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I did a ammo test with 8 different brands of 124gr this evening at the range with my P30L. Not sure if anyone on the forum is necessarily interested, but I thought I would post the results and one man's opinion from my experience. Some background: I broke the P30L in with 3 boxes of Winchester 124gr NATO last week and then cleaned, oil, lube with Ballistol & TW25B. This evening's weather was warm: 80 degrees on the outdoor pistol range. I currently have 2 mags (2 more on order) and I ran 5 rounds in each mag. So you can see I cycled through each brand a few times. Some of the brands I ran a bit more than others and I will specify next to the brand listing.
This was the 124gr ammo I shot:
- Speer Gold Dot +P (15 rounds)
- Speer Lawman (20 rounds)
- American Eagle (20 rounds)
- Sellier & Belliot (20 rounds)
- Aguila (20 rounds)
- Fiocchi (20 rounds)
- Federal Nyclad (5 rounds- this was really old stuff I found in my ammo can)
- Winchester NATO (5 rounds)
I started another thread about the slide not locking back on the last round. This happened four times during the test while shooting the following ammo: Gold Dot +P, American Eagle, Sellier & Belliot, Aguila. I don't think it had anything to do with the ammo, rather my grip which I really need to work on I guess with this large slide stop lever.
Results: Not a single round from any of the various ammo brands did I have any FTE, FTF, bobble, etc. The gun performed flawlessly (except again for the no lockback on the last round four times). I did not test accuracy with the ammo because frankly I am not a terribly accurate shooter to begin with. Add in the fact that this is only my second experience with a hammer fired gun. I really am going to have to get used to this trigger. Long, hard pull after decocking and then the light pull thereafter was really odd. More than once I pulled the long trigger and then had to look down at the gun because I am so unused to that transition. I originally thought the gun malfunctioned- but it did not. Practice, practice, practice. So my main mission was to just see how the P30L reacted to the various ammo.
Conclusions: By a wide margin, the weakest ejection was the American Eagle. I could see each and every spent casing dribble out of the gun. I personally will not be buying anymore America Eagle. The strongest and farthest ejection (no surprise) was the Winchester NATO. That stuff ejects the spent casing almost as far as the bullet out of the barrel. The downside was that this stuff REALLY cruds up the chamber. After shooting it exclusively the other day I had tremendous buildup in the chamber. The softest shooting of all the brands was Aguila. It was a pleasure to shoot the Aguila compared to the other. I did notice, however, that I could see flashes while shooting the Aguila. Sparks or something? The Selliot & Belliot and the Fiocchi to me were nearly identical rounds. Very powerful but I did find a few in the mag that tended to be hotter for some reason? Both of those appear to be very solid and dependable. I didn't really shoot enough of the Federal Nyclad to test it. Just a few rounds to see if it would explode. My winner for best all around would have to be the Lawman. Solid ejection, consistant power, and I didn't have any no lockback issues (that could be luck). All that said, I think my take-away is I would be comfortable shooting ANY of the rounds listed above (AE would be my last choice though) and will likely just find whatever is cheapest of the bunch to buy.
Well, that was my version of a Guns & Ammo field test. I can't believe some guys get paid to write reports like this! Now I have to clean my P30L.
This was the 124gr ammo I shot:
- Speer Gold Dot +P (15 rounds)
- Speer Lawman (20 rounds)
- American Eagle (20 rounds)
- Sellier & Belliot (20 rounds)
- Aguila (20 rounds)
- Fiocchi (20 rounds)
- Federal Nyclad (5 rounds- this was really old stuff I found in my ammo can)
- Winchester NATO (5 rounds)
I started another thread about the slide not locking back on the last round. This happened four times during the test while shooting the following ammo: Gold Dot +P, American Eagle, Sellier & Belliot, Aguila. I don't think it had anything to do with the ammo, rather my grip which I really need to work on I guess with this large slide stop lever.
Results: Not a single round from any of the various ammo brands did I have any FTE, FTF, bobble, etc. The gun performed flawlessly (except again for the no lockback on the last round four times). I did not test accuracy with the ammo because frankly I am not a terribly accurate shooter to begin with. Add in the fact that this is only my second experience with a hammer fired gun. I really am going to have to get used to this trigger. Long, hard pull after decocking and then the light pull thereafter was really odd. More than once I pulled the long trigger and then had to look down at the gun because I am so unused to that transition. I originally thought the gun malfunctioned- but it did not. Practice, practice, practice. So my main mission was to just see how the P30L reacted to the various ammo.
Conclusions: By a wide margin, the weakest ejection was the American Eagle. I could see each and every spent casing dribble out of the gun. I personally will not be buying anymore America Eagle. The strongest and farthest ejection (no surprise) was the Winchester NATO. That stuff ejects the spent casing almost as far as the bullet out of the barrel. The downside was that this stuff REALLY cruds up the chamber. After shooting it exclusively the other day I had tremendous buildup in the chamber. The softest shooting of all the brands was Aguila. It was a pleasure to shoot the Aguila compared to the other. I did notice, however, that I could see flashes while shooting the Aguila. Sparks or something? The Selliot & Belliot and the Fiocchi to me were nearly identical rounds. Very powerful but I did find a few in the mag that tended to be hotter for some reason? Both of those appear to be very solid and dependable. I didn't really shoot enough of the Federal Nyclad to test it. Just a few rounds to see if it would explode. My winner for best all around would have to be the Lawman. Solid ejection, consistant power, and I didn't have any no lockback issues (that could be luck). All that said, I think my take-away is I would be comfortable shooting ANY of the rounds listed above (AE would be my last choice though) and will likely just find whatever is cheapest of the bunch to buy.
Well, that was my version of a Guns & Ammo field test. I can't believe some guys get paid to write reports like this! Now I have to clean my P30L.
