Buying guides6 min read
Best gun cleaning kit: what you need and what you do not
The best cleaning kit is four items and a spare patch. Almost everything else in a forty-piece universal set is brass you will never use.
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Guides
The TAS guides
What a round actually costs, what will run in your rifle, and what is worth keeping on a shelf. No filler, no fabricated experts: if we cannot back it up with the catalogue or with a manufacturer’s own data, it does not go up.
From the blog
The most recent 6 pieces.
- Buying guidesBest gun cleaning kit: what you need and what you do notSep 25, 2026 · 6 min
- Buying guidesBrass vs steel case ammo: the extractor argument, measuredSep 25, 2026 · 6 min
- Buying guidesBest deer hunting caliber: the short list that keeps workingSep 24, 2026 · 6 min
- Buying guidesDoes ammo expire? Shelf life, and the round that fails quietlySep 24, 2026 · 6 min
- Buying guidesBest shotgun for home defence: gauge, length, and the load that matters moreSep 23, 2026 · 6 min
- Buying guidesBest caliber for home defence: the overpenetration question firstSep 23, 2026 · 6 min
Buying guides6 min read
Brass vs steel case ammo: the extractor argument, measured
Steel case ammunition saves real money and costs you cleaning time. What it does to barrels and extractors is smaller than the argument around it.
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Buying guides6 min read
Best deer hunting caliber: the short list that keeps working
Four factory loads have been filling tags for decades. The right one for you comes down to shot distance, terrain and recoil you will actually practise with.
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Buying guides6 min read
Does ammo expire? Shelf life, and the round that fails quietly
Ammunition does not expire on a date. It degrades quietly through powder decomposition and primer corrosion, and you find out one round at a time.
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Buying guides6 min read
Best shotgun for home defence: gauge, length, and the load that matters more
The best home-defence shotgun is an ordinary pump with an 18-inch barrel. What you load it with, and whether you have patterned it, matters more than the gun.
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Buying guides6 min read
Best caliber for home defence: the overpenetration question first
Every home-defence caliber goes through interior walls, so the honest question is not which round is safe but which one still works when it gets out of the room.
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Compliance6 min read
Can a felon buy ammunition? Prohibited person rules, plainly explained
The most consequential sentence in federal ammunition law is one most shoppers have never read: 922(g) binds possession and receipt of ammunition on the same terms as firearms.
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Compliance6 min read
Ammunition purchase limits: which states cap how much you can buy
Almost nowhere caps how much ammunition you may buy. What exists instead is a reporting threshold, one unverified licensing number, and a delivery map retailers obey.
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Compliance6 min read
Traveling with ammunition: cars, state lines, and airline rules
The rules that let a seller ship to your house do not govern your car. Here is what is documented, what is a grey area, and what you must verify yourself.
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Compliance6 min read
Ammunition storage laws: what states actually require
There is no federal ammunition storage rule. The state picture is mostly firearms statutes that may or may not name ammunition, plus a few duties that arrive with the parcel.
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Compliance6 min read
Are hollow points legal? The state-by-state reality
Yes, in most of the country, and there is no federal hollow-point category to worry about. The limits that exist are few, specific, and worth knowing exactly.
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Compliance6 min read
Age and ID to buy ammunition: federal floors and state ceilings
Almost everyone misstates the federal age rule. The familiar 18 and 21 numbers are written against licensees; what binds everyone else is a different, narrower provision.
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Compliance6 min read
Can you buy ammo online? The honest 2026 answer
Yes, in most of the country. What decides it is not federal law but three layers stacked on top: your state, the carrier, and who you are allowed to be.
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Compliance6 min read
How ammunition ships: UPS, FedEx, USPS, and the carrier rules retailers follow
The three carriers give three different answers, and the internet has two of them inverted. UPS Ground only, FedEx no Ground, USPS not for ordinary shippers.
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Compliance6 min read
Maryland ammunition laws: what ships and what does not
Maryland is narrower than its reputation: the entire seller burden is an under-21 rule on ammunition solely designed for a regulated firearm. No permit, no routing, no records.
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Compliance6 min read
Colorado ammunition laws: state rules and local layers
Colorado still issues no ammunition purchase permit. What changed on 1 July 2026 is that the state started writing duties for the seller and the carrier, not just the buyer.
