.357 & .45 Ammo Recommendations?

The wife and I just purchased a S&W 640 Pro and Sig P220 SSE (in route) respectively.
While in CPL mode the clips/cylinders will hold Winchester Ranger rounds. (Please, feel free to advise if this ammo is frowned upon; no worries, I'm very thick skinned)

For range shooting which brand of ammo, for these specific calibers, is preferred to eventually reload with?

I would say just about any factory round would be good for plinking around. Just make sure it's brass and not metal.

I have never used the steel cased stuff I guess its ok I have always bought Brass because I want to reload it. LOL always been a prime consideration for me. However I have a Mosin Nagant and a Norinco sks that I have fired several thousand rounds through. I suppose the answer could be Are you just plinking and don't intend to reload? Cabelas has herters Cheap that I am sure is ok. You are going to shoot some competition and your going to reload lots of choices I personally haven't met a boxer primed brass case I didnt like LOL. Good Luck and again welcome to the forum.

As for the .45 ammo I try to avoid federal ammo from a reloading standpoint. By all means there is nothing wrong with federal ammo. The federal cases are slightly thicker and when reloading with lead sized at .452 I have ran into feeding issues due to the case thickness. When I do load federal cases I try to load them with either fmj or jhp bullets.

Tripples

I've always preferred Winchester white box for plinking...great brass to reload on too. I've also had good luck with PMC and CCI (not the aluminum cased stuff). Federal is becoming a favorite due to the cheaper cost in the stores...

I almost forgot....Magtech makes some great plinking ammo too. Looking at my list, it looks like I favor about everything except Remington....LOL

But....mostly I reload. Any FMJ or plated will do for plinking and casting your own bullets would be a very good choice for someone shooting .357 and 45acp.

For plinking anything factory should do just fine, as a matter of principle I personally do not buy the Russian stuff. I would also stay away from the aluminum or steel cased stuff.

When I had my revolver I bought the Magtech due to price and really enjoyed it. I never reloaded the brass but did send it to another member who said it was great.

If your range allows, pick up all the brass on the ground you and your wife can get your hands on and reload that. It is perfectly fine and will save you lots of money.

I too mostly reload. For many years in CPL mode I carried Federal Hydra Shok ammo, which is still one of the main ammo types in my Glock carry mags.

For plinking I shoot what is cheapest. Our SKS and Mosin Nagant get fed whatever cheap former Comm Block or Chi Comm crap I can find.

I load a lot of .357 as it is one of my favorites. Since the lead ban here I load FMJ over Bullseye for plinking - about as cheap as you can get for plinking if you reload your own.

Might consider using 38 Special for plinking in the .357. Cheaper ammo and the milder recoil will help focus on the basics, and good trigger control.

A lot of my friends that do not reload shoot the Blazer aluminium cased stuff as does a couple of the Sheriff depts. Seems OK and I have not heard of weapon problems.

The steel cased stuff is a personal choice. Some shooters do not like it or worry it will damage weapons, so they avoid it. I personally have seen thousands of steel cased (mostly Wolf ammo) shot on full auto in several guns and never seen one weapon that was tore up due to the ammo.

However the steel cased stuff is hell on AR15 magazines. I carry a tool in the hand grip of my AR15s that has a lip for bending AR15 mag lips back into place.

Comes in handy as after a few thousand steel cased Wolf rounds the lips on the mags get a little sloppy and I start getting double feeds and stove pipes.

Maybe I should have disclosed this ammo will indeed be for practice & plinking only.
I also have a well fed 686+ I'll also be loading for. Scorge is right, .357 is one very fun round to shoot and my favorite hands down.

For practice I tend to stick with the .357 stuff. My frame is fairly large and after doing thousands of wrist curls to aid in my golf/racquetball game I found that same exercise transfers nicely to better gun control.
On the other hand my little 5'1" wife prefers to shoot 38 cal.

I'll heed the recommendations for Winchester White, PMC, and CCI Blazer. Funny, the only one I haven't tried is the PMC.
Off to WallyWorld and D1ck's Sporting Goods I go.

PMC is Korean and good ammo and good brass.

My lil brother just finished some extra training in the Army.....I don't know how many thousands of rounds of 223 and 9mm they went through, but it was all PMC. If it's good enough for the military to plink with...it's good enough for me

tripples wrote:As for the .45 ammo I try to avoid federal ammo from a reloading standpoint. By all means there is nothing wrong with federal ammo. The federal cases are slightly thicker and when reloading with lead sized at .452 I have ran into feeding issues due to the case thickness. When I do load federal cases I try to load them with either fmj or jhp bullets.

Tripples

the 45 acp federal ammo was recalled a while back its hard to find now also the federal cases take small primers instead of large so if you have a large stock of large primers i would avoid these as well so you dont have to go a buy small primers have have both so i just seperate my cases and load them seperatly

I purged all my small primer 45 ACP, because I went in with three other friends and we bought a flat of large pistol primers and split it 4 ways.

I won't have to buy large pistol primers for another year or so the way I have been reloading.

I've never had a problem with the Fed small pistol primer brass, but I wanted to standardize my load. Neither of my .45 pistols are that picky, and my T/C Contender .45 Win Mag barrel gets fed the occasional hot loaded .45 ACP round for fun.

The PMC ammo is pretty good its made by our friends the South Koreans, and their army and ours both use the ammo. While I disagree with many things that our government has done lately (no matter what side of the aisle you sit).

One of the things I did agree with Congress was back when we invaded Iraq again. Congress decreed that the ammo be sourced from native sources. That is why you saw the sudden shortage of 5.56 and 9mm ammo as all the State side ammo companies jumped on the lucrative government ammo orders.

We are starting to see the end result as a lot of stores like Naches are selling 55 gal drums of Winchester over run NATO spec 5.56. Most of the ammo orders have been filled and factories like Lake City have been running 24/7 for the last near 5 years.

With the Dems take over we saw a lot of the requirements for native orders of ammo cease. While I like the PMC stuff and shot a lot of it while in the Army, I believe we should arm our troops with native made ammo and arms.

I shoot what ever I can get cheapest. If I find PMC or HSM ammo at the swap meet or gun show cheaper than I can reload it - I grab it. Sometimes if you go in with a friend (or three) and buy a flat it can be cheaper.

For duck and goose seasons we always buy our ammo by the flats and divvy it up. If you hunt around you can find some good deals. Ammoman on the 'web has some decent deals.

Dart, I am not sure I have ran into any small primed federal ammo other than a few range pick up pieces. Honestly I don't remember running into one, till a few months ago all my priming was done on a hand primer. I'm sure I would have to squeeze like crazy to seat a large primer in a small primer hole.
I do half remember a conversation about 45 acp brass that has the small primer. The first thing that comes to mind is federal blazer ammo. But don't quote me on that. Most all federal ammo i bought was American eagle in the red box with yellow print. And I don't think I have bought any factory 45 ammo in probably 5 years or more.
I am glad that you brought up the small primer issue as I have forgot about it and quite honestly with storing brass in bulk as i have, it is something that I will have to pay attention to when loading on the LNL progressive press.

Tripples