357 Sig Ammo - What am I missing here?

[BigJon]

I guess I must be missing something. Pro Load, which I have often used and do like, will charge me around $600 for 1000 rounds of its 357 Sig professional grade ammo, featuring the Speer Gold Dot bullet. Georgia Arms, which I've never used but also never heard anything but rave reviews about, sells 1000 rounds of their power load, which also features the Speer Gold Dot bullet, for a bit over half what Pro Load charges.

Am I doing the math wrong? If not, what am I missing here?

Regards,
Jon

[Bill Lumberg]

I think this is for the caliber forum.

[BigJon]

Originally posted by Bill Lumberg
I think this is for the caliber forum.

Oh, gosh! Thanks for pointing that out Bill! Let's see. You've been posting here a whole month, and of the eight posts you've plopped in, three were to point out off-topic posts? What a laugh.

Lighten up, Francis.

[Dead Man's Hand]

Your right BigJon, Proload is mighty proud of their ammo. GA is always around 1/2 as much as Proload.

[BigDawg357]

I have shot thousands upon thousands of rounds of Georgia Arms .357Sig in both FMJ & JHP (Gold Dots). It is by far the best ammo for .357Sig I ever shot. I would honestly say that I've shot 7,000+ of their stuff without even the slightest hiccup. Good stuff, and good people.

[Neal]

Originally posted by BigJon
I guess I must be missing something. Pro Load, which I have often used and do like, will charge me around $600 for 1000 rounds of its 357 Sig professional grade ammo, featuring the Speer Gold Dot bullet. Georgia Arms, which I've never used but also never heard anything but rave reviews about, sells 1000 rounds of their power load, which also features the Speer Gold Dot bullet, for a bit over half what Pro Load charges.

Am I doing the math wrong? If not, what am I missing here?

Regards,
Jon

Jon,
I have both Pro Load and GA Shear Power Plus 357 SIG ammo. Part of the difference in price is in the packaging. Pro Loads come in 20 round boxes with nice printing on the outside. GA are packaged in 50 round plastic bags. Pro Load are nickle cases, GA in brass cases. (nickle is more expensive) Also, Pro Load is quite a bit faster over the chrono than GA. I did have bullet setback several times with the GA, none yet with the Pro Load, but then I have not shot as much of the Pro Load. I carry Pro Load, and would do so no matter how much cheaper the GA ammo. I'm not saying GA is poor ammo, but Pro Load is TOP quality. A more fair comparison would be Pro Load vs. Speer, Cor Bon, or Triton. If you do that, then you will find Pro Load quite competitive in price. GA is cheaper than all of them. By the way, I am not afililiated with Pro Load in any way, I pay retail for my Pro Load ammo.

Neal

[BigJon]

Interesting comments, guys. I have shot Pro Load .40 and .45 for several years now with nary a hiccup. However, I've never heard or read of a single unsatisfied GA customer, and since their canned heat is only $150 or so fo 1000 rounds of 357 Sig, I think I'll give 'em a try. I'll pick up a couple of hundred rounds of the "power" Gold Dot from 'em too.

Regards,
Jon

[Neal]

I just received a can of this ammo from GA a couple weeks ago. It is of course loaded in once fired cases, but they are nickle and cleaned, so they look real good. So far, I have only fired one magazine of them, but they fuctioned fine in my gun. It was the best buy I could find on practice ammo.

Neal

[Dead Man's Hand]

Originally posted by Certainly
carry guns and ammo. Practice with cheap 9x19, and carry whatever you want. When the adrenalin dumps, you'll never be able to tell the difference. There will be LOTS of poor hits and misses, regardless of what you practiced-with. I disagree, practicing with standard pressure 9mm then carrying .357 is a bad idea. There is a big diffrence between the 2 in how they shoot. Even practicing with standard 9mm and carrying +p, or +p+ in my book is a bad idea. If your going to carry +p JHP you should practice with +p FMJ, if your going to carry standard pressure 9mm JHP, then you should practice with standard 9mm FMJ, and if your going to carry .357 JHP, then practice with .357 FMJ. In a shooting, constantly practicing with a FMJ that mirrors the preformance of the JHP that your betting your life on can only help to improve your hit to miss ratio, the other way around will only give worse odds in a bad situation.

