No issues with the Winchester 9mm Nato or regular WWB

While my 9’s (glocks) eat pretty much everything ( a rare 1-2 per thousand choke on aluminum case) I did extensive accuracy testing of every type of 9mm I could get my hands on some years back and found my glocks, sigs, and berettas shot the best groups with the Winchester nato ammo.
At one time I was on a military shooting team and had the chance to ransom rest rack beretta pistols with the nato ammo and they all did 2” or better at 25 yards.

The 9mm NATO 124gr is what I've been using and stocking up on because it's been so cheap. The only thing I don't like about it is whatever powder they're using leaves behind little yellowish particulate matter all inside the action of my pistols. Otherwise I don't find it any dirtier than similarly priced range ammo.

Like some of you, I have used many thousands of rounds on Winchester NATO 9mm. Only issue I've encountered is a minor one. I once replaced the factory 14# hammer spring in my 9mm Ruger SP-101 with a a lighter 12# spring. Immediately experienced intermittent light primer strikes/failure to fire. Primer indents were obviously shallower than with the factory spring. The Win. NATO primers do appear to be slightly harder than some others. Reinstalled the factory hammer spring, and all was well again. The slightly harder primers have not caused an issue in any of the other pistols, revolvers and carbines I've used this ammo in. Glad to see the local Walmart has started carrying the NATO.

Ordered a case. We'll see how it goes.

Walmart sells real deal Winchester NATO 124 ammo for $9 a box ($27 for 150 rounds).

This is high quality ammo. Don't confuse it with Winchester 115 grain white box, which is ok but not great.

Will check again, but I only saw 115 & steel cased Winchester at my local store. Selection is not great though. Manager is not gun friendly.

quote:

Originally posted by sakata8242:
... The only thing I don't like about it is whatever powder they're using leaves behind little yellowish particulate matter all inside the action of my pistols...

The powder is most likely WPR 289 as made by Saint-Marks Powder / General Dynamics. The canister version is Ramshot Silhouette (Winchester Action Pistol - WAP).

Pulldowns I have done over the last six years with Winchester Nato 9mm 124gr have ranged in charge weights from 5.6 gr - 6.0gr. In my reloading experience in 9mm, low to mid-range charges of Silhouette have left yellow particulate, ymmv.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pinbot1966,

quote:

Walmart sells real deal Winchester NATO 124 ammo for $9 a box ($27 for 150 rounds)

The local WM sometimes carries it but never at $9/per 50, nor any 150ct boxes. Primarily they carry only 50ct 115gr and then normally at $13/box.

As coincidence would have it, our shop got a batch of WWB 115gr in for the first time in ages; I guess we're cozying up to Olin these days as a bunch of Winchester hunting loads and shotgun shells showed up as well last Friday. In one of those 'aw the heck with it' moments I bought a few boxes of 115gr for the first time in ages, then for the hell of I brought out my Gen3 G19 and P229R to shoot this past Sunday, my two guns that WWB sourced from WM a decade ago stopped dead in their tracks about that same time. In fact it's the only ammo to ever have stopped either of those guns.

Took me a while to remember which safe the SIG was buried in, but finally on the range both guns ran the current WWB load without a hiccup (50 through the G19, 100 through the SIG; I'd kind of forgotten just how sweet this particular P229 runs). I noted that this batch of ammo ran warmer and more consistently than what I last remembered, but then again it was a decade ago since I last shot and swore off the brand and a lot of things can change in that time, particularly with my memory.

At least with the VERY small sampling of this batch the 115gr seemed to be good enough. Not sure I'll ever go back to using the 115gr loads with any consistency since S&B is cheaper for me to buy, but perhaps the WWB of old isn't as bad as it once was. Or only the crappy stuff goes to Walmart. As a small gun shop, we can only hope...