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Compliance6 min read
Hawaii ammunition laws: island logistics and permit culture
Hawaii looks like a permit state until you read the statutes: the permit to acquire and the registration cover firearms, not ammunition. What applies instead, and the logistics nobody resolves.
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Compliance6 min read
Washington ammunition laws after the 2023 restrictions
Washington adds nothing to federal ammunition law: no credential, no background check, no retention, no age rule. The statute everyone cites for the opposite result never mentions ammunition.
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Compliance6 min read
Connecticut ammunition laws: age 18, no face-to-face requirement
Connecticut is the state everyone assumes is stricter than it is. The statutory age is 18, there is no face-to-face requirement, and the seller's duty is verification.
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Compliance6 min read
Massachusetts ammunition laws: the unsettled delivery question
Massachusetts is blocked in practice and unsettled in law. The licensee rule that closes the mail-order channel, the licence structure behind it, and the exposure nobody has resolved.
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Compliance6 min read
Illinois ammunition laws: FOID, delivery, and what actually gates a purchase
Illinois is the rare restrictive state that authorises ammunition delivery in the statute itself, then gates it: valid FOID or concealed carry licence before anything ships.
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Compliance6 min read
New Jersey ammunition laws: heavy data duties and active enforcement
New Jersey has no face-to-face requirement, which surprises people. What it has instead is a definition of handgun ammunition broad enough to cover .22 LR and .223, and record duties to match.
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Compliance6 min read
California ammunition laws: what online buyers need to know
No retailer can ship ammunition to a California residence. Every sale has to run through a licensed California ammunition vendor, face to face.
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Compliance6 min read
New York ammunition laws: delivery rules outside the city and inside it
Statewide, a New York ammunition transfer must happen in person through a licensed dealer or a registered seller. Delivery to a residence is not the mechanism the statute allows.
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Ballistics6 min read
55 grain vs 62 grain .223/5.56: the only two weights most shelves stock
Nearly every bulk box of 5.56 is 55 or 62 grain, and the choice is not close for everyone. Here is what each bullet actually does, and the point where 77 grain takes over.
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Ballistics6 min read
Wadcutter and semi-wadcutter: the target bullets that still work for defence
Wadcutters are cookie cutters for paper, semi-wadcutters are the compromise that feeds, and the .38 Special shelf still sells both for reasons that have not changed in fifty years.
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Ballistics6 min read
Ballistic coefficient explained without the maths degree
Ballistic coefficient is a single number describing how well a bullet shrugs off air. You do not need the drag equations to use it — you need to know which version you are reading.
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Ballistics6 min read
Twist rate and bullet weight: why your AR cycles two loads badly
When one AR shoots 55 grain into one hole and opens up with 77, the barrel is telling you its stabilisation window. Read the paper, not the box, and the fix is a two-box experiment.
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Ballistics6 min read
TMJ vs FMJ vs JHP: what is actually inside the bullet
Three labels on three boxes, three different constructions. What the jacket covers, whether the nose opens, and why the answer changes between the range and the nightstand.
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Ballistics6 min read
Soft point vs hollow point: hunting bullets explained
Both bullets are built to deform; they disagree about how fast. That single design choice decides which one reaches the vitals on a deer and which one dumps energy on a threat.
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Ballistics6 min read
Minute of angle: the one unit every rifleman needs
Minute of angle is an angular inch, not a linear one. Learn the unit and every scope adjustment, group size and drop chart turns into arithmetic you can do on the shooting bench.
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Ballistics6 min read
+P ammo: pressure standards, gun ratings, and when it is worth it
+P is not marketing; it is a published pressure band above the standard maximum for the caliber. The questions that matter are whether your gun is rated for it and what you actually gain.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.17 HMR vs .22 WMR: rimfire at 200 yards
Two magnum rimfires split at about 150 yards: the .17 HMR wins on flatness, the .22 WMR on mass. Where each stops being the right tool.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.44 Magnum vs .357 Magnum: magnum revolver scaling
The .357 does everything a handgun can do politely; the .44 does the things that need 240 grains. The boundary is game size, not bravery.
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Caliber guides6 min read
5.7x28 vs 9mm: velocity, capacity, and penetration claims
The 5.7x28 argument rests on a military load you cannot buy. Against commercial loads and a 9mm hollow point, here is what the gel data and the capacity trade say.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.450 Bushmaster vs .350 Legend: straight-wall AR hunting
Straight-wall legality is the easy part. The real difference is 150 yards of reach and twelve foot-pounds of recoil, and what the shelf holds in November.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.270 vs .30-06: the mountain rifle argument, still unresolved
A century of factory loads has decided nothing. Here are the numbers the argument keeps skipping: drop, drift, recoil, and how high each ladder climbs.