[hikerpaddler]

It is in the wrong forum, Jon. I would postulate that GA either has lower manufacturing costs, or a lower margin. I wonder what they'd say if asked how they undercut the competition.

Originally posted by BigJon


Oh, gosh! Thanks for pointing that out Bill! Let's see. You've been posting here a whole month, and of the eight posts you've plopped in, three were to point out off-topic posts? What a laugh.

Lighten up, Francis.

[BigJon]

Originally posted by Neal
It is of course loaded in once fired cases, ...

Ah. This could be the big difference. I had been told that the "canned heat" was in once-fired brass, but is the power load also once-fired? I didn't know that, and if so, that would certainly explain a lot of the price difference versus Pro Load.

Regards,
Jon

[Neal]

Is loaded in new Starline brass. Their practice ammo is loaded in used brass.

Neal

[BigJon]

Interesting, Neal. Well, whatever the reason for the disparity, I think a manufacturer ought to charge whatever the market will bear. If the higher-priced ammo manufacturers can get what they ask, then more power to 'em. I've sent Pro Load plenty of money myself, and will likely do so again.

Regards,
Jon

[BigJon]

Originally posted by hikerpaddler
It is in the wrong forum, Jon.

I happen to disagree, but regardless, that was not my point.

First, a topic can be relevant to more than one board, and in my opinion, the price of self defense ammo is completely relevant to "Carry Issues", and at least as much so as it is to "Caliber Corner", which is for discussions of the "merits", not prices, of different ammo types.

Regardless of that, my response addressed the completely different matter that a person who has only been here for a month would be trying to play topic cop, and again this was not the first time. Sorry, but I found that a bit presumptuous. No offense to you or anyone else, but that's the way I see it. After all, I didn't raise the matter. I just responded to it.

As always, best regards,
Jon

[Ross Perot]

Well put, BJ. I found it a darned interesting thread, even if it wasn't in CC where I'd expect to see it. I reckon folks get a little touch sometimes, but to Bill's credit, there have been a danged million cross forum posts lately. For a man surfing on a 28.8, that's wasted time. So I guess the key is used brass hence lower prod costs, eh?

[BigJon]

Dunno, Ross. From this thread, I have learned that while the "canned heat" FMJ ammo is reloaded, the Gold Dot "power" load is in new brass. I did see one poster above suggest that he might have chrono'd both and found the Pro Load to be a full power load and Georgia Arms less than that. Going to try out the GA offering and see how I like it.

Regards,
Jon

[BigJon]

Originally posted by Neal
Also, Pro Load is quite a bit faster over the chrono than GA.

Neal - Would you be able to post any data from your chrono tests? I'd sure like some additional information if I could impose on you to provide it. What caliber(s) did you test? What pistols were used?

Regards,
Jon

[Neal]

Big Jon,

Out of my G23 with KKM 4.4" bbl, the GA Shear Power Plus averaged 1385 FPS. The same gun with Pro Load using the same Gold Dot bullet averaged about 1500 fps. (149? something with one magazine, 1502 with the next magazine).

With my G27 and Fire Dragon 357 SIG bbl(approx 3.5"), the GA averaged about 1300 fps. The Pro Load in the same gun averaged 1387 fps.

The GA velocities are about what I would expect from other brands of 357 SIG ammo. The Pro Load, as you can see, is a step above everyone else.

The only other Pro Load ammo I have chronographed is their 155 gr 10mm ammo. It averaged 1358 fps out of my G20 with 5" Jarvis bbl.


I use a Pro Chrono II.

Neal

[BigJon]

1500 fps? My gosh, that is flat smokin'. Also, the 87 fps difference you mentioned is huge considering the short barrel length; mine is almost as short at 3.6 inches (Sig P239), so your information is most relevant and enlightening. Thanks for sharing it.

Regards,
Jon

[MarksGlock22]

There right,This is in the wrong place,Moving it now.

[BigJon]

Your call.