Product Review: PMC Bronze .45 ACP Ammo

The good folks at Lucky Gunner sent me some ammo to review a while back, some PMC Bronze .45 ACP 185 grain JHP.

AMM-5192_0

But what with the buying a new house and the moving in and the moving my girlfriend to Louisiana and the redecorating and the landscaping projects and the EMT class and work commitments and the depression..

… well, let’s just agree that I suck and should have done the review sooner, mmmmkay? No excuses.

But I finally did get to the range last week, and had a chance to wring out the ammo. The original plan was to be all scientifical and chronograph fifty rounds, and then shoot the remaining fifty for accuracy.

I learned two things before I even got through the first box: even overcast days down here muck about with the chrono sensors, and when they say to move back ten feet to reduce muzzle blast skewing your results, they mean move back ten feet.

One round would register 45 fps, and the next would register 4500. And you know, the recoil didn’t really feel that much different between shots, so…

… it took me twenty rounds to figure out that the problem was me, not the chronograph. So, diffuser screens have been ordered and received, but that didn’t help me last week at the range.

So I went to Plan B: Have an hour of big, dirty fun shooting free ammo.

And as backup plans go, that one’s always a winner.

This is not the first PMC ammo I’ve shot, and my experience has been generally positive. My observations of PMC Bronze .45 ACP ammo echo those of Robb Allen’s with their .40 S&W ammo.

It’s inexpensive, more accurate than I am, and reliable. 100 rounds through my 3.5″ 1911 resulted in no worse fouling than expected of typical range ammo, and I found it a good deal cleaner than, say,Winchester White Box.

Every round fed and ejected flawlessly through my  officer’s model 1911, using Wilson Combat 7-round magazines.No issues there, which is consistent with past experience shooting PMC ammo.

All rounds were shot at 10 yards, slow-fire, no rest. The results speak for themselves:

DSC_0177

Um, that’s 185 grain, not 230. I’m a doofus.

I could show you another half-dozen targets, some with tighter groups, some looser, some with an occasional flier the fault of the loose nut behind the trigger, but that’s about what I’m capable of shooting with a compact defensive handgun and quality ammo.

And yeah, the rear sight got drifted over to where it needed to be after I snapped this pic.

Overall, I’m satisfied with PMC Bronze ammo. If you’re looking for practice ammo similar to your carry load at a reasonable price, you won’t be disappointed.

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