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Caliber guides6 min read
6mm ARC vs 5.56: what the extra 2mm of case neck buys
The 6mm ARC is a barrel, bolt and magazine change from your existing AR-15. What it buys at distance is measurable; so is the price of feeding it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
12 gauge vs 20 gauge: recoil, patterns, and reality
The gauge debate is usually argued as power against gentleness. It is really about how many pellets you can put in a 30-inch circle, and how much you will practise.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.45 ACP vs 10mm: heavy and slow against hot and fast
Same heavy-bullet philosophy, opposite engineering: the .45 ACP buys softness, the 10mm buys velocity. What the factory load menus and the recoil numbers say.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.300 Blackout vs 5.56: one upper, one catastrophic mistake
.300 Blackout and 5.56 share a bolt and a magazine well, which is exactly why the wrong round in the wrong chamber is a catastrophic failure.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.357 Magnum vs .38 Special: one chamber, two cartridges
The same revolver can shoot both cartridges, which makes this the rare caliber comparison where the cheaper ammunition is the point of the system.
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Caliber guides6 min read
7.62x39 vs 5.56: two rifles, two doctrines
The two intermediate cartridges that defined the Cold War still sell today, but the ammunition market behind them has moved in opposite directions.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.308 vs 6.5 Creedmoor: does the Creedmoor actually shoot farther?
6.5 Creedmoor carries velocity farther and drifts less in wind. Whether that matters depends on your barrel, your budget, and your range.
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Caliber guides6 min read
9mm vs .40 S&W: the value argument nobody expected
The .40 S&W was the default duty cartridge until it was not. When departments moved back to 9mm, the ammunition market quietly made .40 the bargain on the shelf.
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Caliber guides6 min read
9mm vs .380 ACP: the pocket pistol question
The .380 is not a weak 9mm; it is a different cartridge that earns its place in guns too small to shoot 9mm well. The choice is about the gun first.
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Caliber guides6 min read
9mm vs .45 ACP: capacity, cost, and what the gel actually shows
The oldest argument in American handguns has almost no data left to settle it with. Capacity, cost, and modern hollow points have moved further than either camp admits.
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Caliber guides6 min read
9mm vs 10mm: when the bigger cartridge is worth the recoil
Many boxes marked 10mm are not full-power 10mm. Until you know which one you are buying, the comparison against 9mm is meaningless.
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Caliber guides6 min read
6.5 PRC ammo buying guide
6.5 PRC is a short-action 6.5 that beats Creedmoor velocities by roughly 200 fps. The load menu is Hornady-led and genuinely good; the question is whether your hunting and shooting actually need it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
6.8 SPC ammo buying guide
6.8 SPC almost became the US military's intermediate rifle cartridge, then lost to logistics and a moving 5.56 target. The commercial shelf is thin, and the hunting case for it is better than the shelf suggests.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.41 Magnum ammo buying guide
The .41 Magnum was designed to split the difference between a duty .357 and a hunting .44, and the market chose neither. What is actually on the shelf today, and the shooters who still swear by it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.45 Colt ammo buying guide
One chamber, one case, and a load ladder that spans from gentle cowboy action ammunition to hunting loads only a modern Ruger should see. Reading the box before the gun is the entire .45 Colt lesson.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.338 Lapua Magnum ammo buying guide
.338 Lapua Magnum is an extreme-range precision cartridge with a premium attached to every round. The load menu is short, the bullets are excellent, and the budget is the filter most buyers underestimate.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.338 Winchester Magnum ammo buying guide
.338 Winchester Magnum is the large-game hunting magnum that stayed ordinary in the best sense: a short menu of serious bullets, a recoil impulse you can train through, and enough reach for any shot you should be taking.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.303 British ammo buying guide
Most .303 British sold in America still ends up in a Lee-Enfield. Whether it is decades-old military ball or a factory hunting load decides what you must check before the first shot.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.32 ACP ammo buying guide
.32 ACP never died, it just went quiet. The cartridge rewards a plain answer: buy FMJ by the box, treat hollow points with suspicion, and understand what the pistol actually does with either.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.270 Winchester ammo buying guide
.270 Winchester has been the mountain rifle cartridge for close to a century. 130 grain is the default, 150 for heavier game, and almost everything sold in it is a hunting load.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.300 Winchester Short Magnum ammo buying guide
.300 Winchester Short Magnum gives short-action rifles near .300 Win Mag performance. Load availability is thinner than the long magnum, and seating depth is the gotcha new owners miss.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.22 Hornet ammo buying guide
.22 Hornet is an old, small, quiet centerfire varmint cartridge. The factory menu is thin, the niche is real, and the people who stay with it usually handload.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.243 Winchester ammo buying guide
.243 Winchester is the classic two-job cartridge: light bullets for varmints, heavier ones for deer, and recoil mild enough that a lot of shooters are handed one first.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.350 Legend ammo buying guide
.350 Legend was built for the states that require a straight-walled cartridge for deer. The load menu is short, the 150-grain soft point is the default answer, and the AR-15 needs its own upper and magazines.
