Factory Ammunition

08/03/2004

Federal 165 gr. EFMJ and AE 165 gr FMJ
I use factory ammunition for defense carry and training.  To me, it’s just not worth the effort or the risk to hand load defense ammo.  I like the idea of having a practice round and a defense round that feel about the same to shoot.  So, today, I use the Federal 165 gr. Expanding Full Metal Jacket (EFMJ) cartridge as my defensive load and I train with the Federal American Eagle 165 gr.   The EFMJ round has a  Federal rated MV of 1050 fps 
and the American Eagle round is rated by Federal to have a MV of 980 fps.  More information on the Federal EFMJ round can be found here in Shep Kelly's article, "New Federal Expanding Full Metal Jacket".  My resource for this ammo is AmmoMan.com.

  Before I learned about the Federal EFMJ ammo I carried the PMC 165 gr Jacketed Hollow Point and practiced with its mate the 165 gr FMJ practice load.  I decided the advantages of the Federal were worth moving up to it.

At one time, when I first started carrying the G27 I used the Cor-Bon 135 gr. load that they rate at 1300 fps.  Then one evening after a day at the range I took apart the my handgun to find that the trigger pin had broken apart.  The Glock did not fail to operate even with the broken trigger pin, which I think is a big accolade for the Glock design.   I have never fired the Cor-Bon’s out of my gun since that happened.

Federal XM193

and Winchester Q3131A are the two brands of factory ammo I use in my AR.  I have chrono'd the Winchester at 3026 fps at 60F and 500' ASL.  The Federal XM193 is a little hotter and runs about 50 fps  faster.
Q3131A, 55gr FMJ, 0.148 BC  
60F, 500 ft      
3.5" HOB, 80 yd zero    
Range Drop Velocity Energy 10 mph
Yards Inches fps lb-ft Deflctn
0 -3.5 3026 1118 0.0
25 -2.1 2867 1004 0.1
50 -1.0 2713 899 0.5
75 -0.1 2565 804 1.1
80 0.0 2536 785 1.3
100 0.4 2422 716 2.1
125 0.5 2283 636 3.3
150 0.2 2148 564 4.9
175 -0.5 2018 497 6.9
200 -1.8 1893 437 9.2
225 -3.7 1773 384 12.1
250 -6.3 1660 336 15.5
275 -9.7 1552 294 19.4
300 -14.0 1450 257 23.7

 

 

Ballistic Table

I use an 80 yard zero with the 3.5" HOB created by the Compact ACOG sitting on top of the carry handle this provides for a 2" Point Blank zero from 25 yards out to 200 yards.

The Maryland AR15 Shooter's site states that both of these commercial loads are M193 equivalents.  So, this was the ammo I used as a basis for comparison when developing a practice/competition hand load.  Note, the 3026 fps MV is slower than the M193 specified 3132 fps.  I attribute this difference to my AR's barrel and its muzzle brake.