo, the gun was fairly reliable. With the JHP it wasn't, but in all fairness, it was a new gun that hadn't been lubed. There did not seem to be any inconsistency in the sound/recoil of either loading.
I bought more of both kinds of ammo for the 380 and am waiting for a chance to shoot it again.

FYI, The Hornady XTP is a great bullet. If that's what I'm getting and it functions reliably, I'm all in!

I'll have to buy some of their wheel gun ammo by your recommendation. And a fork in case I need to eat my words.

 

[orygun]

I'll have to buy some of their wheel gun ammo by your recommendation. And a fork in case I need to eat my words.

I'd just be happy if this ammo does turn out to be good, reliable stuff. It's reasonably priced, at least according to today's price standards.

 

[JO JO]

Big no go for me
Tried a box of their 308 some shot very soft and some must of been over charged the report and recoil felt like a belted magnum, very inconsistent ammo , I know it just wasn't me saw a YouTube video showing a rifle that had blown apart from their ammo