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Caliber guides6 min read
7mm Remington Magnum ammo buying guide
7mm Remington Magnum has been the long-range hunting standard for decades. The load ladder is deep, the heavy bullets are the point, and recoil is the filter most shooters under-estimate.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.30 Super Carry ammo buying guide
.30 Super Carry sells on one claim: a narrower case that lets a slim pistol hold more rounds than 9mm. The ammunition menu is short, the defensive loads are serious, and you need a gun that chambers it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.32 H&R Magnum ammo buying guide
.32 H&R Magnum is the soft-shooting middle of the small-revolver world: more capable than .32 S&W Long, milder than .38 Special, and the practice load for a .327 Federal Magnum cylinder.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.327 Federal Magnum ammo buying guide
.327 Federal Magnum is the revolver cartridge that eats three shorter .32s for practice and shoots a magnum load that punches above its size.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.30 Carbine ammo buying guide
.30 Carbine exists because of the M1 Carbine and almost nothing else. The ammunition conversation is short: military-style FMJ for practice, soft points for work, and a clear answer on the self-defence folklore.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.25 ACP ammo buying guide
.25 ACP is not a defensive powerhouse and was never meant to be. It is a reliability upgrade over rimfire in a pocket pistol, and the ammo menu is one load deep.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.30-30 Winchester ammo buying guide
.30-30 Winchester has been the American lever-action standard since 1895, and the load menu still sorts cleanly into flat-nose, polymer tip, and soft point.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.45-70 Government ammo buying guide
.45-70 is three pressure tiers in one headstamp. Buy the load your action can handle, then choose the weight for the job.
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Caliber guides6 min read
6mm ARC ammo buying guide
6mm ARC is the AR-15 barrel-swap that buys real ballistic advantage at distance. The load menu is short, the match ammunition is the point.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.300 Winchester Magnum ammo buying guide
.300 Winchester Magnum is a long-action cartridge with a load ladder that starts at 150 grains and does not stop. Pick the weight for the job, not the forum.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.450 Bushmaster ammo buying guide
.450 Bushmaster exists for straight-wall deer seasons, and the factory menu is short enough to memorise. The right load is usually the middle one.
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Caliber guides6 min read
5.7x28mm ammo buying guide
5.7x28mm rewards a carbine and punishes assumption: the armour-piercing mythology is not what you can buy, and the practice ammo has never been 9mm-cheap.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.410 bore ammo buying guide
.410 bore looks like a smaller 12 gauge on the shelf and is not. Payload is the whole game, and the shell you choose matters more than the gun.
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Caliber guides6 min read
12 gauge ammo buying guide
A 12 gauge is three different shotguns depending on the shell: birdshot for targets, buckshot for defence, slugs for big game. The choke in the barrel decides what each one does well.
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Caliber guides6 min read
20 gauge ammo buying guide
A 20 gauge with a 1 ounce load is not a toy. The payload gap against a 12 gauge is smaller than the box art suggests, and the recoil savings are real.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.22 WMR ammo buying guide
.22 WMR is not a bigger .22 LR: it is a higher-pressure cartridge that will not fit a .22 LR chamber, and it earns its keep at 100 to 150 yards where the short rimfire runs out.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.17 HMR ammo buying guide
.17 HMR is a .22 WMR necked down to a 17 grain bullet at 2,550 fps. The flat trajectory is the point; the explosive bullet performance and the backstop requirement come with it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.300 Blackout ammo buying guide
.300 Blackout is two load families under one name: supersonic hunting and subsonic suppressed work. The barrel length you own decides which one you should be buying.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.30-06 Springfield ammo buying guide
The .30-06 load ladder runs from 110 grain varmint to 220 grain heavy, and every step of it is still in production. That breadth is the reason the cartridge refuses to die.
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Caliber guides6 min read
7.62x39 ammo buying guide
Steel case is cheap because it is designed to be disposable, not because it is bad. The real 7.62x39 decisions are the action you shoot it from and the bullet you put in it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
6.5 Creedmoor ammo buying guide
6.5 Creedmoor is a match cartridge with a hunting side, not a hunting cartridge with a match load. Buy it for the factory match ammo, then pick a hunting bullet for the season.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.223 Remington ammo buying guide
Commercial .223 and NATO 5.56 are different pressure standards in nearly identical brass, and the chamber in your rifle decides which box you should buy. The rest is varmint loads and practice volume.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.308 Winchester ammo buying guide
The .308 shelf looks like one cartridge until you sort it by job. Three load families cover nearly everything: cheap 147 grain practice, 150 grain hunting, 168 grain match.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.44 Magnum ammo buying guide
Handgun hunting and bear country are the two honest use cases for .44 Magnum, and they want different boxes: jacketed magnum for game, hardcast solids for animals, and .44 Special for practice.
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Caliber guides6 min read
5.56 NATO ammo buying guide
5.56 buying comes down to three decisions: brass or steel, 55 or 62 grain, and whether the rifle is worth a box of 77 grain match. Chamber markings matter more than brand.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.38 Special ammo buying guide
.38 Special is a revolver cartridge with a split personality: cheap 158 grain practice loads for volume, and +P hollow points that turn a snub into a credible defensive tool.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.357 Magnum ammo buying guide
Few cartridges change character with barrel length the way .357 Magnum does. Ammo selection by barrel length, magnum loads worth buying, and the .38 Special practice economics that make the chamber affordable.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.45 ACP ammo buying guide
Slow, heavy, and still in half the holsters in America. .45 ACP has one default practice load — 230 grain FMJ — and a short list of hollow points engineered to expand at 830 fps.
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Caliber guides6 min read
10mm ammo buying guide
The full-power 10mm and the 40-short-and-fat loads sold under the same name are different cartridges with different numbers. Know which box you are buying before you plan around it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.380 ACP ammo buying guide
.380 ACP lives in deep-concealment pocket pistols, and the ammunition question there is unusual: in a 3-inch barrel at roughly 900 fps, a hollow point can be a reliability problem before it is a solution.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.40 S&W ammo buying guide
The cartridge that dominated American law enforcement in the 1990s now sells at a price that makes it the value play in a full-size pistol — if you understand what the cheap 180 grain loads are and are not for.
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Ballistics8 min read
5.56 vs .223: what actually matters
They are the same size, they chamber in the same rifle, and one of the two substitutions is a bad idea. The reason is not the cartridge: it is the chamber it lands in.
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Buying guides5 min read
Price per round: how to actually compare ammo
A $19 box and a $290 case are the same ammunition at two different prices per shot. Working out which is which takes ten seconds, and almost nobody does it.
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Caliber guides6 min read
9mm ammo buying guide
Nearly every 9mm question comes down to two decisions: what you practise with, and what you carry. They are not the same round, and they are not bought the same way.
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Buying guides5 min read
Bulk ammo: when buying a case makes sense
A case is cheaper per round than a box. Whether it is cheaper for you depends on shipping, storage, and whether you have actually proved the load in your gun.
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Range craft6 min read
How much ammunition should you keep?
There is no correct number, but there is a correct method, and it starts with how many rounds you genuinely put downrange in a year, not how many you imagine you might need.
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Caliber guides6 min read
.22 LR buying guide: bricks and what cycles
The cheapest .22 on the shelf and the .22 that will cycle your rifle are often two different boxes. That is not a quality problem: it is how rimfire works.
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Ballistics6 min read
Understanding grain weight
Grain is the first number on every ammunition box and the least explained. It is bullet weight, it is not powder, and past a certain point your barrel decides for you.
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Gear6 min read
Storing ammunition properly
Ammunition stored properly stays reliable for decades. Stored badly it degrades quietly, and you find out one round at a time.
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